Traverse Analysis

Traversing is a fundamental operation in surveying and the assessment of the quality of a traverse is a skill that every surveyor develops. Acceptable traverses have angular and linear misclosures that fall within acceptable bounds; which would permit the adjustment of the traverse measurements to remove mathematical inconsistencies. Unfortunately these misclosures tell very little about the precision of the location of the traverse stations – although large misclosures are good indicators of gross errors – and more sophisticated mathematical techniques are required for proper traverse analysis. This paper presents some relatively simple techniques that can be employed to give reliable estimations of the precision of traverse stations that allows a simple assessment of the quality of a traverse.