Review of Episodic Voyage of Engineering Surveying and Cartography in India

Abstract

This study presents the Episodic Voyage of Engineering Surveying and Cartography in India to know our past development in mapmaking and cartography, which is as old as Ptolemy’s expedition in the 2nd century AD in India. Starting from ropes and sticks to measure, plumb bobs to position, site rule for sighting, and clinometer for height measurement, the Indians and people from other countries, developed the present instruments and methodologies. They have evolved by gathering big data and up to making smart maps by today. The methodology employed is to collect data about the development of innovative technologies in the last 15th to 21st centuries.  The journey commenced from Zareb, Kadi, etc. to the development of geo-informatics with the practices of Aerial photography, Geographical Information Systems (GIS), Remote Sensing (RS), Global Positioning Systems (GPS), Image Processing, Photogrammetry by unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), Light Detecting and Ranging (LiDAR), Web GIS, through large-scale map generation. The innovative practices have given a new direction to the subjects like geography, geology, urban planning, landscaping, and other human application services.  The present study includes the search for the advances in surveying and map-making journey to date and the way forward. Eventually, the evolution of technologies will influence greatly the surveying and map-generating Present process. The application handling in the current geospatial ecosystem can be complied with by compiling large-scale maps 1:500, 1:1000, etc. through automation for better smart city planning in India. The change shall paddle the economic growth in different developing countries. However, the survey of marine territories of India is poorly researched.