What is a Cadastral Survey?

A cadastral survey is a survey relating to land boundaries and subdivisions, made to create units
suitable for transfer or to define the limitations of title. It is derived from the word cadastre,
meaning a public record, survey, or map of the value, extent, and ownership of land as a basis of
taxation. The Public Land Survey System has formed the framework for all land title (public and
private) in all states except those formed from the territory of the original 13 colonies, Texas, and
Hawaii.

Cadastral Land Surveyors today identify and establish monuments that document the legal
boundaries between public and private lands for both the surface and mineral estate. Equipment
and techniques have changed in the last 200 years, but the agency's responsibilities and legal
requirements have not.

http://www.co.blm.gov/cadastral/cadhome.htm

CADASTRAL

Of or relating to a survey of land, usually for tax purposes.

This is a common technical term in surveying (and tax collecting), though not widely
known outside those specialisms. A cadastral survey is one on a scale sufficiently large to
accurately show the extent and measurement of every field or other block of land. The
most common reason for such a survey is as a basis for taxation, but in some countries,
particularly the US, it is associated at least as strongly with the need to accurately identify
land boundaries; for example, there is an active Cadastral Survey within the Bureau of
Land Management in the USA, which is responsible for maintaining records of all public
lands. Such surveys often required detailed investigation of the history of land use, legal
accounts and other documents, so it often includes a fair amount of detective work in
matching physical surveys with records. The word came into English by way of French
and Italian from the Greek katastikhon, a list or register, from kata stikhon, “line by line”.

http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-cad1.htm