There are many different types of surveys but three of the more commonly used ones are topographical surveying, land surveying and underground utilities surveys. Exploring and understanding the various types or surveys and surveying is easy when you know how.

Topographical Surveys or Topo surveying

Topographical Surveying may be the study and measurement of the Earth's surface. This may reveal what natural or man-made geographical features exist in an area, large or small, the contours and shapes of the features themselves and even vegetation and the influence of human presence. The object of all this is to make a three-dimensional map.

In order to provide this sort of accurate detail of the various levels and contours of the land, aerial surveys are conducted, and at walk out survey teams with portable surveying equipment establish vertical and horizontal control points to confirm accuracy. In today's world the info is collected and generated electronically.

Fed with all the data, computers combine distances, angles, and elevations and produce pictures, using contour lines, hypsometric tints and relief shading.

Land Surveys and surveying

Land Surveying is the measurement and accurate determination of the three dimensional positions of various points on a terrain. The purpose of this is generally to find out boundaries. Surveyors produce land maps marking out regions of private, communal or government ownership limits. This is constantly being done whenever there are serious property rights disputes or changes are planned for the region, such as for sub-dividing properties, new residential or town-planning layouts, when roads or other engineering structures are planned, or for the determination of ancient boundaries for historical or archaeological purposes.

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Underground Utilities Surveying has to be one of the most tricky and difficult types of exploration. Surveyors have to know what is underground and can't be seen. Before any development can take place it should be discovered what, if anything lies beneath the ground. These could be drains, electrical or gas cables, sinkholes, water pipes or water pockets or buried tanks.

The first level of exploration is to collect every drawing, plan or bit of electronic data designed for the area. This is not totally accurate, but gives a concept of what installations were situated in the immediate area.
Another level involves selecting visible features, such as manholes, inspection hatch covers, meters, electrical poles, etc. Straight lines showing the shortest distance between them are drawn, and this narrows down the search. However these lines cannot always be totally relied on as rocks and other underground barriers could cause deviations, and sometimes the pipes or cables don't run from the centre of every inspection element to another, but slightly to 1 side or the other.

An indirect survey involves the latest technology, such as radar that penetrates the ground, X-rays, and frequency resonance. If uncertainty still persists, the last step is drilling or digging potholes at regular intervals to confirm the data collected by the above methods.