Surveying has broadly been classified into the following categories (after http://pasture.ecn.purdue.edu/~asm215/topics/history.html), depending upon the purpose for which they are being used,
Stake Out With development taking place in the field of surveying world over and also in India, we thought of conducting a study through questionnaire survey, to study the present status of land surveying in India. A questionnaire was designed where it was decided to study the different activities of companies engaged in the surveying field, their geographical reach, core land surveying companies vis-à-vis GIS companies where surveying is an associated task. The study was also intended to look into the different instruments being used and their feedback in-terms of usability, user-friendliness, availability in their region, after-sales service and overall satisfaction level. The questionnaire also asked about the usage of GPS in the surveying work and also the Return on Investment. Before the questionnaire was sent, a consent letter was sent to around 200 companies, the data for which was obtained from our internal resources, web-search and websites of the companies. Once the consent was obtained, the questionnaire was sent to the concerned department or concerned person and/ or the CEO of companies, spread all over the country, engaged in surveying and GIS work. It was also sent to some freelancers/ retired professional, either who are currently engaged in surveying tasks or were engaged previously. The response was overwhelming and we are thankful to all those, who took their time and responded to the questionnaire. Triangulation The questionnaires were analysed on the basis of the location of the surveying company vis-à-vis the geographic area they carter to, their annual turnover as a percentage to their total business. The kind of instruments being used by these companies were also studied and also from where they are purchased. One important motive of this survey was to assess whether GPS was being used in land surveying or not, and if yes, its penetration. The Return on Investment for the surveying projects was also studied. All these were in addition to the different kinds of surveying, the companies are engaged in. Plotting The entire analysis of the questionnaire was divided into two sections. First section (Pole A) covered the type of survey and the instruments being used in India by different companies, their locations vis-à-vis their turnover and Return on Investment. In the second section (Pole B), satisfaction level of different instruments was studied along with the service and support the vendors offer to them. Pole-A The companies who participated in the survey, 43% of them were from South of India, with their head offices in Bangalore, Hyderabad or Chennai. There were only 14% response from the western part and almost similar response of approximately 22% from East and North. There was only one response from the NE region, catering to almost all the eight NE states. The different activities, companies are engaged in, could be listed as,
 Fig. 1 Bar diagram showing the different surveying activities, companies are engaged in The instruments being used by different companies for conducting the above survey are,
 Fig. 2 Usage of instruments for surveying tasks It could be seen from Figure 2, that most of the companies (more than 90%) have started using GPS and/ or DGPS for their survey work. For conventional surveying, still Total Station is a preferred choice with 65% users opting for this and 35% uses Auto Level. Other instruments are used almost uniformly. However, there have been few companies who have started using Laser Range Finders and also laser based levels, but the most important fact emerged was, a couple of companies have started LIDAR surveying as one of their important activities, viz., Genesys International of Bangalore and Geofiny Technologies of Chennai. In almost all the cases, the instruments have been obtained through the local vendors and in exceptional cases, when it is very specialized one, it has been ordered/ imported directly from the manufacturer. Also all the companies prefer to obtain the instruments locally through their local vendors because of their support and service, but how much do they get, is a concern. More on this is in the next section. |