Geodetic Education

(advanced and secondary), the system of preparation of specialists in geodesy and cartography. The origins of special geodetic education in Russia date to 1779, when a land surveying school was founded in Moscow with the aim of training specialists for work in general land surveying. In 1819 it became known as the Konstan-tinov Land Surveying School, in 1835 it became a secondary specialized educational boarding establishment called the Konstantin Land Surveying Institute, and in 1845 it acquired the status of a higher educational institution. However, there was no organized training of civilian geodesists in prerevolutionary Russia. The Land Surveying Institute graduated engineers in the organization of land use and in land surveying, and some individual graduates devoted themselves to geodesy. Basic geodetic work was carried out by military geodesists, who were trained in the geodetic section of the Military Academy of the General Staff, which was opened in the mid-19th century, and by military topographers who were trained in the military-topography school.

The organization of geodetic education as an independent branch of advanced and secondary specialized education was begun after the Great October Revolution. In 1917 a geodetic department was organized in the Land Surveying Institute, initiating the training of engineering cadres in geodesy and cartography. The development of geodetic education was connected with the needs of socialist construction. The recording, discovery, and use of the natural wealth of the country, the planning and construction of large industrial units, the reconstruction of agriculture, and the strengthening of the country’s defense capability required up-to-date geodetic information and topographical and specialized maps of varied accuracy and purposes. The widespread application of the achievements of geodetic science and technique in the national economy and defense led to the differentiation of geodetic education by specializations. In 1922 specialized studies in astronomical geodesy, geographical cartography, and geodetic instrumentation were introduced into the geodetic department of the Moscow (formerly Konstantin) Land Surveying Institute. In 1924, in connection with the appearance and development of the method of aerial photographic survey, the phototopographic specialty was introduced. In 1930 the first specialized geodetic higher educational institution in the world, the Moscow Geodetic Institute, was organized on the basis of the geodetic department of the Moscow Land Surveying Institute. Beginning in 1936 the institute was known as the Moscow Institute of Engineers of Geodesy, Aerial Photographic Survey, and Cartography. The Moscow Institute of Land Use Engineers, which has departments on the organization of land exploitation and geodesy, was organized on the basis of the land use department of the Land Surveying Institute. In the 1950’s and 1960’s the training of geodetic engineers was organized in the Kiev Construction Engineering, the Kaunas Polytechnic, and the Leningrad Mining institutes and in a number of other higher educational institutions. A geodetic department was established in the L’vov Polytechnic Institute. Universities offering specialities in geodetic education include Kazan, Kiev, Far Eastern, Tomsk, and Urals. Geodesists are also trained in the system of military educational institutions.

Contemporary geodetic education is conducted in specialties including astronomical geodesy. (Astronomical geodetic engineers are trained for very precise geodetic work in the creation of astronomical geodetic and leveling networks of a higher class, gravimetric surveys, and the solution of scientific problems of geodesy.) Other specialties include geodetic engineering (geodetic engineers to do work necessary for engineering installations, their construction, and use) and aerial photographic geodesy (engineers to produce aerial survey works, create topographical maps by aerial photographic methods, and apply aerial photographic survey and photogrammetry to the solution of a variety of engineering problems). In addition, specialized geodetic fields include cartography (cartographic engineers and geographer-cartographers to develop and create different types of maps and atlases and to direct work in compiling, editing, and publishing of geographic and topographical maps of various scales, contents, and purposes) and optical instruments and spectroscopy and instruments of precision mechanics (engineers to develop, construct, and manufacture geodetic instruments).

The foundation of geodetic education is a series of general scientific, social, physical-mathematical, astronomical, and geographic disciplines. Depending on the specialization, a complex of subjects group together to give a profile to the specialty. For example, for the specialization of engineering geodesy, the typical subjects include geodesy, advanced geodesy, engineering geodesy, engineering research, photogrammetry, practical astronomy, and cartography. In connection with the development of new techniques of geodetic measurement, based on the application of electronics and radiotechnology and the use of artificial earth satellites for the solution of geodetic problems, special attention is now given to the preparation of the students in physics and mathematics. During the period of instruction, the students undergo academic and practical training, including geologic, geodetic, aerogeodetic, composite geographic, topographical training. Advanced geodetic education is conducted in both day and correspondence divisions of education over periods of five and six years. It is completed by the defense of a graduation thesis (project). Scientific geodetic cadres are trained in graduate school.

In the system of secondary geodetic education the accepted specializations include aerial photographic survey, photogrammetry, phototechnology, topography, geodesy, geodetic engineering, and cartography. Secondary geodetic education in the USSR is conducted primarily in topographical technicums—the Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev, Tbilisi, Tashkent, Semipalatinsk, Novosibirsk, Tomsk, and Khabarovsk secondary specialized polytechnics. Geodetic and topographical technicians are also trained in the Saratov Geology and Prospecting Technicum, the Kaunas Agricultural Technicum, and the Baku, Minsk, and Magadan secondary specialized polytechnics, as well as in special courses with varying terms of study.

Geodetic disciplines are studied in higher educational institutions by students of construction, land use, transportation, mining, forestry, and many other specialized fields, whose work requires the use of geodetic data and the application of methods of geodetic measurement.

Abroad, geodetic education developed as an independent branch of education in the first half of the 20th century. Earlier, engineering personnel in geodesy were prepared by retraining specialists who had received their education in universities or other higher nongeodetic educational institutions.

Geodetic education in socialist countries is obtained in geodetic departments (divisions) of polytechnic higher educational institutions or in independent geodetic higher educational institutions. For example, in Poland such training is given in the geodetic department of the Warsaw Polytechnic Institute, where specializations include basic geodetic work, industrial engineering geodesy, cartography, phototopog-raphy, and agricultural geodesy, and in the mine surveying department of the Kraków Mining and Metallurgical Institute. In Czechoslovakia geodetic training is offered in the geodetic division of the construction department of the Higher Technical School in Prague, and in the German Democratic Republic, in the Dresden Higher Technical School.

The movement toward the organization of geodetic education as an independent branch of higher education may also be observed in the capitalist countries. Thus, in the USA, where the training of geodetic engineers was based on the retraining of specialists of other academic fields, the Institute of Geodesy, Photogrammetry, and Cartography was opened at Ohio State University in 1955. In addition, geodetic training is carried on in many universities in the physics and physics and mathematics departments. The centers of geodetic education in Great Britain are the universities of Oxford, Glasgow, and Swansea. In France specialists in geodetic education are trained in a number of national technical schools and polytechnic institutes.