PLANS AND MAPS

As stated in the definition of surveying the objective of measurements is to shows relative positions of different objects on paper. Such type of representations on paper is called plan or map. Plan may be defined as projected on a horizontal plane to a suitable scale as the graphical representation of the features near, on or below the surface of the earth.  However, no part of the earth can be represented on such maps without distortion since the surface of the earth is curved and that of the paper is plane. If the area to be represented is small, the distortion is less and large scale may be used. Such representations are called plans. If the area to be represented is small, large, scales are to be used and distortion is large. The representation of larger areas is called maps. The representation, in a municipal area of a specific locality is a plan while representation of a state/country is a map. Between a plan and map there is no exact demarcation.