Università Roma Tre

GEOMATICA course program – prof. Margherita Fiani


Introduction:
Principles of survey. Definitions. Measurement and their units. Precision and accuracy in surveying.
Geodesy:
Shape of the Earth. Earth gravity field. Equipotential surfaces. Geoid. Definition of height. Reference ellipsoid. Geoid undulations. Coordinate systems: natural, geocentric, ellipsoidal. Geometry of the ellipsoid of rotation. Normal sections. Principal curvatures. Geodesic. Reference surfaces used to approximate the ellipsoid. Geodetic networks and Datums. Horizontal and vertical Datum. Datums used in Italy. Geodetic, astronomical, cartesian geocentric, cartesian local coordinates. Coordinate transformations. Transformations between Datums. Practical geodetic problems.
Theory of errors and statistical treatment of observations:
Types of measurement errors: gross, systematic and random. Probability distributions. Normal (Gaussian) distribution. Estimation of characteristic parameters of a distribution. Confidence intervals. Standardized variables. Two-dimensional continuous random variables. Covariance and correlation coefficient. Propagation of variance-covariance. Applications to surveying problems. Method of least squares. Adjustment with the method of indirect observations.
Cartographic representations:
The problem of map projections. Deformation modules. Analytical approach to map projections. Classification of map projections. Conformal projections. The conformal Gauss map and its geodetic use. Contracted coordinates and modules expressions. The Italian official cartography. Coordinates measurement on the map of Italy at the scale of 1:25000. The UTM-UPS mapping system.
Surveying:
National geodetic networks: planimetric, leveling, IGM95 networks. Reference, thickening and local networks. Planimetric survey, reduction of distances to the reference surface. Main surveying schemes: triangulation, intersection and radiation methods, open and closed traverses, detailed survey. Vertical survey: orthometric and normal heights, reference surfaces. Trigonometric and geometric leveling: scheme, instrumentation, accuracy. Practical aspects of GPS surveying, sessions and independent baselines, baselines computation, transformation in the national reference system. Design, planning, materialization, surveying and adjustment of planimetric, leveling and GPS networks.
Instrumentation and operational methods:
Measure of angles. Theodolites. Main components: telescope, vertical and horizontal circles, circle reading and optical micrometer, optical plumb. Setting up. Reading method of azimuth angles. Bessel’s method. Zenith angles. Electronic theodolites. Measure of distances. Geodimeters: operating principle, fundamental equation, accuracy of a geodimeter. Total stations. Leveling. Levels, types of levels, main components: telescope, level plumbs, leveling screws. Bessel’s method. Invar stadia. GPS: basic concepts, GPS constellation and control segment. GPS signal structure. GPS biases and errors. GPS receivers. WGS84. Pseudo-range and carrier phase measurements. GPS modernization. Other GNSS systems.

Handouts provided by the Professor
Books:
FOLLONI G. PRINCIPI DI TOPOGRAFIA – PATRON, 1982
G. BEZOARI, C. MONTI, A. SELVINI. TOPOGRAFIA GENERALE. UTET, MILANO, 2002