[Qgis-user] Converting Alberta Township System

[Brent Fraser]

Ramon,
  The text file is closer to your Example B, but the survey system 
itself has discontinuities such as how it tries to deal with Longitude 
convergence and keep the parcel sizes roughly the same. A good summary 
of the system can be found at:

http://www.thinktrees.org/my_folders/Envirothon_Soils_Resources_2010/7_-_Understanding_Western_Canada_Dominion_Land_Survey_System.pdf
(although I see they didn't scan the pages relating to Alberta)

Before the responsibility for the system was given to the Provinces, the 
Federal govt called it the "Dominion Land Survey System", so if you 
Google that you will get more info.  The authoritative document was the 
"Manual of Instructions for the Survey of Dominion Lands", available 
from: 
http://clss.nrcan.gc.ca/standards-normes/toc-domlan-terredom-1-3-v1-eng.php

Here's a few records from the ATS_V4_1.SEQ text file:

40100101E449.00701238110.0050793319840621S07LBD         1421 
0.000000000    199104030000000020050331113922
40100101N449.01415809110.0161551119840621S07LBD 1421   0.000000000    
199104030000000020050331113922
40100101NE49.01424023110.0050807519840621S07LBD 1421 
855.6194501019111199104030000000020050331113922
40100101P148.99961020110.0008710619360101S06394 IBC 3125 
856.5193601012511199104030000000020050331113922
40100101P248.99960948110.0050779020041123S07A477 SE COR 1525   
0.000000000    000000000000000020050331113922
40100101S448.99978158110.0161736619910314S08TIED IBC 3943125   
0.000000000    199104030000000020050331113922
40100101SE48.99978996110.0050779420000614S06LBD 9/306 1125 
856.519901220C721199104030000000020050331113922
40100102E449.00683419110.0275199620000614S07LBD 1421   0.000000000    
199104030000000020050331113922

and my INSERT statement to load the points into a PostGIS table:

INSERT INTO ats_coords(
   meridian,
   range,
   township,
   section,
   qsection,
   lat,
   lon,
   date_computed,
   station,
   status,
   horizontal_class,
   "comment",
   horizontal_origin,
   horizontal_method,
   horizontal_datum,
   road,
   elevation,
   elevation_date,
   elevation_origin,
   elevation_method,
   elevation_accuracy,
   vertical_datum,
   parcel_computed,
   map_computed,
   date_updated
)
SELECT
       substr(rec,1,1) AS  meridian,
       substr(rec,2,2) AS  range,
       substr(rec,4,3) AS  township,
       substr(rec,7,2) AS  section,
       substr(rec,9,2) AS  qsection,
       CAST(substr(rec,11,11) AS double precision) AS lat,
       CAST(substr(rec,22,12) AS double precision) AS lon,
       substr(rec,34,8) AS  date_computed,
       substr(rec,42,1) AS  station,
       substr(rec,43,1) AS  status,
       substr(rec,44,1) AS  horizontal_class,
       substr(rec,45,12) AS  "comment",
       substr(rec,57,1) AS  horizontal_origin,
       substr(rec,58,1) AS  horizontal_method,
       substr(rec,59,1) AS  horizontal_datum,
       substr(rec,60,1) AS  road,
       CAST(substr(rec,61,6) AS double precision) AS elevation,
       substr(rec,67,8) AS  elevation_date,
       substr(rec,75,1) AS  elevation_origin,
       substr(rec,76,1) AS  elevation_method,
       substr(rec,77,1) AS  elevation_accuracy,
       substr(rec,78,1) AS  vertical_datum,
       substr(rec,79,8) AS  parcel_computed,
       substr(rec,87,8) AS  map_computed,
       to_timestamp(substr(rec,95,14),'YYYYMMDDHHMISS') AS  date_updated
FROM ats_raw;



Best Regards,
Brent Fraser

On 5/20/2014 3:39 PM, Ramon Andiñach wrote:
> On 20/05/2014, at 22:42 , Brent Fraser wrote:
>
>> Michael,
>>
>>      The Alberta Township System can be a pain to relate to geographic coordinates. While it is a survey system (or land parcel definition system) defined by physical monuments placed on the ground, it is often just "estimated" using the original rules used in laying out the monuments back in the late 1800s.
>>
>>      The official source of the data is http://www.altalis.com/products/property/ats.html.  While the polygon file is provided at a cost ($1000), a text file of survey corners is available for free.  But joining the corners into polygons is not for the faint of heart.
> Brent and Michael,
>
> Out of curiosity (because I'm about as far away as Phil is and have no idea what an ATS polygon file should look like) do either of you know what that text file looks like?
>
> I suppose my question is are the points for each node on a quarter shown separately (like example A)?
> or is it more messy where unique nodes are recorded, but shared between polygons (like example B)?
> or something else?
>
> If it's the first one, I've probably got something at work that could do most of the heavy lifting on it for you.
> If it's one of the others then it would be more involved.
>
> -ramon.
>
> Example A
>
> _________
> | 2 | 1 |
> |___|___|
>
> x	y	z	quarter1
> x	y	z	quarter1
> x	y	z	quarter1
> x	y	z	quarter1
> x	y	z	quarter2
> x	y	z	quarter2
> x	y	z	quarter2
> x	y	z	quarter2
>
> Example B
>
> _____________
> | 2 | 3 | 4 |
> |___|___|___|
> | 9 | 1 | 5 |
> |___|___|___|
> | 8 | 7 | 6 |
> |___|___|___|
> x	y	z	quarter1, quarter2. quarter3, quarter9
> x	y	z	quarter1, quarter3, quarter4, quarter5
> x	y	z	quarter1, quarter5, quarter6, quarter7
> x	y	z	quarter1, quarter7, quarter8, quarter9
>
>