The Royal Thai Survey Department () is a Special Services Group of Headquarters, Royal Thai Armed Forces () tasked with conducting

land Land, also known as dry land, ground, or earth, is the solid terrestrial surface of Earth not submerged by the ocean or another body of water. It makes up 29.2% of Earth's surface and includes all continents and islands. Earth's land sur ...

and

aerial survey Aerial survey is a method of collecting geomatics or other imagery data using airplanes, helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicle, UAVs, Balloon (aeronautics), balloons, or other aerial methods. Typical data collected includes aerial photography, Li ...

geodesy Geodesy or geodetics is the science of measuring and representing the Figure of the Earth, geometry, Gravity of Earth, gravity, and Earth's rotation, spatial orientation of the Earth in Relative change, temporally varying Three-dimensional spac ...

and

geophysics Geophysics () is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and Physical property, properties of Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. Geophysicists conduct i ...

works in Thailand. The headquarters of the Survey Department are located on Kanlayan Maitri Road in the Phra Borom Maha Ratchawang Subdistrict of Phra Nakhon District, Bangkok, and the current Department Director is Lieutenant General Noppadon Chotisiri. Modern

map A map is a symbolic depiction of interrelationships, commonly spatial, between things within a space. A map may be annotated with text and graphics. Like any graphic, a map may be fixed to paper or other durable media, or may be displayed on ...

surveying Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the land, terrestrial Plane (mathematics), two-dimensional or Three-dimensional space#In Euclidean geometry, three-dimensional positions of Point (geom ...

in Thailand began in 1875 during the reign of King

Chulalongkorn Chulalongkorn (20 September 1853 – 23 October 1910), posthumously honoured as King Chulalongkorn the Great, was the fifth king of Siam from the Chakri dynasty, titled Rama V. Chulalongkorn's reign from 1868 until his death in 1910 was cha ...

(Rama V) with the establishment of a Mapping Division under the direction of British expatriate Henry Alabaster to lay out the map for

telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...

ic activities linking

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estim ...

to Phra Tabong (

Battambang Battambang (, Romanization of Khmer#UNGEGN, UNGEGN: ) is the capital of Battambang province and the List of cities and towns in Cambodia, third largest city in Cambodia. The city is situated on the Sangkae River, which winds its way through t ...

) and also to map around the Thai Gulf.Svasti, Pichay
"Mapping Siam's History"

Bangkok Post The ''Bangkok Post'' is an English-language daily newspaper published in Bangkok, Thailand. It is published in broadsheet and digital formats. The first issue was sold on 1 August 1946. It had four pages and cost one baht, a considerable amount ...

26 Sep 2013 Prince Damrong (then known as Phra Ong Chao Ditsawarakuman) conceived the idea of forming a Survey Department. King Rama V granted the establishment of the Thai Survey School in 1882, with initial recruits coming from the Royal Guards. A royal decree issued September 3, 1885, separated the surveyors from the royal bodyguard and created the Royal Survey Department. The department then engaged in

cadastral survey Cadastral surveying is the sub-field of cadastre and surveying that specialises in the establishment and re-establishment of Real estate, real property boundaries. It involves the physical delineation of property boundaries and determination of dim ...

, which is the survey of specific land parcels to define ownership for

land registration Land registration is any of various systems by which matters concerning ownership, Possession (law), possession, or other rights in Real estate, land are formally recorded (usually with a government agency or department) to provide evidence of ti ...

, and for equitable

tax A tax is a mandatory financial charge or levy imposed on an individual or legal entity by a governmental organization to support government spending and public expenditures collectively or to regulate and reduce negative externalities. Tax co ...

ation. Land

title deed A deed is a legal document that is signed and delivered, especially concerning the ownership of property or legal rights. Specifically, in common law, a deed is any legal instrument in writing which passes, affirms or confirms an interest, right ...

s are issued using the

Torrens title Torrens title is a land registration and land transfer system in which a state creates and maintains a register of land holdings, which serves as the Incontrovertible evidence, conclusive evidence (termed "Defeasible reasoning#Political and judic ...

system, though it was not until the year 1901 that the first–fruits of this survey were obtained. The first Department Director, Ronald Worthy Giblin,

F.R.G.S. The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

, noted when survey began in 1896, "It so happens that 40 metres or 4,000 centimetres are equal to one sen in Thai units of measurement, so all cadastral plans are plotted, drawn, and printed to a scale of 1:4,000." The department also engages in the production and sale of detailed maps, which initially were made by the process of zincography. To alleviate a scarcity of banknotes in the country during the Greater East Asia War, the department printed a special series of

banknotes A banknote or bank notealso called a bill (North American English) or simply a noteis a type of paper money that is made and distributed ("issued") by a bank of issue, payable to the bearer on demand. Banknotes were originally issued by commer ...

in 4 denominations, 1, 10, 20 and 100, like those of the 4th series ordered from Thomas de la Rue and Co., London. The phrase “the Royal Thai Survey” at the lower center of the front and back replaced that of de le Rue starting in 1942.

See also