The principles of land surveying date back almost as far as the thought of land ownership. Since ancient man determined that one piece of land would belong to one group, and the other piece to another group, there is a need to mediate between land disputes. That's where land surveying came in, although today surveys are also used for a great many other purposes.
Since that time, every major civilization in the annals of the world has used some type of land surveying, although they will have certainly are more sophisticated over the years both with changing laws and improved technologies. https://topographiclandsurveyorsyorkshire.co.uk/best-bim-surveys-yorkshire/ , GPS along with other technologies allow for a more exact survey than was possible just a couple of short decades ago. As you can imagine, ancient maps and land surveys were even less accurate.
Among the first types of a land survey using mathematical means was in ancient Egypt. THE FANTASTIC Pyramid, built around 2700 BC at Giza, demonstrates Egyptians' knowledge of surveying techniques. Ancient Egyptians also redrew boundary lines using basic geometry following the Nile River flooded the plains. An Egyptian land register existed as soon as 3000 BC, or five thousand years ago, to record the owners of varied pieces of land and their locations. These early surveying efforts by the Egyptians were years before other civilizations, as was true in lots of other areas of Egyptian technology as well. These surveys were based on geometry in addition to simple declarations they believed these boundaries to be correct.
In the Roman Empire., the Romans actually established 'land surveyor' being an official position. These were called agrimensores. Texts describing their actions date back again to the first century AD. Thorough and precise, they were known for creating impeccably straight lines and right angles using simple tools. After measuring these lines, they might dig a shallow ditch to represent the lines. Amazingly, many of these ditches still exist for this day.
In eleventh century England, William the Conqueror wrote his now-famous Domesday Book. This book, covering all of England, meticulously covered the names of all land owners, the quality and level of this land, and information on the people and resources in each area. Even though amount of information within this book was quite impressive, this was not just a technical survey, and the maps weren't attracted to scale and weren't very accurate.
Napoleon Bonaparte was the first to mandate a cadastre, in 1808. Sometimes, Napoleon even thought that the cadastre will be his greatest contribution to civil law. The cadastre is really a thorough register of the property in a given county. The information it includes includes ownership details, location (as precisely measured as you possibly can given then-current technology), and as much information about the worthiness and using the land as was available. This cadastre included scale maps at both 1:2500 and 1:1250. Cadastre use spread quickly, and even it was the origin of today's cadastral surveys. However, it was difficult to make a cadastre in rural areas or those where land was in dispute.
Today's surveys are much more accurate than those done in decades or centuries past thanks to sophisticated opportinity for measuring and recording boundaries and land features. There are lots of more applications of land surveys than simply recording land ownership