Alberta Township System

The Alberta Township System (ATS) is a land surveying system used in the Canadian province of Alberta and other parts of western Canada.

In principle there is a mathematical basis for the Alberta Township System (ATS) variant of the Dominion Land Survey (DLS) system as implemented in Canada. The implementation in western Canada reflects a number of slightly different approaches, as well as a large number of errors.

Long before the Dominion Land Surveyor (DLS) first came into official existence in 1872, licensed surveyors known as Provincial Land Surveyors had been functioning in the Provinces of Ontario and Quebec (then called Canada West and Canada East) under an Act of 1849. Establishing a system of examination for new aspirants to the title of “Dominion Land Surveyor” was officially adopted in 1874. In 1910 The Alberta Surveyors Act prescribed the system and the methods whereby land surveys were to be carried out under the general purview of a provincial Director of Surveys whose responsibility it was to see that all survey work was performed in accordance with the provisions of that Act.

The system is also used by provincial governments when selling exploration rights, and oil and gas wells are referenced by their location as defined within the Alberta Township System.

Below is a brief description of how to lay out the DLS grid for Alberta.

Lay off 6.0375-mile (9.7164 km) ticks from the 49th parallel of latitude to the 60th parallel. This gives 127 township lines.

The 49th parallel of latitude is the first base line of the ATS system. On it lay off 6.0750-mile (9.7768 km) ticks westwards starting at the 110th line of longitude (4th DLS meridian). Start over at the 114th and 118th lines of longitude (5th and 6th DLS meridians). Extend these ticks 12.0750 miles (19.4328 km) due north (following a line of constant longitude) to the first correction line. This gets you your first set of range lines.

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