Glossary for Geospatial Science

sections of land:� The U.S. Public Land System divided much of the U.S. into square sections of land with an area of approximately 1 square mile (sides 1 mile long).� Since most of this survey was completed in the late 1800s, these sections vary greatly in area and shape.� In some areas survey adjustments have created sections as big as 2 square miles.� Sections are the basic unit of land ownership in the central and western U.S.� They are usually bounded by roads that give rise to the checkerboard land patterns characteristic of these areas.