This manual is addressed primarily to students of the Faculty of Geography, but also to those who, although they will be users of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), do not have a number of fundamental notions in the field of geodesy.
Although geodesy is a branch of the geomatic sciences with a wide field of coverage, this manual deals only with basic notions, necessary for the correct use of GIS, especially geospatial data.
This paper deals with topics such as:
- the shape of the Earth;
- coordinate and reference systems;
- the role, necessity and way of defining a datum;
- altitude systems (elevations);
- the necessity, the principles and the errors that appear at the transformation of the coordinates between different reference systems (besides the transformation between datums, the particular case of georeferencing is treated briefly);
- GPS positioning principles;
- elementary notions of error theory.
All these elements ensure a minimum of "geodetic" notions necessary for the correct use of geospatial data within a GIS.
The problems related to the networks (geodetic / planimetric, leveling, GPS, magnetism, gravimetric) are treated only in an introductory and descriptive way because the object of activity of the students does not require this knowledge.
However, for those who want to deepen the notions of geodesy, we recommend some reference works, noting that their number is much higher and of high scientific value:
- Dragomir, V., Rotaru, M., (1986). Geodetic evidence. Military Publishing House, Bucharest
- Dragomir, V, et al (1977). The theory of the figure of the earth. Technical Publishing House, Bucharest
- Ghitau, D., (1972). Geodesy - Triangulation. Didactic and Pedagogical Publishing House, Bucharest
- Ghitau, D., et al., (1973). The surveyor's manual, Technical Publishing House, Bucharest
- Ghitau, D., (1983). Geodesy and geodetic gravimetry. Didactic and Pedagogical Publishing House, Bucharest
- Moldoveanu, C., (2002). Geodesy. Matrix Rom Publishing House, Bucharest
This manual has no other role than to guide the "first steps" in the field of geodesy and only enough to correctly understand a series of basic notions without which geospatial data could be used incorrectly in a GIS.
Bucharest,
September, 2015
The Authors