Our department was established in 1993 within the Faculty of Engineering with five divisions (Geodesy, Surveying Techniques, Photogrammetry, Cartography, and Public Surveys). It became operational on 6 October 1995 with the appointment of Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sebahattin Bektaş, a faculty member of the Geodesy Division, as the Head of the Department. Formal undergraduate education commenced in the 1997–1998 academic year, and the first cohort graduated in 2000–2001. As of the 2006–2007 academic year, evening education (II. Education Program) also started, and the first graduates from this program were awarded their degrees in 2009–2010. As of the end of the 2017–2018 academic year, student admission to the evening education program has been discontinued.
Master’s education began in the 1998–1999 academic year. A joint doctoral program with Karadeniz Technical University (KTÜ) was initiated in 2011–2012. Subsequently, with the approval of the Higher Education Council Executive Board dated 01.02.2017, and based on the sufficient number of faculty members, the PhD Program in Geomatics Engineering within the Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences at Ondokuz Mayıs University was officially established.
In 2020, the name of the Public Surveys Division was changed to the Land Management Division.
As of 23 December 2022, Prof. Dr. Faik Ahmet Sesli has been appointed as the Head of the Department.
From the time the department began to award degrees until the end of the 2024–2025 academic year, a total of 1,630 undergraduate students (including 26 international students), 1 associate degree graduate, 94 master’s graduates (including 8 international students), and 14 doctoral graduates (including 2 international students) have completed their studies. Of the undergraduate graduates, 1,127 are from the regular program (including 25 international students) and 503 are from the evening education program (including 1 international student).
To ensure that the undergraduate curriculum incorporates courses aligned with current technological developments, curriculum revision studies were conducted through External Stakeholder Meetings (Focus Group Work). The updated curriculum, approved by the University Senate, has been implemented since the Fall semester of the 2018–2019 academic year. During this process, revisions were made in accordance with the ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management System, the Bologna Process, and MÜDEK accreditation criteria.
Accreditation efforts aimed at improving the quality of education and ensuring compliance with national and international standards have been successfully completed. Following the Institutional Visit conducted by the Evaluation Team of the Association for Evaluation and Accreditation of Engineering Programs (MÜDEK), the Geomatics Engineering Program was accredited for a period of two years. This achievement has contributed to the department’s quality improvement efforts and represents a significant step towards attracting higher-qualified students.
Fields of Study
• Definition of terrestrial coordinate systems, establishment of reference networks, and design, installation, measurement, computation, analysis, control, and densification of horizontal and vertical geodetic networks for national and international engineering applications.
• Integration of spatial information with these networks and systems, and monitoring temporal changes.
• Monitoring surface movements through these networks and performing deformation measurements and analyses for engineering structures, including the use and analysis of satellite-based modern surveying techniques (GPS/GNSS).
• Data acquisition, processing, and evaluation using aerial photographs and satellite images, and generating decision-support products for different disciplines. Production of large-, medium-, and small-scale digital and printed topographic and thematic maps through photogrammetric methods.
• Implementation of cadastral surveying to establish the land registry system defined by the Civil Code; regulation of urban land in accordance with modern urban planning principles; and reorganization of rural land based on modern agricultural practices.
• Execution of expropriation, easement rights, and real estate valuation services for national and international engineering projects.
• Analysis, design, implementation, and dissemination of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Urban Information Systems, which have significantly advanced with the development of information technologies, and conducting interdisciplinary studies in these fields.