The Alberta Survey System
Last Update/Review: June 25, 2003
Any parcel of land in Alberta can be pinpointed by its legal land description. Legal land descriptions are based on the Alberta Township System which is simply a grid network dividing the province into equal-sized parcels of land.
Under the Alberta Township System, land is designated as being west of the 4th Meridian (110 degrees west longitude), 5th Meridian (114 degrees west longitude) or 6th Meridian (118 degrees west longitude). Between meridians are a series of columns, each six miles (9.6 km) wide, called "ranges." They are numbered consecutively from east to west, beginning west of the meridian. "Townships" are also six miles wide (9.6 km), and run from the southern Alberta border with Montana at township 1 to the northern border with the Northwest Territories at township 126.
The word "township" also describes the six mile by six mile square formed when the range and township lines intersect. These townships are further divided into 36 sections, each measuring one mile by one mile (1.6 km) as shown in the figure, above. A section, being one square mile (2.56 km2), contains 640 acres (259 hectares) by definition. A section can be further divided into quarters of 160 acres (64.75 hectares) each.
Legal land descriptions are written as follows:
| 1 | — | 87 | — | 18 | — | W4 |
| Section | Township | Range | West of the 4th Meridian |
This system is used to describe the location of water bodies in the Fish Stocking Report as follows:
- For rivers and streams, the location of the mouth.
- For small lakes, the location which contains the majority of the lake.
- For large lakes, the location most central on the lake.
