. In recent years, humankind has become acutely aware of his environment. The increase of property values, pollution,overpopulation and the depletion of natural resources are now every day occurrences. It is now recognized that there is a finite environmental system that must be properly managed to sustain life and promote orderly development of civilization.

One of the key disciplines in the management of the environment is surveying engineering. Surveying engineering is a body of technical knowledge that includes the subjects of Geodesy, Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing, Cartography, Map Projections and Geographical Information Systems besides the traditional ideas of surveying. Surveying engineering also includes survey law, particularly the principles of law that pertain to the location and establishment of land boundaries, to land registration systems, to property descriptions and to subdivision design.

Surveying Engineering is a quantitative discipline, in which the processes of measurement, mathematical modeling, numerical omputation, data manipulation and data analysis play essential roles. Accordingly, surveying engineering often employs highly sophisticated instrumentation andprocedures that draw heavily upon the basic disciplines of mathematics, physics and computer science. In particular, effective use is made of vector calculus, matrix algebra, probability theory, statistics, error theory, optics, electronics, scientific programming, computer graphics and automatic data processing.

Surveying Engineering relates strongly to other environmental disciplines, such as geology, geophysics and geography, and it is also closely aligned with civil engineering and with urban and regional planning.

Surveying Engineering provides the technical basis for surveying activity in several areas, such as geodetic and topographic surveys, cadastral and engineering surveys, photogrammetry, digital cartography and geographical information systems.