Reference
Glossary — surveying & geospatial terms
Definitions of key surveying, CAD, and geospatial terminology used across our services.
A
- Affection Plan (Dubai Site Plan)The official plot document issued by Dubai Municipality showing a parcel’s boundaries, dimensions, area, setbacks, and approved use — required for any design or building-permit submission in the emirate.
- Ain El Abd 1970 DatumThe legacy geodetic datum of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain; many older maps and drawings are still referenced to it. Converting to WGS84 or KSA-GRF17 requires official datum-shift parameters, not just reprojection.
- As-Built DrawingA drawing documenting a facility as actually built, which may differ from the original design drawings. Used for handover, maintenance, and future modifications.
B
- Balady PlatformSaudi Arabia’s e-government municipal-services platform through which surveying decisions and building permits are processed, requiring survey deliverables in specific formats and standards.
- Bathymetric SurveyMeasurement of water-body depths in rivers, ports, and lakes using sonar equipment, producing seabed maps used for port design and submarine pipeline routing.
- BIMBuilding Information Modeling — a digital methodology for representing buildings as 3D models carrying complete engineering information per element, used across the project lifecycle.
- Bill of Quantities (BoQ)A detailed schedule of work items and their quantities taken off from drawings — known in Egypt as “maqaysa” — used for tendering, pricing, and execution tracking, and a fair basis for comparing contractor bids.
C
- CADComputer-Aided Design — software for digitally creating and editing engineering drawings (AutoCAD being the most known), used to produce architectural, structural, and MEP drawings.
- CadastreAn official register documenting parcel boundaries, areas, and ownership within a national coordinate reference system — the foundation of land-registration and urban-planning systems.
- Certified Survey OfficeA surveying office staffed by licensed engineers registered with the engineers’ syndicate, whose deliverables — reports, maps, and plates — are certified and accepted by official bodies and the property registry. It performs survey works with Total Station and GPS instruments.
- Contour LineLines on a map connecting points at the same elevation, used to visually represent terrain shape. The spacing between lines is the "contour interval", typically 25 cm to 2 m depending on terrain.
- Contractor Payment CertificatesPeriodic claims a contractor submits for executed work; their quantities are verified before payment to catch overstatement and unearned items, ending with the project final account.
D
- DatumA reference frame defining the origin and axes for measuring coordinates on Earth. WGS84 is the most widely used globally, with many countries adopting a local datum for national projects.
- Digital Cadastral SurveyA survey that ties property boundaries to precise digital coordinates and produces a digital survey statement required for property registration in Egypt under Real-Estate Registration Law 9 of 2022, processed via the technological centers and the Egyptian Survey Authority.
- DWGThe native CAD file format for AutoCAD — the industry-standard format for exchanging engineering drawings between teams.
- DXFDrawing eXchange Format — an open CAD interchange format used to move drawings between different CAD applications (AutoCAD, BricsCAD, ZWCAD) while preserving layers and dimensions.
E
F
G
- GeoidAn imaginary surface representing mean sea level extended under landmasses, used as the elevation reference in surveying. It differs from the Earth ellipsoid because of local gravity variations.
- General Authority for Survey and Geospatial Information (GEOSA)Saudi Arabia’s national authority for surveying, geodesy, and geospatial information — it maintains the national coordinate reference frames, the CORS network, and base mapping across the Kingdom.
- GISGeographic Information System — software for storing, analysing, and displaying spatial data, used in urban planning, asset management, risk analysis, and spatial decision-making.
- GNSS / GPSSatellite navigation systems for precise positioning. The American GPS is most known, alongside Russian GLONASS, European Galileo, and Chinese BeiDou — modern survey-grade receivers use all four simultaneously for accuracy.
I
K
L
- Land SubdivisionDividing a land parcel or building into independent, individually-registrable parcels or units, with an approved subdivision plan and an area-and-coordinate schedule per unit.
- Licensed Survey EngineerA survey engineer registered with the engineers’ syndicate and licensed to certify, sign, and stamp survey works and reports — which gives deliverables the “certified” status accepted by official bodies.
- LiDARLight Detection and Ranging — a method using laser pulses to measure distances, deployed ground-based or airborne to produce high-accuracy 3D maps of terrain, buildings, and vegetation.
M
- Makani Geo-AddressingDubai’s official geo-addressing system: a ten-digit number pinpointing every building entrance to metre accuracy on the emirate’s maps, used across government services, logistics, and spatial databases.
- Ministry of Municipalities and Housing (MoMRAH)The Saudi ministry overseeing municipalities and the Balady platform; it sets the requirements for surveys, survey decisions, building permits, and plan-submission standards across the Kingdom.
- Map ProjectionThe mathematical method to represent the curved Earth surface on a flat map. Every projection sacrifices accuracy in distance, angle, or area for the others — UTM is the most-used in surveying.
O
P
- Public Authority for Civil Information (PACI, Kuwait)Kuwait’s authority for national addressing, base mapping, and the unified geographic database; any survey or GIS work delivered inside Kuwait ties into its identifiers and reference layers.
- PhotogrammetryThe science of extracting measurements and 3D models from overlapping photographs, widely used with drone flights to produce Orthomosaics and DSM/DTM models of sites.
- Point CloudA set of millions of 3D points (X,Y,Z) representing the surface of an object or site, captured by laser scanner or photogrammetry, used as the base for BIM models and drawings.
Q
- Qatar National Datum 1995 (QND95)Qatar’s national geodetic datum used for cadastre, permitting, and official mapping; survey deliverables submitted to Qatari authorities are typically required in QND95 coordinates rather than raw WGS84.
- Quantity TakeoffThe process of extracting material and work quantities from project drawings to prepare a Bill of Quantities used in tendering and pricing.
R
S
- Survey Sketch (Krokia)A survey sketch showing a parcel’s shape, dimensions, boundaries, and position relative to nearby features with coordinates, attached to survey reports and decisions and to registry and permit transactions.
- Saudi Survey Decision (Qarar Masahi)An official Saudi document defining a parcel’s boundaries, dimensions, and area, issued through the Balady platform based on a survey submitted by a classified survey office inside the Kingdom — a prerequisite for building permits, subdivision, and conveyance.
- Setting-OutTransferring design dimensions and axes from drawings to the ground accurately using Total Station and GPS, to position foundations, columns, and roads before construction.
- Shop DrawingDetailed execution drawings prepared by the contractor or fabricator to elaborate design elements before construction, including precise dimensions, installation methods, and materials.
- Surveying DecisionA certified surveying document that fixes a parcel’s boundaries, dimensions, and area — a prerequisite for building permits and registration. Issued by the competent authority: in Egypt via the technological centers and the Real-Estate Registry, and in Saudi Arabia via municipalities and the Balady platform.
T
- Topographic SurveyThe measurement and recording of natural terrain and existing features on a land parcel, producing a contour map with precise coordinates used for engineering design and permits.
- Total StationA surveying instrument combining electronic angle and distance measurement, used in topographic surveys and construction setting-out at centimetre accuracy.
- TrakheesThe engineering-permitting arm of Dubai’s Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation (PCFC); it reviews engineering and survey submissions for projects within its jurisdictions such as Jebel Ali.