1

AREA AND VOLUME

One of the primary objects of land surveying is to
determine the area of the surveyed land and to determine
the quantities of earthwork.
The computation of area is very essential to determine
the catchment area of river, dam and reservoir. Its also
important for planning and management of any
engineering project.
For initial reports and estimates, low precision methods
can be used.
When a high level of accuracy is required, a professional
engineer or a land surveyor should be employed.
The area is expressed in ft
2
, m
2
, km
2
, acres, hectares..
INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION
UNIT CONVERSION
1 Square metres = 10.764 Square feet
1 Square km = 10
6
Square metres
1 Hectare = 10000 Square metres = 2.471 acres
1 acres = 0.40467 hactare
1 Square mile = 640 acres
METHODS TO COMPUTE AREA
The method of computation of area depends on the shape
of the boundary of the surveyed area and accuracy
required.
If the plan is bounded by straight boundaries, it can be
tackle by subdividing the total area into simple
geometrical shapes, like triangle, rectangle, trapezoidal
etc and the area of the figure are computed from the
dimensions.
If the boundaries are irregular, they are replaced by short
straight boundaries and the area is computed using
approximate method. While if the boundaries are very
irregular, the area can be determined by using planimeter.
COMPUTATION OF AREA FROM FIELD NOTES
During the survey work the whole area is divided into
some specific geometrical shapes like, square,
rectangular, triangle etc and then the total area can be
computed directly.
The chain line is running approximately in the centre of
the area to be calculated. Then by using the cross-staff or
optical square, mark perpendicular offset on the chain
line.
Offset on the chain line are measured with a chainage
and then the area is calculated by forming regular
geometrical shapes.
COMPUTATION OF AREA
The surveyed area may be calculated from plotted plan
by following rules.
1) Mid ordinate rule
2) Average ordinate rule
3) Trapezoidal rule
4) Simpsons one third rule
1) MID ORDINATE RULE
The method is used with the assumption that the
boundaries between the edge of the ordinates are
straight lines.
The base line is divided into a number of divisions and
the ordinates are measured at the mid points of each
division.
O
1
O
2
O
3
O
4
O
5
h
1
h
2
h
3
h
4
d
l
The area is calculated from following formula,
Area = = Common distance x Sum of mid ordinates
= (h
1
x d) + (h
2
x d) + + (h
n
x d)
= d (h
1
+ h
2
+.. +h
n
)
Where,
n = Number of divisions
d = common distance between ordinates
h
1
, h
2
, h
n
= Mid ordinates
2) AVERAGE ORDINATE RULE
This rule also assume that the boundaries between the
edges of the ordinates are straight lines. The offsets are
measured to each of the points of the divisions of the
base line.
The area is given by following equation,
Area = = average ordinate x Length of the base
L
1 n
.......O O O
n 2 1
|
.
|

\
|
+
+ +
=
_
+
= O
1 n
L
3) TRAPEZOIDAL RULE
This rule is based on the assumption that the figures
are trapezoids. The rule is more accurate than the
previous two rules which are approximate versions of
the trapezoidal rule.
O
1
O
2
O
3
O
4
O
5
d
l
The area of the first trapezoid is given by
Similarly, the area of the second trapezoid is given by
So, the total area of the figure is given by
=
1
+
2
+ .
n
d
2
O O

2 1
1
+
=
d
2
O O

3 2
1
+
=
d
2
O O
....... d
2
O O
d
2
O O

n 1 - n 3 2 2 1
+
+ +
+
+
+
=
Total area = (O
1
+ 2O
2
+ 2O
3
+ 2O
4
+ + 2O
n-1
+ O
n
) x (d/2)
= (O
1
+ O
n
+ 2(O
2
+ O
3
+ O
4
++ O
n-1
)) x (d/2)
= (Common distance/2) x [(1
st
ordinate + last
ordinate) + 2(sum of other ordinates)]
4) SIMPSONS ONE THIRD RULE
This rule assumes that the short lengths of boundary
between the ordinates are parabolic arcs. So this rule is
some times called the parabolic rule.
This method is more useful when the boundary line
departs considerably fromstraight line.
O
1
O
2
O
3
d d
A
B C
F
E
D
1
2
3
Here, O
1
, O
2
, O
3
= Three consecutive ordinates
d = Common distance between the ordinates
Now, Area of AF2DC = Area of AFDC + Area of segment
F2DEf
Area of trapezium
Area of segment = (2/3) x area of parallelogram F13D
= (2/3) x E2 x 2d
2d
2
O O
3 1
+
=
2d
2
O O
O
3
2
3 1
2
|
.
|

\
|
+
=
So, the area between the first two divisions,
Similarly, the area between next two divisions,
Total area
2d
2
O O
O
3
2
2d
2
O O

3 1
2
3 1
1
|
.
|

\
|
+
+
+
=
, ) O 4O O
3
d
3 2 1
+ + =
, ) O 4O O
3
d

5 4 3 2
+ + =
, ) O ...... 4O 2O 4O O
3
d
n 4 3 2 1
+ + + + + =
, ) , ) j .... O O 2 ..... O O 4 O O
3
d
5 3 4 2 n 1
+ + + + + + + =
= (Common distance/3) x [(1
st
ordinate + last
ordinate) + 4(sum of even ordinates) + 2(sum of odd
ordinates)]
Limitation:
This rule is applicable only when the number of divisions
must be even.
The following offsets were taken from a chain line to an
irregular boundary line at an interval of 15m.
2.00, 2.40, 3.10, 2.60, 3.70, 4.20, 3.90,
compute the area between the chain line, the boundary
line and the end offsets by: (1) The mid ordinate rule
(2) The average ordinate rule (3) The trapezoidal rule
(4) Simpsons rule
The following perpendicular offsets were taken from a
chain line to an irregular boundary:
Chainage : 0 10 15 25 40 50 55
Offset : 10.1 12.5 14.5 13.6 12.2 9.8 11.9
calculate the area between the chain line, the boundary
line and the end offsets.
COMPUTATION OF VOLUME
The volume of earth work is calculated by following two
method after calculation of cross sectional area,
1) The trapezoidal rule
2) The prismoidal rule
1) Trapezoidal rule (Average end area rule) :
Volume, V = (d/2) x [A
1
+A
n
+ 2(A
2
+A
3
+..+A
n-1
)]
= (Common distance/2) x [(1
st
section area +
last section area) + 2(sum of area of
other section)]
A
1
A
3
A
n
A
2
A
4
A
n-1
d
A
n-2
2) Prismoidal formula
Volume, V = (d/3) x [A
1
+A
n
+ 4(A
2
+A
4
+..+A
n-1
) +
2 (A
3
+A
5
+..+A
n-2
)]
Limitation:
The prismoidal formula is applicable when there
are odd number of sections. If the number of sections are
even, the section is treated separately and area is
calculated according to the trapezoidal rule.