United Kingdom In Scotland there is a Cadastral Map: Land Registration etc (Scotland) Act 2012. In 1836,
Colonel Robert Dawson of the
Royal Engineers proposed that a cadastre be implemented in light of his experiences on secondment to the Tithe Commission. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland there is a system of
land registration with similar functions, but the word "cadastre" is not used.
United States In the
United States, cadastral survey within the
Bureau of Land Management (BLM) maintains records of all
public lands. Such surveys often require detailed investigation of the history of land use, legal accounts, and other documents. The
Public Lands Survey System is a cadastral survey of the United States originating in legislation from 1785, after
international recognition of the United States. The
Dominion Land Survey is a similar cadastral survey conducted in Western Canada, begun in 1871 after the creation of the Dominion of Canada in 1867. Both cadastral surveys are made relative to
principal meridian and
baselines. These cadastral surveys divided the surveyed areas into
townships. Some much earlier surveys in Ohio created 25 square mile townships when the design of the system was being explored. Later, the design became square land areas of approximately 36 square miles (six miles by six miles). These townships are divided into
sections, each approximately one-mile square. Unlike in Europe, this cadastral survey largely preceded settlement and as a result greatly influenced settlement patterns. Properties are generally rectangular, boundary lines often run on cardinal bearings, and parcel dimensions are often in fractions or multiples of
chains.
Land descriptions in Western North America are principally based on these land surveys. ==Extensions==