Geodetic Surveyors

I once saw a cheerful photo on Facebook showing a group of African children standing, smiling, in front of some yellow device that looked like a camera mounted on a tripod, with the man operating it joking around with them and acting as if he were taking a real photograph. That device, of course, isn't a camera — but it's one we've all seen ourselves while walking down the street, especially near construction sites. In fact, this device is called a laser level, and it's used to measure land area and dimensions for construction purposes, and the person who operates it is a survey technician. That device, along with other measuring tools and equipment, is used on construction projects on land no larger than about 250 square kilometers. But massive projects built on much larger areas — like subway systems, airports, bridges, giant dams, highways, or farms spanning thousands of acres — require far more advanced measuring devices and techniques that rely on satellites, and that's what scientists and researchers call "geodetic surveying." Geodetic surveying relies on highly advanced technology, all of it tied to satellites, because it deals with measuring enormous stretches of land that can extend for thousands of miles. The devices, techniques, and satellite systems used in geodetic surveying are extremely advanced and can measure everything with tremendous precision — they can measure the land and its dimensions in every direction, elevation, and angle, accounting for any curvature or fault lines. They can also analyze what lies beneath the earth's surface, measure the solidity of the soil and crust, and predict the likelihood of earthquakes, floods, or any climate shifts in that particular patch of land — land where projects costing billions of dollars might be built, and where hundreds of people may spend every day of their lives afterward. So everything has to be calculated and accounted for — a single error could lead to disasters with dire consequences. Naturally, these geodetic surveying procedures and measurements are handled only by expert specialists known as "geodetic surveyors," people with deep knowledge and broad experience working with the advanced technologies and satellite systems used in geodetic surveying.

Meet the Writer: Waleed Abo Omiraa