Why land surveying is critical to infrastructure development, by Ogundipe

Given the contribution of surveying profession to infrastructural development, a professor of highways transportation, Olumide Ogundipe, has urged land surveyors to take their rightful place in the comity of professionals involved in the execution of projects.

Ogundipe said this, at a lecture, tagged: ‘The Roles of Surveying in Infrastructural Development’, at the yearly Conference of the Association of Private Practising Surveyors of Nigeria (APPSN).

He noted that role of surveying/land surveyors in infrastructural development is critical to the growth and prosperity of any nation and cannot be underestimated, adding that the profession has had positive economic, social and environmental impacts on the people, communities and nations.

Ogundipe wants players in the construction industry to work as a team for common goal by having an umbrella body for all the professions.
Ogundipe, who lectures at the Department of Civil Engineering, Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, said surveys are regarded as a useful tool in identifying commercial, industrial and residential areas for the planning of land use, both immediately and over the long-term. This, he said, goes a long way in controlling the impacts of human activities on the environment.

He said: “Surveying promotes environmental management and conservation activities. Sensitive sites are located and isolated. Surveying helps in limiting/discouraging unplanned and inappropriate land development. Maps produced by land surveyors are major instrument for addressing flooding, erosion, landslides, which are major environmental problems. Surveying has had positive impacts on communities and the peoples’ wellbeing. Proper delineation and registration of lands help to reduce crisis between communities and states.”

According to him, the benefits of survey and registration programmes are often implicitly noted in the description of cases, where land rights are poorly defined and where the property rights system is either incomplete or excludes the claims of indigenous peoples.

Land surveying, he explained has made significant impacts to the economic growth of cities, communities and nations in terms of revenue generation, job creation, risk reduction, business opportunities and increase in the prices of properties.

On the place of surveying in infrastructure development, he said: “Shelter is a basic human need crucial for survival in cases of natural hazards or conflict. It provides security, personal safety and protection from the weather and prevents ill health and disease. Survey plan, a legal document that spells out the accurate measurement of a parcel of land is necessary before the building construction can start.

“Experienced engineers and surveyors are those involved in setting out of structures, in large projects, services of land surveyors are required for more.”He said surveyors have always played key roles in the preparation of plans for and regulation and management of towns, cities and regions.

Olumide disclosed that surveyors are responsible for data collection and management of different design and engineering plans such as transportation, water system and power system using proper metric standards like coordinate system, accuracy, drafting and specifications.

He further said proper delineation and registration of land makes it suitable for collateral to secure capital from financial institutions, stressing that land surveys enable the calculation of financial compensation for the use of land and extraction of its resources.