E-beacon: a web-based survey control finder application

Abstract

The interplay between Geographical Information System (GIS) and Computer Science has continued to yield improved methods of carrying out many surveying-related activities. In the past, survey control points were stored in file systems and at the best in Database Management applications thereby leading to the limited usage of the survey control points since they are difficult to locate in the field. This study however, suggests another approach for the storage of these survey control points which makes them to be easily accessible and gives room for faster update and geo-visualization of the survey control points. This was achieved by means of web programming applications such as Node-JS, Leaflet Javascript Mapping API, MONGODB, HTML and CSS, integrating GIS into web technologies. The end product is an interactive web application that can be accessed using any smart device with the control points rendered on the user interface. The Survey Control Finder application (E-Beacon) is a WebGIS platform for the geovisualisation of survey control stations in the University of Nigeria, Enugu campus (UNEC), Nigeria. This study gives insight into what the latest trend in technology has in store for surveying and the need to arouse the interest of learners in web application programming in order to develop more surveying-related applications.