Conventional total station versus digital photogrammetry in land development applications

Abstract

In land development, the need for up to date planimetric plans is emphasised. Numerous techniques can be used to produce these plans such as traditional photogrammetry, satellite photogrammetry and terrestrial surveying using total station or Global Positioning System (GPS) techniques. However, for the purpose of this paper, GPS and total station are used together with photogrammetric techniques. GPS was used to establish ground control points for aerial triangulation in photogrammetry. Some selected portions within the campus of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) are chosen to carry out this integration mapping [1]. Field surveying technique using total station is always adopted as a traditional method for planimetric plan production and mapping of urban and rural areas. Both the conventional surveying i.e., Total station and photogrammetry could be used for surveying purposes but the accuracy and techniques of each method differs from one another, hence in this project, both techniques are looked at in order to compare and draw some inferences. The main objectives will be to produce planimetric plan of the study area using conventional surveying technique (i.e., total station) and photogrammetric method to perform analysis of the two surveying methods.