Know how to convert Sask Land #'s to Lng + Lat?

[Noni120]

Does anyone know if this can be done and how? Can Saskatchewan (Canada) land numbers (for example W3-36-18-3) be converted to cordinates of longitude and latitude so that a person can find it using a gps? Thanks folks!

Edited March 10, 2008 by Noni120

[Keystone]

I am moving this thread from the Geocaching Topics forum to the Canada forum.

[+cyber-hunter]

Does anyone know if this can be done and how? Can Saskatchewan (Canada) land numbers (for example W3-36-18-3) be converted to coordinates of longitude and latitude so that a person can find it using a gps? Thanks folks!

 

Yes they can. In Alberta the Alberta Government has a calculator that does the job for you. Here is the link.

 

http://www.ags.gov.ab.ca/GIS/conversion_tools.shtml

 

It is set up to only work for Alberta locations but the Saskatchewan Government may have one as well.

 

So yes it can be done.

 

[+Juicepig]

wow, i just learned something!

[+shearzone]

Does anyone know if this can be done and how? Can Saskatchewan (Canada) land numbers (for example W3-36-18-3) be converted to cordinates of longitude and latitude so that a person can find it using a gps? Thanks folks!

 

Do you mean the Dominion Land Survey or does Saskatchewan really have their own coordinate system?

[+nirakmit]

As far as I know, those are called legal land descriptions (set up by the Dominion Land Survey in Canada), but they are also used in the U.S. As long as you can find a conversion tool (i.e. the Alberta Gov website), it doesn't matter what province you're in. If that doesn't work you can always try the Canadian Spatial Reference System, which has a bunch of online conversion tools:

 

http://www.geod.nrcan.gc.ca/tools-outils/index_e.php

[+cyber-hunter]

As far as I know, those are called legal land descriptions (set up by the Dominion Land Survey in Canada), but they are also used in the U.S. As long as you can find a conversion tool (i.e. the Alberta Gov website), it doesn't matter what province you're in. If that doesn't work you can always try the Canadian Spatial Reference System, which has a bunch of online conversion tools:

 

http://www.geod.nrcan.gc.ca/tools-outils/index_e.php

 

The Alberta converter only works between the 4, 5 & 6 Meridians. The calculator would need to be modified to work for areas outside that.

[+PDOP's]

MapTown has an online calculator http://www.maptown.com/coordinates.html but it appears only to be good for use in Alberta and Northern BC only.

[+PDOP's]

As far as I know, those are called legal land descriptions (set up by the Dominion Land Survey in Canada), but they are also used in the U.S.

 

It's formally known as the third system of survey. There are differences from the US system in how the sections are numbered, road allowance size etc.

[+Red90]

It's formally known as the third system of survey. There are differences from the US system in how the sections are numbered, road allowance size etc.

 

It is not consistent across Canada either, as I recall. There is a change in the road allowance size at some point and the spacings of the road allowances. There is a good book on the DLS, which explains everything, but I read it quite a while back.

[Noni120]

Thank you all for the links. There is some great info out there and much to learn. Unfortunately, I'm still searching but as you say, Alberta has a site to convert legal land descriptions to coordinates, so there IS a way to do this, now all I need to learn is the "how". Maybe someday Saskatchewan's government will follow suit and put up a site like Alberta's, or maybe someone here will find the conversion equation and post it for us THAT would be GREAT! Again, thank you all for helping out. Kindest Regards.

[+PDOP's]

It is not consistent across Canada either, as I recall. There is a change in the road allowance size at some point and the spacings of the road allowances. There is a good book on the DLS, which explains everything, but I read it quite a while back.

 

I picked up Laying Down the Lines: A History of Land Surveying in Alberta after finding a 1/4 section marker near a cache in the Hinton area. Neat stuff about all they had to go through back around 1900 to do what we do with our GPS receivers today.

 

Any errors that were made in those initial surveys became the legal positions (The pin rules) and so conversion from the legal description to coordinates is not an exact formula. From the Alberta site previously linked to:

What is the formula/algorithm to make these conversions? Can we download it to use offline?

The conversion is not based on a formula. The basis of the conversion is an ISAM file of section corner coordinates. We have implemented spatial indices to these to allow rapid lookups. Coordinate resolution below one section is handled through bi-linear interpolation.

[+Red90]

This is (I believe) the book that I read, http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/mb_history/08/do...andsurvey.shtml

[+PDOP's]

Thanks for the link. Another good reference is Understanding Western Canada's Dominion Land Survey System

[+parker2]

The conversions are rough as there are diffrent size road alowances. The main road allowances are 66' and the grids are 90' if i remember corectly. I know that in some of the rm's here in SK, that some of the sections of land are smaller than what they are suspose to be as well.

 

The SK gov also has a GIS system in place. Both the lat/lon and DLS are shown for each 1/4.

If you need more help accessing this site NONI, you can contact me through the admin address listed on our prov. geocaching website....

 

www.saskcachers.com

 

parker2