In September of 1885, two men climbed aboard a hot air balloon and embarked on a journey across the state of Connecticut. Alfred Moore and John Doughty drifted across the state, snapping pictures of the landscape as they traveled. The collection of thousands of photographs created a enormous picture of the state. This is a process known as aerial surveying, which is one of the many types of land surveying. Aerial surveying and mapping is an important step in land development and identification, it is used for planning waterways and highways, and finding areas for building development.
When to Use an Aerial Survey
There are several different reasons to have aerial mapping and surveying done. Many times, when a section of land is examined, the layout of the land is not clearly visible. When a natural disaster such as a hurricane, forest fire, or tornado devastates an area, an aerial survey is performed by using an aircraft to take aerial photos of the damage. This survey is used to determine the total amount of damage that has occurred. Construction and land development companies also use aerial mapping. When new roads are in the process of being built, an aerial survey provides photographs of the proposed route of travel, or of the suggested build site, and identifies any obstacles such as rivers, difficult terrain, and property boundaries that are in the projected path.
The most common way to take aerial photographs is by using satellite imagery. The satellite generated photos have proven to produce the highest quality picture, available in 2 or 3-D to provide a detailed view of the land.
