School of Civil and

Environmental Engineering
ENGG1000: UNSW CAMPUS
DEVELOPMENT

PROJECT
CVEN04

Objectives
All construction has an impact on the built environment, changing its character and how people will
respond to it. Even before any major construction starts, engineering skills are applied in order ensure
there is an appropriate balance of developers objectives, resident and public concerns, terrain
considerations, and planning constraints that also take into account sustainable development principles.
A surveyor plays an important role as a Land Development professional. During the planning/feasibility
phase surveyors are required to determine land boundaries, and to establish the property development
rights and restrictions. During the pre-construction phase surveyors map the area under consideration for
development, in particular all the critical features in the natural and built environment that are relevant to
the development proposal, providing all the relevant information to clients, councils/public authorities,
civil engineers, architects and planners. During the building phase surveyors guide the excavations,
construction and set-out of structures, roads and other engineered components of the development.
Finally, surveyors carry out as-built surveys, and create appropriate land/use titles (e.g. strat, freehold,
leasehold, etc), register title documents, easements, etc.

Design Task Summary

Your task is to work within a small team to lay the groundwork for the construction of a structure, on one
of several possible sites on the UNSW campus. The task investigates the suitability of a proposed
site/structure from the different perspectives of development rights (delineation of land boundaries and
ownership of property), technical feasibility (land size, access, aspect, etc), resident concerns (overshadowing, noise, traffic, parking, etc), council restrictions (land use restrictions), and sustainability
principles (energy, resource use, transport).
Project Lectures
A series of lectures will be given to complement the project as outlined in Table 1. You will need to
attend all lectures.
Table 1: Lecture template for Project 4
Project 4 specific lectures

Lectures in common with Projects 1, 2 & 3

Introduction to the project and the Land Development

process
Basic principles of construction and engineering surveys
Mapping, geospatial information and sustainable
development

Teamwork
Sustainable design and construction technologies and
practices. Societal and environmental ethics
Engineering drawing (CAD)

Design Specifics
Design, execute and report on the various steps surveyors take in preparing a submission for development
approval of a major project. There will be several aspects to this:
1. Survey of the UNSW campus determination of physical and legal property boundaries,
comparison of GPS coordinates and cadastral plan distance/bearing information, register of land
ownership, rights and restrictions of land owner, use of imagery, etc.
2. Analysis of site suitability for proposed development selection of site on UNSW for major new
development, consideration of how selected structure (e.g. observation tower, museum,
convention centre, religious building or hotel) interacts with surrounding developments (in terms
of sun-shadowing, visual impact, etc).
3. Appraisal of sustainability considerations council restrictions, impact on natural and built
environment.

Such engineering/site analysis activities precede detailed landscape, architectural and civil work design
for major projects. All activities have design challenges, all require the application of surveying, mapping
or measurement skills, and all require an understanding of how a major development changes the
immediate environment.
You will also design, construct and demonstrate a levelling device for the determination of the difference
in height between two land features.
Deliverables
The Draft Report is due Monday, Week 7.
The Final Report and Levelling Device are due Monday, Week 11.
Deliverable 1: The Written Report
The primary deliverable is a group report that will include sections on:
Determination of UNSW property boundary and ownership details.
Use of GPS for coordination of prominent features, including boundaries and relevant buildings
Use of imagery and web services such as Google Earth for rapid property/environment appraisal
Detail survey of site for proposed structure, including rooflines of surrounding buildings, using
low-cost (non-surveying) instruments
CAD drawing of campus outline, with highlighted site and structure (plan & elevation)

An appraisal of the site/structure in the context of council regulations/restrictions, including sun

shadow and visual impact analysis
An appraisal of the site/structure in relation to sustainable land development principles

Each of these will be marked against specific criteria, including quality of fieldwork, computations and
CAD drawing; quality of appraisal of site/structure analysis, development restrictions and sustainability
principles; and quality of report (format, grammar, referencing, use of tables/figures, etc).
Deliverable 2: Design, Construction & Testing of a Precise Height Levelling Device
You are required to construct a device for determining height, or difference in height, using whatever
materials may be purchased from non-specialist stores (e.g. hardware stores, supermarkets, high street
shops).
On the day of testing, you will present the rationale for your chosen design and then demonstrate whether
it is capable of meeting the performance criteria specified in lectures. The winning design will be
evaluated in regards not only to its accuracy performance, but also elegance in design, ease of use, speed
of operation, and cost of materials.