Nowadays 3D terrestrial laser scanners record high precision three-dimensional coordinates of numerous points on an object surface in a short period of time. So terrestrial laser scanner is applied to a wide variety of fields including geodesy, and civil engineering, archaeology and architecture, and emergency service and defence, etc. This study deals with the potential application of terrestrial laser scanner in the reconnaissance surveying. The results shows that terrestrial laser scanner is possible to extract the linear features and the positioning accuracy of objects measured by total station surveying is comparative to that by terrestrial laser scanner. Thereafter, it is expected that the potential applications of terrestrial laser scanning will be more increased by combining terrestrial laser scanners with airborne LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) and photogrammetric technology.