Cadastral Information For GIS Specialists

Part One - Overview Of The PLSS

How The Public Land Survey System Works

- Plats -

A survey plat is more restrictive in scope than a map.  A survey plat is a surveyor’s diagram showing land boundaries and /or subdivision of land.  It is a drawing that represents the particular area included in a survey (such as a township, private land claim, or mineral claim) and the lines surveyed, established, retraced, or resurveyed.  The plat typically shows the direction and length of each of the surveyed lines; the relationship to the adjoining official surveys; the boundaries, descriptions and area of each parcel of land subdivided; and, insofar as is practicable, the relief and improvements within the limits of the survey.  A map, as contrasted with a plat, graphically represents to a scale the physical features of an area and may show some general land boundaries, especially political and administrative boundaries.
 
The cadastral survey plat is the source document for people’s rights in lands – the source document on which all land patents, descriptions, and conveyances are based.  A land survey is considered an official cadastral survey when the survey has been accepted and the plat is filed with the appropriate land office. 

Plat Abbreviations:
Township(s) T., Tps.
Range(s) R., Rs.
Section(s) sec., secs.
North  N.
Northeast NE., etc.

Example of a Plat:


(From Manual of Surveying Instructions 1973, p. 202)



Continue on to Geodetic Control

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Links to the other Cadastral Courses:
Learning The Cadastral Data Content Standard
County Recorders And The Cadastral Data Content Standard
Surveyors And The Cadastral Data Content Standard

Presented by the United States Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management, and

the Federal Geographic Data Committee Cadastral Subcommittee