For proper education, this is called PACING. I have done this several times in the field when there’s a need to get a rough estimate of distance. It is also frequently used in Land navigation to locate various features and benchmarks. In Surveying, a standard PACE COUNT is based on every 100m. It’s a quick way of measuring distance, especially if you find yourself in a terrain with no measuring instrument. The minister’s use of pacing shows clearly he is a well experienced and knowledgeable Civil Engineer.