Baseline (surveying)

In surveying, a baseline is generally a line between two points on the Earth's surface and the direction and/or distance between them.

In a triangulation network, at least one distance between two stations needs to be measured to calculate the size of the triangles by trigonometry.

Many communities in the United States have roads that run along survey baselines, many of which are named to reflect that fact.

Many prominent Ontario baselines lie on the surveyed boundaries of land treaties signed with First Nations peoples.

For example, several baselines in Waterloo Region and Brant County (including Wilmot Line, Brant-Oxford Road, and Indian Line) follow the borders of the Haldimant Tract land grant to the Six Nations confederacy,[2] leading to the patchwork road and lot network, surveyed parallel to the western edge of the tract, which can be seen in this area to this day.