ABSTRACT
The introduction of digital mapping techniques to engineering surveys began in the early https://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> 1970 s https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780429078019/d26f7473-eed7-4ac2-ba97-6250e40102bb/content/eq1342.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> . At that time, the use of these techniques was confined to a few large organizations which had the financial resources available to meet the cost of acquiring and operating the then very expensive computer hardware (mainframe computers and minicomputers) and associated peripherals (digitizers, graphics terminals, automated coordinatographs) and also had the volume of work to justify and realize the benefits of the very large capital investiment required. Since then, both the technology and the methodology have developed apace. The result of this development has been a huge increase in the number of organizations employing digital mapping methods, largely as a result of the dramatic reduction in cost and the increased computational power of the new technology. In 1988, with the availability of inexpensive microcomputers and powerful graphics workstations and the widespread knowledge as to how to use these devices in a fairly sophisticated manner, there are few organizations engaged in survey work for engineering purposes which do not employ computer-based methods of processing the survey data and delivering it to the client in graphic or digital form.
