Hello,
I am a career Civil Designer/Civil Engineer and always interested in the subject of survey/geomatics. I find it fascinating and also necessary to understand for use in my work. I am from all over, have traveled between the west coast of Los Angeles to Louisiana, Tennessee, and Florida. I enjoy learning about the technology in this industry and open to any suggestions of good reading books, white paper references, videos, etc.
Welcome...Are you looking for text books on Geomatics, or as I say, "casual reading" that are loosely survey related?
Thanks StLSurveyor,
Well, I currently have several on the subject. I have Adjustment Computations Spatial Data Analysis, Datums and Map Projections, and a few others which are great. However, currently reviewing the subject of how to pick the correct geoids/EGM's when transforming between Orthometric Heights and Spheroidal Heights, if there is any good reading on this material specifically or on the subject of State Plane Coordinate System reductions (in reference to scale, developing the grid factor for each line based on height and latitude). I come across a need to dig deeper into the subject in specific areas, the ones described above are the latest topics I could use some reading for if any recommendations.
For me, a self-taught amateur, the starting point was James Stem's State Plane Coordinate system of 1983. I first tried to pick out just the topics I wanted to learn, but I soon found out that the best approach is to read the entire manual with highlighter and notebook in hand.
Once you're through, go back to Section 3 and program the forward and inverse computations for either a Lambert or Transverse Mercator projection. I chose Lambert because my home state, NC, is a Lambert state. I did the work in three Excel spreadsheets; one to calculate the central parallel, one to to the forward computation and one to do the inverse computation. Here is the current state of my copy of Stem and page 28, a primary piece of the Lambert computation. Among the pencil notes are the rudiments of a proof of a method to create single parallel projections.
After doing that, the amount you learn in a day will increase exponentially. You'll raise questions like how did they get that weird formula for the average scale factor over a very long line? Stem doesn't answer that, but it's a combination of Simpson's Rule for definite integrals and the average value of a continuous function over an interval. And, if you look at an NGS data sheet, you'll see that the elevation factor for the state plane projection is the same numerically as the elevation factor for the UTM projection. Why that's true will come to you in an instant.
If you're a sophisticated user of mapping software, then use that to explore projections. I'm not, so I use DNRGPS developed by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. It's poorly maintained and a bit temperamental at times, but it has everything you need to develop and document custom projections as well as hundreds of previously developed projections. You'll be doing the same things that Stem taught you, but by use of a "black box." There's real value in learning how to make the black box do what you want it to do, though.
DNR.STATE.MN.US Likely, there are college courses that teach this stuff, but where's the fun in that? Self-study is slow and unpredictable, but the aha moments are all yours and the rewards are enormous.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I have (and still do!).
Excellent, well I'd recommend starting with some of these:
Geodesy for Geomatics and GIS Professionals by James A. Elithorp
GPS For Land Surveyors, 4th edition by Jan Van Sickle
Basic GIS Coordinates, 3rd edition by Jan Van Sickle
I am currently teaching a course at a local Tech College, Intro to GIS and GNSS and this is the text I am using. It is a very good text that covers a great deal of geospatial topics:
GIS Fundamentals, 6th edition by Paul Bolstad
ESRI also has some good texts that you can pick up cheap (used), especially in the summer when classes are out! These are good intro texts that explain the geospatial relationships that won't bury you in math:
Lining Up Data in ArcGIS: A Guide to Map Projections by Margaret M. Maher
Modeling Our World: The ESRI Guide to Geodatabase Concepts by Michael Zeiler
I still laugh when I see that word. Only because there was trending opinion that that's what we'd be calling ourselves by now.
