Rigours of the Surveying Profession

Rigours of the Surveying Profession

The fact that the profession is associated with several hours of fieldwork under the intense African heat is enough reason to discourage the new comers. This is coupled with the fact that the remunerations are not commensurate to the amount of time and energy put into each survey work. The other issue is the high cost of purchase of surveying and geoinformatics equipments. It is difficult for both the professionals and institutions afford even on a rental basis. This is coupled with the fact that the models of surveying equipment change very frequently. In a continent with so much poverty, it will be difficult to cope with the cost of purchasing new equipment almost every two years.
The other is the know-how on the application of the relevant software. The other issue to deal with is the inconsistent supply of electricity to power the computers for the processing of the field data. In the case of manual equipment, manual computations and final presentations becomes an inevitable puzzle. The combination of the above act negatively on the survey products in terms of the delivery time and values to be added.

(Surveying and Geoinformation in Africa: Problems and Prospects Peter C. NWILO and Dennis A. OSANWUTA, Nigeria)