Bachelor of science in Geospatial Engineering

Preamble

The Department of Surveying proposes to discontinue its current Bachelor of Science in Surveying (BSc(Surveying)) and to replace it with a Bachelor of Science in Geospatial Engineering (BSc(Geospatial Engineering)) degree. This change has been necessitated by modern developments in the broad field of geospatial technology. In particular, the modern developments in the areas of space technology, information technology, and communication technology have tremendously influenced how positioning, navigation and geospatial modelling are carried out today. To this extent, it is today widely recognised that the disciplines of measurement and mapping that were previously collected under the term Surveying (or Land Surveying) can no longer be adequately described by the term Surveying. These factors as well as the need to be current and relevant in what the Department offers to its students have meant that the Department must completely redefine its basic undergraduate curriculum.

The Modernised Surveying Discipline

The discipline of Surveying grew out of the practical application of geometry in the measurement of land and in the construction of large scale engineering structures. The discipline of Surveying has thus been generally considered synonymous with practical geometry . The term surveying as understood within the Commonwealth however refers to a much broader field, which includes property valuation, quantity surveying, building surveying, minerals surveying, agricultural surveying, and land surveying. Land Surveying is that aspect of Surveying that has traditionally been concerned with the measurement and mapping of land.

With the refinement in the accuracies obtainable in the measurement with land surveying techniques, Land Surveying, from 1970s, began to find considerable application in areas non-traditional with respect to land measurement and mapping. Such areas included analysis of deformation of civil engineering structures, industrial metrology involving precise measurements within the manufacturing environment, analysis of earth deformation due to geodynamic phenomena, and in the monitoring of satellite orbits within the broad framework of space science and technology. All of this was considerably enhanced by the parallel advancement in computer technology that immensely facilitated the handling of extensive and complex computational problems.

These developments promptly moved over the discipline from one exclusively concerned with land measurement to that dealing with measurements in a much broader sense. Moreover, in the last twenty years, due to the rapid advancements in space, computer, information, and communication technologies, the discipline has acquired even a much broader scope.

These latest developments have particularly been due to developments in satellite positioning technology , especially the Global Positioning System (GPS) , remote sensing technology, and geo-spatial information systems (GIS) . GIS technology made it possible to analyse and interpret geo-spatial phenomena through multidimensional computerised graphic presentations. Remote sensing technology facilitated the application of advanced techniques in imagery and imaging systems in engineering and environmental analysis. Digital mapping technologies introduced into the discipline such areas as virtual reality modelling and e-mapping. These technological developments have completely changed the face of the discipline that has traditionally been known as Surveying.

Today the discipline of Surveying is involved with measurement science covering from precise industrial metrology to large-scale measurements into space and geometric positioning, on one hand, and the analysis, presentation and interpretation of geo-spatial data on the other hand. In between, the discipline continues to be fully involved in the traditional collection of geo-referenced data and in the setting up and use of geo-spatial databases.

The scope of involvement of the modern discipline of Surveying is today so diverse as to cover practically any application requiring the knowledge of dimension , shape , and place . The core knowledge of the discipline has thus dramatically shifted from the application of geometry in the measurement and graphic representation of land to the application of geometry in the much wider sense of seeking to answer the broader question dealing with dimension, shape, and place within geo-space .

The areas in which the knowledge and technology of Surveying are today applied include:

• Precise determination of the figure of the earth and of other planets in the solar system

• Measurement and determination of orbits of artificial satellites

• Measurement and determination of the dynamics of the earths crust

• Determination and analysis of the earths gravity field

• Precise positioning on, or near, the earths surface using both terrestrial and satellite technology techniques

• Navigation and guidance of craft using satellite and inertial navigation systems technology

• Vehicle tracking and intelligent transport systems (ITS)

• Measurement and mapping of topography

• Measurement and graphic representation of topography for any object, from the smallest objects in industrial manufacturing to the entire earth and the planets

• Precision measurement and graphic representation within the manufacturing environment

• Application of geometric and geo-spatial techniques in biomedical imaging and analysis

• Precision alignment, setting up, and control of machinery

• Measurement for design and setting out in civil engineering construction projects

• Monitoring of large scale engineering constructions for deformation

• Design and development of software and databases for geo-spatial analysis including two- and three-dimensional visualisation of the physical and the built environment

• Virtual reality modelling in such areas as e-commerce, tourism, marketing, property management, cinematography

• Development, maintenance, and use of geo-spatial information systems (GIS)

• Web mapping and the creation of dynamic, interactive, maps for use on the internet

• Technical and policy issues in the management of land

Because the discipline has today acquired such wide scope, the description of the discipline under the term Surveying has been found extremely limiting, inadequate, and to some extent altogether misleading. The term Surveying continues to be understood to cover only the traditional area of land measurement and mapping. From the areas of application indicated above, one has that the area traditionally covered under Surveying is now only part of a discipline with much broader scope.

The graduate in the modernised discipline of Surveying today finds employment in any area of business dealing with geometric measurement , determination of location , and spatial analysis . This knowledge is often required within the physical, built, industrial, and business environments . This is much broader than the coverage of traditional Surveying, whose coverage was limited to the physical and built environments.

Out of the recognition of the fact that Surveying no longer fully captured the scope of the current discipline, academics and professionals in the broad field of surveying the world over, have tried to respond to this by describing the discipline in terminologies considered more inclusive. Today, University programmes that previously went by the name Surveying have adopted descriptions believed to be more inclusive in terms of what the discipline is about today. Some of the titles adopted for programmes are as listed below:

• University of New South Wales - Surveying and Spatial Information Systems

• Curtin University of Technology