Guides to Western Canada's survey systems

The Dominion Land Survey blankets the prairies in townships, sections and legal subdivisions; British Columbia's energy sector runs on the NTS grid instead. These guides explain how each system works — with worked examples you can paste straight into the lookup.

• How to read a legal land description

  Break 4-15-33-20-W4 into its parts — LSD, section, township, range and meridian — and learn the four levels of detail.

• Township, range and meridian explained

  How the prairie grid counts north from the 49th parallel and west from six meridians — and why grid roads jog.

• How LSD numbering works

  The serpentine 1–16 grid inside every section, with original diagrams of LSD and section numbering.

• How many acres in a quarter section?

  Quick answers for quarter, section, township and LSD sizes — acres, hectares and dimensions, with diagrams.

• DLS vs NTS: what's the difference?

  Two survey systems cover Western Canada — which one your location uses, and how to tell at a glance.

• Alberta legal land descriptions

  What LSD-section-township-range-meridian means in Alberta, the W4–W6 meridians, and where the description appears on your title.

• Convert an Alberta LSD to GPS coordinates

  Turn an Alberta legal subdivision like 4-15-33-20-W4 into latitude and longitude you can navigate to.

• Find a Saskatchewan legal land location

  Look up Saskatchewan descriptions like 19-17-26-W2 against the surveyed township fabric.

• Find a BC NTS or BCGS location

  Decode well-style locations like d-96-H/94-A-15 — quarter unit, unit, block and 1:50,000 map sheet.

• Convert GPS to a legal land description

  Turn latitude and longitude — or your current position — back into the DLS or NTS description containing it.