ABSTRACT
Geomatics is a fairly new umbrella term being used to describe both a body of knowledge and the scope of professional activities having to do with generation, manipulation, storage, and use of spatial data. In a nonexclusive way, geomatics includes traditional disciplines such as surveying, mapping, geodesy, and photogrammetry. The art and practice of geodesy includes using scientific data and various measuring systems to determine the location of points with respect to a defined geodetic framework. Geometrical geodesy encompasses the three dimension (3-D) geometrical elements of the ellipsoidal model of the Earth and the location of points relative to that model. Traditional geometrical geodesy includes separate horizontal and vertical datums while modern practice combines them into a single 3-D database. Traditional goals of geodesy include determining the size and shape of the Earth, describing the gravity field associated with the Earth, and providing a means of locating points on or near the surface of the Earth.
