Pretty sure on this one... Total station(s) is used in surveying (has its own wiki page), and your sentence is differentiating 'old-fashioned' surveying from good old terra firma (terrester-mätning) with modern surveying that uses strange ideas like satellites, gps and other stuff -- known as GNSS (and other techniques). The introduction from the Lantmateriet reference gives an idea.

For more reading that uses 'land-based,' see http://www.gmahydrology.com/services/land-and-hydrographic-s...