Survey and Mapping

The Survey and Mapping Office of the Lands Department defines and
records the boundaries of land developments, providing and maintaining
survey control networks, producing maps of Hong Kong at various scales
for land administration, engineering works and legal purposes, and
managing a computerised land information system.

The office provides land survey services for land administration purposes
such as land sale and resumption. It maintains a complete index plan in
digital form of all leasehold lots and government land properties. Under the
Land Survey Ordinance, the office, being the Survey Authority, is
responsible for checking the quality of land subdivision plans submitted by
Authorised Land Surveyors and maintains a record of these plans for
reference by other land surveyors.

The survey control networks provide the essential reference points for all
types of land and engineering surveys. A Global Positioning System,
which receives signals from satellites, is used for establishing these
reference points. More permanent reference stations are being installed to
provide wider and more precise coverage. The use of this system for
mapping survey is also being experimented with. The received signal data
is available to private practising surveyors.

The office produces a large variety of maps, the largest scale being 1 to
1 000 and many in colour. All these maps are bilingual or will be so by
early 1998. The 1 to 1 000 and 1 to 20 000 digital maps are available for
sale to the public. The 1 to 5 000 digital maps will be ready in early 1998.

The office also provides extensive cartographic services for many
government departments. These include the production of geological
maps, aeronautical charts, electoral boundary maps, as well as plans for
land disposal and resumption, street and place names, government notices
and legal purposes.

The Air Survey Unit takes aerial photographs regularly and upon request
for photogrammetric survey and record purposes such as for flooding
and landslip. The photographs, some in colour, are available for sale to
the public.

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