Education and training for staffing surveying and mapping operations

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.UNITED NATIONS

ECONOMIC AND

SOCIAL COUNCIL

Di.s t.r , Ji LIllITED

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Ori"inal: E:'GLISH_';:;J

U~,'ITED :;'T;~TIO~'TS l1EGIO;)l;.L CiJt.:.'OGF.ti.PHIC

COITF:SR3JCE FOR ..iFEICl:,

"'airobi (Kenya) 1-13 Jul:" 1963 Provisional agenda ite~ q

DOCUMENTS OfFICE

~' I t ~jt] UI' r

NO TO BE TAKEN OUT

snnc.,: non :.'m

(sent by the Gover,qent of the Un'ited States of ;,mcicR)

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EDUCATION AND TRAINING FOR STAFFING SURVEYING AND MAPPING OPERATIONS by

Brother B. Austin Barry, F.S.C.

Associate Professor of Civil Engineering Manhattan College

New York, New York

Prepared for distribution at the

United Nations Regional Cartographic Conference for Africa Nairobi, Kenya

July 1-13, 1963

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by

Brother B. Austin Barry, F.S.C.

Associate Professor of Civil Engineering Manhattan College

New York, New York

INTRODUCTION

1. The preparation of a cadre of high-caliber personnel for surveying and mapping operstions in any nation is vastly more important than is generally recognized. Since surveying and mapping must serve as the key to opening up a nation's land and its resources, and serve to guide the continuing use of the resources and the land, this surveying-mapping operation should be re- garded as of paramount importance. Consequently, the corps of persons to do this work is the key to the entire situation.

2. The cadre of people needed to carryon surveying and mapping operations in any nation must be comprised of two groupsl professional-level people and technician-level people. There must be approximately three technicians for each professional. The following are definitions of each type of work which serve to clarify what is intended.

3. Professional Level. Work that involves the exercise of professional judg- ment, frequently based on knowledge acquired through higher learning, gener- ally nonroutine in character. The term implies one who can plan, perform, and/or direct all such operations in the category; this person is responsible

for work performed by those under him.

4. Technician Level. Work that is primarily routine, of a technical nature, often demamding a high degree of skill, done under the direction of a pro-

fessional person who is responsible for its outcome. Such work is pre- professional when performed by a professional trainee who, having completed courses of specialized intellectual instruction and study, is seeking to attain professional 'status.

*This paper was originally prepared as a background paper for the United

5. This report contains a brief presentation of the education and training

• for both levels of personnel, with special emphasis upon the technician- level operator.

PROFESSIONAL-LEVEL EDUCATION

6. The education facilities for the professional-level surveyor-mapper must be at the university level. The experience of many nations, particularly the United States, demonstrates that belated efforts to raise the educational standard of the surveyor-mapper after many years at the lower level can be decidedly difficult. No initial compromise of this stated ideal should be permitted when setting up an educational program.

7. It is necessary that the professional surveyor-mapper be adept in several functions, and the curriculum devised here is intended to make him acquaint ed with each of them. The best surveyor is the one who is familiar with them all.

In fact, it is difficult to believe that a surveyor-mapper can be expert in any one of these areas unless he has a sufficient background in all of them. These functions are identified by the designations of these areas of surveying oper- ation: property (boundary) surveys, cartographic surveys, control surveys, engineering surveys. There are various other designations which aptly describe a surveyor's function (though these fall generally within the four main desig- nations above): city and town planning survey; building or works surveys;

mining surveys, land surveys, and, especially in the British system, quantity surveys, and valuation surveys, and management surveys.

8. The professional aspects of this entire grouping of survey operations is best taught in a curriculum approximating that shown in table 1. This, it is understood, would be an engineering education of a generally recognized type conducted at a professional level. The university program can be best set up in the framework of a college of engineering, for the properly prepared surveyor- mapper must be very largely a civil engineer.

9. It is noted that certain other courses could properly be designated in the curriculum to replace or shorten those shown or to serve as electives. An incomplete list i. given here:

Technical

Engineering Drafting Descriptive Geometry General or Cultural

political Science Philosophy

History Language(s) Literature

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TABLE 1. Typical curriculum for profesiional surveyor-mapper engineer (Numbers are semester-hoYrs of credit: 15 lecture-hours

equal 1 semester-hour) First Year

Semester 1 Semester 2

Analytic Geometry and Calculus •• , 4

Physics " 4

Chemistry " " 3

Engineering Measurement •••••••••• 3

Humanities " ".. 3

Analytic Geometry and Calculus ••• 4

Physics .: " 4

Chemistry " 3

Plane Surveying 3

Human!ties ... " " "... 3

17 17

Second Year

Semester 3 Semester 4

Opt:ics ..

Plane Surveying ••••.••..•.••.•.••

Economics ..

Math.calculations and Statistics 3 Statics and Dynamics ..••••••••••• 5 Topography and HYdrography ••••••• 3 Construction Materials ••••••••••• 3

Humanities 3

....

..

Humanities

Analytic Geometry and Calculus '" 4 3 4 3 3

17

Third Year

Semester 5 Semester 6

Resistance of Materials •••••••••• 5 Fluid Mechanics ...•..•..•.••... 3 Principles of Building and Road

Construction ...•.•...•... 3 Photogrammetry ...••.•...•...• ,;. 3 Humani ties ...••...•.•.•.•• 3

Water Supply and Waste Disposal •• 5 Geodesy and Control Surveying •••• 3 Cadastral lurveying ••.•••.•••••.• 3

Photogrammetry J

HUIIl8ni ties 3

17

Fourth Year

Semester 7 Semester 8

Higher Surveying ...•...•... 4 Real Property Law ..•... 3 General Elective ...•...•.•... 3 Technical Elective ••••••••••••••• 3

Humanf, tie8 •...•.. 3

...

Forestry and Agronomy ••••...••••• 3

Hyd~ology, Irrigation, and

Drainage •..• '. . . • . . . • . . . •. 4 Cartography ...•.•...•...•... 3 Elective ••..•..•..•....••.•...• 3

JO. Variations in this program are possible, even desirable, but as given it should Serve as the foundation for educating the professional cadre in survey- ing and mapping for any nation. Wherever an existing university program is in operation, even though it differs from this suggested program, it may with slight modification be a very good educational program for the purpose.

11. Because the professional surveyor-mapping and his technician assistants must be a competent team for planning and accomplishing the work, it will be nepessary that the professional person be capable of performing and directing the technician in any and all aspects of the work.

12. The professional surveyor-mapper's internship will extend necessarily for a period of some years, since he will be required to learn by direct contact the operations of his life's work. All this experience must be extended

throughout all possible operations and projects without specializi~g.inanyone.

The objective here is to render the professional aspirant competent in planning, organizing, and accomplishing all types of mapping, surveying, geodesy, cadas- tre, photogrammetry, charting, hydrography, topography, etc.

13. During his period as an intern, the professional man may be properly re- garded as doing pre-professional work rather than technician-level work, since he is doing it at a different level of accomplishment and with different

motivation. He fn.~uently can accomplish much of this pre-professional work in conjunction with and during his university work, although it is almost certain that the greaeer portion must be done after the completion of his university education.

TECHNICIAN -LEVEL EDUCATION

14. The technician-level personnel should be trained in institutes where

some stress is put on mathematics. They require a thorough grounding in opera- tions in support of the professional people, and they require both theoretical and practical knowledge. These technician-level persons will, in addition, need the assistance of skilled and unskilled craftsmen in their work of field and office surveying and mapping, though the latter craftsmen are not further conSidered in this treatise.

15. In the proper schooling of technicians, s curriculum that would consti- tute a good academic training is given in table 2.

16. In addition to the foregoing schooling, it is essential for the technician to serve a period of apprenticeship. The duration of this practical training should be based upon the ability of the trainee, but in general will not re- quire more than one year of intensified practice and study. The minimum period, however, may be limited to 6 months for those who have had advanced academic training or the equivalent in practice.

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(Numberl are lemelter-hourl of credit; 15 lecture-hour.

equal 1 semester-hour.) First Year

Semester 1 Semester 2

Applied Mathematics (N'iln~Galc1l1us. 3 Engineering Drafting ••••••••••••• 3 Engineering Measurements and

Plane Surveying ••••••••.••... 4 Engineering Materials and

General Geology •••••...•.•••••.•. 3 Engineering Drafting ••••••••••••• 3 Physics '... 4 Plane Surve31ing •.•.••.••.•.•.•.•• 4

Hl1InAni ties 3

...

Pro,ceases 3

Humanities 3

Second Year

Semester 3 Semester 4

Materials and Methods of

Construction 3

Strength of Materials •••••••••••• 3 Engineering Design Drafting •••••• 2 Topographic Surveying •••••••••••• 3

Land Surveying 3

Humanities ' ^'O'.. 3

Descriptive Geometry .•.~•••.••••• 2 Surveying Computations ••••••••••• 3 Map and Chart Drafting ••••••••••• 2 Route Surveying •..•.•..•....••••• 3 Curves and Earthwork ••••••••••••• 3

HlJII14nittes 3

Total

=

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17. As there are numerous kinds of engineering surveys and maps, there are various specialized training courses offered. The purview of this paper, however, does not permit the inclusion of the detailed subject matter con- tained in each course of study. The general subjects for coverage of

"on-the-job" or in-service training should be as follows:

(a) Office Training:

(i) General functions of organization or agency: authorization; frame- work and personnel 'of organization; and cooperation with other agencies.

(ii) Purpose and use of maps, charts, and survey data.

(iii) Methods and operating procedures adopted: processing field data and information; computation and final adjustment; equipment, facilities and materials; and instrumentation, including operation and use.

(iv) Distribution of maps, charts, and survey data.

(v) General sequence for initiating survey and map operations.

(vi) Planning, programming, and scheduling survey and mapping operations.

(vii) Preparation for field assignment.

(viii) Brief visits to other local agencies or offices.

(b) Field Training:

(i) Itinerary and schedule: district offices and field parties; private organizations and other national government agencies; local and State govern- ment agencies; and universities and educational institutions.

(ii) Participation in field survey and mapping operations carried on by' field parties.

(iii) Organization and operation of field units: personnel required;

living facilities; equipment, materials, and supplies; transportation;

financing; instrument repair and maintenance; and public relations.

18. Upon the return to the office from the field assignment, any lack of understanding or differences of opinion are reconciled through consultation with the instructor,

19. On-the-job training with the surveying and mapping agencies of the national government is ideal for apprenticeship training. Such agencies establish the national geodetic control, prepare maps and charts, and perform other scientific, engineering, and cartographic activities which are integral parts of or related to surveying and mapping operations. In addition to these agencies of the national government, there are private organizations which offer high-level apprenticeship training. Generally, most of these courses include some aspects of the broad surveying and mapping field but they are directed primarily to specialization.

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in their abilities to absorb instruction, apprentice training must be flexible.

It permits him to advance as rapidly as he ~an absorb instruction, and those aspects of the subject with which he is familiar need not be repeated.

21. Apprenticeship training offers the technician an opportunity to obtain essential information in the shortest period of time. It affords a more

direct means for applying his academic training to production of needed engineer- ing surveys and maps. Upon the termination of his training, he should have the competence to execute those operations in which he specialized.

22. To gain the desired objectives of the technician and those of his e~­

ployer, the apprenticeship should be directed toward the job or assignment he proposes to take upon completion; the instruments and equipment that will be available to him; the potential volume of work to be done; and, the kind of organization with which he will be associated. These are factors which will reflect the success of his training. Such consideration does not preclude the importance of having the technician observe the operation of the most modern equipment and operational procedures during his apprenticeship, though they may be beyond the present opinions and plans of his employer.

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