Total-Station Plotting
Definition
The recording of three-dimensional coordinates of each item by an electronic surveying instrument (total station) before it is collected. The resulting point dataset is used to produce a spatial map of the scatter.
- Instrument
- Electronic surveying total station
- Records
- Three-dimensional coordinates of each item
- Timing
- Before items are collected
- Output
- Spatial map of the scatter pattern
Common questions
Why must coordinates be recorded before evidence items are collected?+
Once an item is picked up, its exact original position is lost, and the spatial relationships between scattered items are often what allows reconstruction of an event sequence or blast/impact origin, so plotting must happen in place before any disturbance.
What does total-station plotting add beyond photographing the scatter?+
Photographs show relative position within a frame, but a total station records precise metric coordinates for every item on a shared scene-wide coordinate system, allowing distances, angles, and patterns to be measured and analysed quantitatively rather than estimated visually.
How is the resulting dataset used after the scene is cleared?+
The coordinate dataset can be imported into mapping or CAD software to generate scaled scatter diagrams, calculate radial distribution from a suspected origin point, and support later courtroom demonstratives or reconstruction analysis.
Related terms
- Directional Scatter
- A non-random distribution pattern in which skeletal elements or other material are concentrated in a particular compass direction from the primary deposition...
- Grid-Based Collection
- A systematic search method in which the scene is divided into numbered cells, each searched and recorded in turn, with every item's...
- Primary Deposition
- The original position in which the body was placed or fell after death, before any movement by scavengers, water, or other post-depositional...
- Scene-of-Recovery
- The location where remains are found, which may or may not be the location of the original death or primary deposition. Distinguishing...
- Secondary Scatter
- The distribution of skeletal material away from the primary deposition point by post-mortem processes: scavenger activity, water transport, slope movement, or human...