What is plane surveying?

There are two general types of land surveying: plane and geodetic.

Plane surveying considers the earth to be a flat surface--a plane, which works well for jobs spanning a short distance (a few miles), because calculations are relatively simple. Surveys of this nature account for much of survey work being done.

Geodetic surveying takes into account the true shape of the earth. These surveys are usually of a very large scale and most often performed by government agencies. GPS is capable of automatically giving geodetic positions (within certain qualifiers), though a thorough understanding of the principals of geodesy is necessary to adequately design and conduct a geodetic survey.