28th June 2012, 11:56 AM
RedEarth Wrote:I think we would run the risk of beating ourselves up over this, as they say. Do we all understand the principals of survey? Probably not, but then we use geological information all the time. Do we understand all of geology's principals? I doubt it. Not to mention history, biology, etc. (sing along everyone: 'don't know much about biology...') Using surveying appropriately to do what we want it to do is surely enough isn't it? Not only that, but how many times have I found myself attempting to relate something to a drawing I presumed accurate that was produced by an architect or similar? Even the OS mapping is sometimes remarkably dubious when compared to something actually surveyed. A superbly accurate trench plan, for example, isn't much use if the OS map it is going to be related to isn't very.
As for the point of the survey, I'm not sure, probably just something else to make us feel inadequate!
Proves Wax's point.
You need to understand the accuracy, confidence levels etc of the technique and kit your using and how that effects your own measurements