The Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland: An Outline of its History and Present Mapping Tasks

Abstract

This explains the formation of the Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland as a separate institution in 1921, when it took over the map series which until that time had been part of the Ordnance Survey (U. K.) responsibility. As happened with many mapping organisations, replanning and reorganisation took place after 1945; this included a triangulation for Northern Ireland to provide a basis for a new Irt"sh Grid, and the introduction of the 1:1250 scale for major urban areas.

The technical problems of reproduction and revision are then considered, and details given for each of the main series.     

Mapping Palestine and Mesopotamia in the First World War

Abstract

The survey and mapping activities which took place in Palestine and Mesopotamia during the First World War need to be considered in their contexts, both of long-term British mapping activities in the region, and of survey and mapping generally during the First World War. Thus, while it is important to recognise the real technical advances in map-making which resulted from survey activities in the Near and Middle East during the First World War, it needs to be recognised that this was simply the culmination of nearly 80 years of British military mapping in the region. Each generation of surveyors used the most appropriate tools for the task in hand and the conditions under which the survey needed to be conducted. The First World War surveyors were fortunate that a new tool, aerial photography, had become available just prior to the war.     

CAPTAIN WILLIAM BLIGH,R.N., HYDROGRAPHIC SURVEYOR

Abstract

The name of Bligh will for all time be associated with the incident of the Bounty Mutiny during his first mission of transporting the Bread Fruit to the West Indies. This was, however, but one episode in his eventful career in the Royal Navy. At various times he took part in scientific expeditions and voyages of discovery, commanded fighting ships, etc. Between 1797 and 1803 he fulfilled the duty of hydrographic surveyor and carried out a number of surveys of limited areas in the British Isles and adjacent coasts of Europe. These examinations, of which the River Humber, Dublin Bay, Dungeness and the mouth of the River Schelde are the most detailed, were valuable additions to hydrographic knowledge, coming as they did before organized surveying as we know it today had fully established itself.     

SURVEYING ON LAKE RUDOLF

Abstract

The “Cambridge Expedition to the East African Lakes” reached the shores of Lake Rudolf in March 1931, and spent two months making a survey in several branches of science. The main object was biological—that is, the collection of land and water fauna and flora; but to create a background for this study the personnel of the expedition was made up of a chemist, zoologist, geologist, and geographer. In setting about work of this sort in a region practically unknown and scientifically unexplored the first necessity is a map of the part to be worked. Collections cannot be made at random from any part of the shore-line; one region must be chosen as exemplifying one type, and that region must be worked in detail. Positions of the collecting grounds have to be marked on a largescale map, so that the correlation of types can be worked systematically from end to end of the chosen area. Water-soundings are a necessary preliminary to the study of aquatic contents, and these can only be inserted correctly on a new and detailed map; in this part of the world the shore-line changes are very rapid, being due partly to the effect of a persistently large swell (raised by the southeast trades) on a sandy shore and partly to the lowering of the water-level by intense evaporation.     

LOCAL ATTRACTIONS AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON THE DETERMINATION OF HEIGHTS ABOVE MEAN SEA LEVEL

Abstract

Preliminary Note.—The substance of this article was written in 1921 at the request of Lieut-Col. Wolff, who was then in charge of the Levelling Division of the Ordnance Survey and with whom the author collaborated in writing “The Second Geodetic Levelling of England and Wales, 1912–21” under the direction of Sir Charles Close. It was not intended for publication and was not again considered until 1928, when a discussion by correspondence was started by the Surveyor-General of Ceylon on the subject of hill circuits in levelling. In this discussion the survey authorities in Great Britain, Canada, India, and South Africa took part, but the main theme was the accumulation of error due to the large number of sightings necessary in hilly country and the question whether a common formula for such country and for flat country was justifiable. In his contribution Dr. van der Sterr made a brief allusion to the subject of the present paper and Dr. de Graaff Hunter went into details. His contribution and the following remarks therefore have some arguments in common.     

COMMONWEALTH SURVEY OFFICERS CONFERENCE, 1951

Abstract

The Conference of Commonwealth Survey Officers which was held in London between Monday, 9th July, and Friday, 20th July, 1951, was the fifth of its kind, the last one having been held in 1947. Meetings took place in the Lecture Hall of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, which body also put a comfortable lounge at the disposal of delegates and provided other amenities which added considerably to their comfort and were much appreciated.     

JOTTINGS: CAIRNS ON THE N.W. FRONTIER

Abstract

An officer ordered his native headman to go with his party to a distant mountain, arranged a rendezvous there with him on a certain date, and concluded his instructions by saying, ‘I shall expect to find a good-sized cairn on the top when I get there.’ Subsequently the encounter on the mountain-top took place. No cairn was visible, but the headman produced in its place a seedy-looking pi-dog with the remark, His mother was a cairn, but his father was too quick.     

NEW ANEROID TABLES

Abstract

For a number of years topographers and air surveyors have regarded improved hypsometry as a desideratum. Of hypsometric instruments, the boiling-point thermometer and the barometer are practically the only two in use, and even the barometer is commonly represented solely by the aneroid. Since improvement of the lastnamed offered the best hope of success, a Service Committee was formed some three years ago to endeavour to secure at least some progress in both the construction and the use of the aneroid: it would seem that they should have no reason to be dissatisfied with their labours. The Committee was constituted of representatives of the Hydrographic Department of the Admiralty, the Geographical Section of the General Staff, the Meteorological Office of the Air Ministry, and of the National Physical Laboratory. It is obvious that not much material progress would have been made without the concurrence of the manufacturers; accordingly four of the leading makers of this kind of instrument took part in the later deliberations. The delivery of the requisite tables has taken much longer than was anticipated; on the other hand, one of the makers delivered instruments to the new specification with encouraging promptitude.     

THE INTERNATIONAL UNION OF GEODESY AND GEOPHYSICS, 1948

Abstract

The 8th general assembly of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (lUGG) took place in Oslo by invitation of the Norwegian National Committee. A considerable number of delegates had arrived by the 17th August, for which day preliminary meetings of the Executive Committees and Councils of the Union and of the several Associations were arranged. The formal opening in the Aula of Oslo University began at 10.30 on the 19th. It was honoured by the presence of H.M. the King of Norway.     

THE YEAR 1934 IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The year has been made noteworthy by the decision of Government to amalgamate the Land and Survey Departments under the direction of the Surveyor-General with the title of Commissioner of Lands and Surveyor-General. As the fusion of the two Departments took place only towards the end of the year, this report covers only survey activities for the year 1934.     

A FIFTY-YEARS RETROSPECT

Abstract

In 1911 Lord Carrington, then President of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, offered me the appointment of Director-General of the Ordnance Survey of the (then) United Kingdom, and I need not say that I accepted the appointment. I took over from my predecessor, Colonel S. C. N. Grant, on the 22nd August. The Ordnance Survey was a single department charged with the mapping, on a great variety of scales, of England and Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. Officers and men were freely interchangeable between the different countries.     

SOUTHERN RHODESIAN MILITARY SURVEYORS IN THE WORLD WAR, 1939–1945

Abstract

For some two months prior to the formation of the two companies, an intensive course of survey training and “refreshing” had been undergone by all ranks in the field sections, culminating in a combined Royal Artillery/Royal Engineer survey exercise from 1st to 10th October, carried out under operational conditions in all respects (even down to a 30-hour non-stop period of “photo-topo” compilation for the map on which the “final shoot” took place).     

Regional Structural Analysis by Remote Sensing for Mineral Exploration,Paraiba State,Northeast Brazil

Abstract

Photogeological techniques were used to analyze Landsat‐TM images of the Paraiba State, which resulted in the identification of the following structures: lineaments of regional extent, short en echelon lineaments, intricate ramification of the wrench system, and infrastructures among major lineaments and circular or ring structures. This lineament map was correlated to existing geological maps, to areas of known hydrothermal mineralization (Cu, Au, Mo, Ni, W and Ti), and the lineament map was verified in the field reconnaissance. Due to lack of systematic studies of the geology and natural resources of the region the mineral exploration is still in rudimentary stages. The objective of this research is to emphasize the detection and analysis of lineaments, their patterns, and geometry and their relations with the occurrence of mineral resources and its exploration in areas as yet explored. A large number of mineral‐bearing pegmatites of the region are controlled by major lineaments and associated minor lineaments. It is believed that the structures of interest in search for mineral deposits are warping part of the minor shear zones, the intersections of short and regional lineaments, and the circular features.     

Maps for Planning

Abstract

Maps play an important part in planning at national, regional and local levels. This role should increase ill the future as greater use is made of computers.

This paper was presented to the annual Symposium of the Society in September 1970, at the University of Bristol.     

BOWDITCH TRAVERSE ADJUSTMENT AND A MODIFICATION: NOTES

Abstract

In the second part of the paper on this subject in the last issue (30, 483) the references to the relative angular and linear closures are rather misleading. Mr Clendinning points out that the probable angular error at a station must be considered; the mean error is clearly different.     

SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR SPEEDING UP WORK ON TOPOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS

Abstract

This paper includes a certain amount of material appearing in articles by the writer published at various times in the Empire Survey Review, but it seems convenient to embody these articles as part of one connected paper.     

ICA Research Agenda on Cartography and GI Science

Abstract

The paper presents the ICA research agenda on Cartography and GIScience. The first part discuses the research topics and the second part deals with the 'implementation' of the agenda by the ICA Commissions and Working Groups.     

Analyses of Metro Station Service Area in Shanghai Downtown Based on Traffic Networks

Service area research is one of the pivotal topics in Urban Geography. This article first put forward a model of urban population estimation. And on the basis we measured the size and distribution of population in downtown Shanghai, China. The population model was confirmed well by the traditional survey model. Then we extracted a 1-month actual-time data set contains geo-location by collecting in Sina Weibo data, and generated Voronoi diagram by these data which denoted the service patches. We assigned population to each patch. Second part, we proposed a shortest distance algorithm, a minimum time algorithm and an improved p-median algorithm, took advantages of these three methods to divide the service area of metro stations based on patches. Subsequently, we computed the service population in each service area. Last, we took metro line 1 and 2 as examples to research the relationship among 3 location-allocation methods in detail. The results showed that: The spatial distribution of population of the core city in Shanghai emerged a descending trend from center to periphery clearly. All indicators (including area, population, distance and time) in central city within inner ring road have changed little compared with the region between inner and outer ring road. Yet the improved p-median algorithm has a certain effect of optimization. It presented a scientific and rational travel scheme for citizens cost smallest price to select better starting metro station. The study results should contribute to theoretical and technical support for location-allocation of public service facilities.     

Reflections on Arno Peters (1916–2002)

Abstract

This paper describes a methodology for evaluating the planimetric accuracy of three US Civil War maps using GIS and spatial analytical techniques. The case-study is the Battle of Stones River in Tennessee and, in particular, maps depicting the events of December 31, 1862. An examination of the objectives, limitations and techniques employed by the topographer engineers who created the maps provides focus for the quantitative analysis and establishes the historical context needed to understand how and why the maps were constructed. The paper shows how GIS and spatial analysis can be utilized to document vanishing historic landscapes and reconstructing where certain historical events took place.     

Determination of Indian absolute geodetic datum by least-square solution technique

The Everest spheroid, 1830, in general use in the Survey of India, was finally oriented in an arbitrary manner at the Indian geodetic datum in 1840; while the international spheroid, 1924, in use for scientific purposes; was locally fitted to the Indian geoid in 1927. An attempt is here made to obtain the initial values for the Indian geodetic datum in absolute terms on GRS 67 by least-square solution technique, making use of the available astro-geodetic data in India, and the corresponding generalised gravimetric values at the considered astro-geodetic points, as derived from the mean gravity anomalies over1°×1° squares of latitude and longitude in and around the Indian sub-continent, and over5° equal area blocks covering the rest of the earth’s surface. The values obtained independently by gravimetric method, were also considered before actual finalization of the results of the present determination.