PROCEDURE OF GPS SURVEYING-I

INTRODUCTION AND PLANNING

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 CONTENTS
• INTRODUCTION
• PLANNING
– SALIENT STEPS
• Reconnaissance
• Selection of station points
• Building of monument
• Selection of Positioning Techniques
• Selection of Receiver Types
• Survey Design
• Validation of plan

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 GPS SURVEYING: INTRODUCTION
• GPS provides precise measurements quickly, accurately making
use of less resources.
• Methods & operations completely different from conventional
methods
• Operations depends field condition, purpose, accuracy etc.
• GPS surveying straight forward and produce results within
standard specifications with little effort.
• Proper planning and efficient execution of operations to ensure
standard outputs
• Thus, it is very important to understand and follow specific
procedure for GPS surveying.

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 GPS SURVEYING: INTRODUCTION
• SALIENT STEPS
– Planning
– Preparation
– Field operation
– Data processing
– Report preparation
• Steps may not be apparent in many cases;
• Detail understanding of different steps helps surveyor
to conduct GPS surveying properly.

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 GPS SURVEYING: PLANNING
• SALIENT STEPS
– Reconnaissance
– Selection of station points
– Building of monument
– Selection of Positioning Techniques
– Selection of Receiver Types
– Survey Design
– Validation of plan
• Inter-dependent steps and extent depend on variability
factors of the project.

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 PLANNING
RECONNAISSANCE
• Consists of extensive inspection and examination of the project sites to
ensure site-suitability and execution of other planning operations
including collection of miscellaneous information
• Two stages – Office Reconnaissance followed by Field Reconnaissance.

OFFICE RECONNAISSANCE
• Using existing topographic maps/ Google map/ satellite images of the
area
• Marking of probable station locations; Approach roads; Tentative
surveying path etc.

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 PLANNING : RECONNAISSANCE…
FIELD RECONNAISSANCE
• Markings on the base map identified and verified in the field.
• Planning/execution of suitable remedial measures;
• Ensure suitable cutoff angle, free from sources of electrical
interferences and multipath; Stability of stations.
• Collection of sample GPS observations.
• Description for each site, including polar plot.
• Kinematic survey route have clear sky visibility.

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 PLANNING……
SELECTION OF STATION POINTS
• Stations and their locations get to decide and iterated
• Official Selection: plot & assign a unique identifier on map/s
and/or images.
• Field Selection : identified and chosen to be free from: (i)
physical obstructions; (ii) reflecting surfaces and (iii) electrical
interference; Satisfy condition of stability.

MONUMENT CONSTRUCTION
• Monuments for future reoccupation stations as per standard
specification.

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 PLANNING……
SELECTION OF POSITIONING TECHNIQUES
• Method depends on objective of project, accuracy
requirement, site condition, costs etc.
• Static method : For high accuracy, large baseline or weak
satellite geometry .
• Rapid static method: For short baseline, lower accuracy
surveys may be used.
• Kinematic method : For linear features;
• Stop & Go method : For large number of point features.

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 PLANNING……
SELECTION OF RECEIVER TYPES
• Complex process to make cost effective;
• Requires Technical, Field and post-processing considerations
• Technical considerations: (i) measurements type ; (ii) collections methods; (iii) channels
number; (iv) antenna type and characteristics; (v) accuracy with respect to different
measurements.
• Field suitability: (i) receiver physical characteristics ; (ii) operating temperature; (iii) power
requirements etc.
• Processing software : (i) satellite visibility; (ii) downloading capability, (iii) post-processing
flexibility etc.
• Capable of collection of required observations through desired positioning technique.
• For relative positioning receivers preferably have identical technical specifications.
• Finally, appropriateness should be ascertained through validation.

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 PLANNING……
SURVEY DESIGN
• TWO stages : Network configuration & observation design.

Network Configuration
• To satisfy (i) framework for datum reference and mapping projection; (ii) serving as
reference ; (iii) provision of sufficient reference stations, tie measurement points, future
expansion and means for accuracy checks.
• Number depends on project size, nature of terrain, desired accuracy etc.
• At least two reference stations and to tie with existing geodetic control network.
• Preferably, geometrically closed consisting of triangular figures.
• Any station should be connected to at least another station by a non-trivial baseline.
• Control points should be connected to at least two or more independent baselines.
• Two types : radial network or closed figure network

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 PLANNING: SURVEY DESIGN
RADIAL NETWORK
• One of the receivers is placed at a fixed
station and the other receiver/s are placed
around the fixed receiver taking
observation at the ends of the desired
baselines.
• No direct observations between any
adjacent stations.
• Advantageous from operational point of
view.
• Less accurate
• No geometrical configuration checking.

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 PLANNING: SURVEY DESIGN
CLOSED NETWORK
• For high accuracy GPS surveying
• Network of closed geometrical figures
• Satisfy : (i) Observation session at each
station must be overlapped with at least
two others stations;
(ii) Consecutive observation sessions should
have at least one common baseline;
(iii) Ties with three to four control points
(iv) Direct observations between existing
control stations.

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 PLANNING: SURVEY DESIGN
OBSERVATION DESIGN
• Observation scheme for field observations as per designed network.
• Planned sequence of observation sessions
• Accomplish objective of the project
• Redundant observations for checking and improving precision as well as and reliability
• Each station observed at least twice
• For high accuracy survey all control points should be directly connected.

Sessions Receivers
R1 R2 R3 R4
1 A E C D
2 A B C F
3 A D E F
4 B D E A
5 B F E C
6 B F D C

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 PLANNING
VALIDATION OF PLANNING
• Three main testing steps: Testing of
– (i) Positioning technique’s;
– (ii) Equipment’s suitability ;
– (iii) Processing strategy.
• Also to (i) Identify the potential problems and thus,
solutions; (ii) Streamline steps for operations, and (iii)
Process sample data to achieve desired accuracies.
• Once validated, preparation for field operations need to be
started.

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 Summary of Today’s Class
• Proper planning and efficient execution of operations are required to
attain GPS surveying output within standard specification.
• It is important to understand and follow specific working steps during
GPS surveying.
• GPS surveying procedure consists of planning, preparation, field
operation, data processing and report preparation.
• Planning consists of reconnaissance, selection and monument
construction of stations, selection of methods & receivers, survey design
and validation.
• Stations should be free from physical obstruction, electrical interference
and reflecting surfaces.
•
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 Summary of Today’s Class…..
• For relative positioning, identical receivers are preferable.
• Closed network should be designed for accurate surveying.
• Validation should be done for positioning method, equipments and
processing strategy.

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Further reading:
• A Text Book on GPS Surveying by Jayanta Kumar Ghosh,
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (An Amazon
Company), US [www.amazon.com/dp/1522952748].

Meet You Next Class on

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