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Department of Surveying and Geodesy

Introduction

The Department of Surveying and Geodesy at the Faculty of Geomatics is the pioneering department of its kind in Sri Lanka to provide education and to promote research in Surveying and Spatial Engineering. The mission of the Department of Surveying and Geodesy is to gain and disseminate scientific knowledge in three main specialization areas Surveying and Geodesy, Land Management and Hydrographic surveying. In order to ascertain such knowledge, the academic program of the department is mainly focused in major subject areas of Land Surveying, Geodesy, Mathematics, Physics, Astronomy, Earth’s Gravity, Geo-Statistics, Land Management and Hydrography.

The department is keen in applying this knowledge to develop tools and solutions for infrastructure development, sustainable use of natural resources, disaster early warning and monitoring, navigation and positioning and as a whole for all the spatial solution needed for good governance. It is equipped with a qualified academic staff as well as with the cutting edge technology to meet the current and future requirements of the industry.

Surveying and Spatial Engineering is the art of measuring and mapping assets, infrastructure and cultural heritage, Natural Resources, track locations of moving objects and spatial predictions. Surveying and spatial information engineers use technologies such as GNSS, Gravity Meters, laser scanning, Satellite Remote Sensing, mobile mapping and GIS in order to provide reliable information about the ownership of land, the built and the natural environments, Land cover changes, movements, and disasters. Development of new sensors, smarter environments and technologies, mobile computing and communication, and vast increases in spatial data constantly transform the capacity and tasks performed by surveying and spatial information engineers. Leadership in innovation is a major attraction of a career in this dynamic field. For comprehensive Earth observation and for better living in the future the role of Surveying and Spatial Engineering will become ever so critical, and the Department of Surveying and Geodesy will cater such needs leading from the front.