ArcGIS Pro Legal Land Description Locator

ArcGIS Pro does not include a DLS or NTS locator. Type NW-36-42-3-W5 into the Locate pane and nothing comes back. Esri has confirmed there are no plans to add Canadian legal land description support — not in version 3.7, not with the NATRF2022 datum update.

That creates a daily friction point for GIS professionals across Western Canada. Well licence locations, pipeline corridors, mineral rights parcels, and cadastral survey plans all reference DLS quarter sections and NTS grid cells, but ArcGIS Pro can't resolve those descriptions to map coordinates. Every lookup requires leaving the GIS environment, converting in a separate tool, and bringing the coordinates back in.

Township Canada's ArcGIS Pro Python toolbox adds a native legal land description locator directly inside ArcGIS Pro. Search DLS and NTS descriptions from the Locate pane, batch convert entire tables to feature classes, and reverse geocode map clicks back to legal land descriptions — all without switching applications.

GIS Workflows That Need a DLS/NTS Locator

Well Licence and Regulatory Filing

Oil and gas GIS analysts process well licence locations listed as LSDs — LSD 06-32-048-07W5, NE 14-032-21W4 — for AER submissions and pipeline route planning. Without an ArcGIS Pro legal land description locator, each description has to be converted in a browser, the coordinates copied, and the results pasted back into a feature class. For a regulatory filing with 50 well locations, that means 50 round trips between applications.

Cadastral Survey Planning

Surveying firms receive contract packages listing section corners and parcel boundaries in DLS format. Plotting 25 section corners along a proposed highway corridor in Saskatchewan — 32-048-07W3, 33-048-07W3, and so on — means 25 individual lookups unless the GIS software can resolve them natively. The Township Canada toolbox batch converts the entire contract table in one run, producing a point feature class ready for field planning.

Environmental and Renewable Energy Assessment

Environmental assessments and renewable energy site selection often cover dozens of quarter sections across mixed survey systems. A wind farm feasibility study might span DLS quarter sections in the Peace River block and NTS grid references in the rest of BC. The batch geoprocessing tool handles both systems in a single run — no need to split the input file by survey type.

Field Verification with Reverse Geocode

A pipeline integrity crew reviewing a right-of-way in ArcGIS Pro can click any point on the map and immediately see which quarter section or LSD that location falls within. The reverse geocode function converts GPS coordinates back to a legal land description — useful for confirming that a well pad, surface disturbance, or lease boundary matches the location recorded in regulatory filings.

What the ArcGIS Pro Toolbox Provides

The Python toolbox (TownshipCanada.pyt) installs as a standard ArcGIS Pro toolbox with no extra Python dependencies. It uses only urllib.request, which ships with ArcGIS Pro.

Locate pane search: Type a DLS quarter section like NW-36-42-3-W5 or an NTS reference like 093P08 into the ArcGIS Pro search bar. The locator geocodes the description to a point on the map, suggests matches as you type, and supports reverse geocode — click a location to get its legal land description.

Batch geoprocessing: Point the tool at a table column containing legal land descriptions. It converts every row to a point feature class with GPS coordinates, province, and survey system attributes. Optionally, it generates a boundary polygon feature class with actual parcel geometry, not just centre points.

No application switching: Both tools run inside the ArcGIS Pro Geoprocessing pane. Results are added directly to the current map as feature classes, ready for overlay analysis, export, or further processing.

Example: Batch Converting a Well Inventory

An O&G GIS analyst receives a spreadsheet of well locations from the AER:

Open the batch geoprocessing tool, select the column, and run. The result is two feature classes — points and polygons — added directly to the map. One point near Rocky Mountain House, one near Drayton Valley, one near Drumheller. Each carries the original description, GPS coordinates, and survey system as attributes.

Beyond ArcGIS Pro Desktop

Township Canada's Esri integration extends beyond the desktop toolbox. An Experience Builder widget brings legal land description search to ArcGIS Online web maps — search with autocomplete, boundary polygon display, and reverse geocode for browser-based teams (compatible with Experience Builder 1.14+). For field crews, the Survey123 integration converts legal land descriptions entered in field forms to GPS coordinates automatically via a Make.com webhook pipeline.

For GIS teams working outside Esri, Township Canada also supports Mapbox, Leaflet, OpenLayers, and Google Maps.

Getting Started

1. Sign up at the API portal — plans start at $20/month for 1,000 requests
2. Download TownshipCanada.pyt from the ArcGIS Marketplace
3. Add the toolbox in ArcGIS Pro's Catalog pane and configure your API key
4. Run your first search from the Locate pane — under five minutes from install to first result

For a step-by-step installation walkthrough, see the ArcGIS Pro locator how-to guide. If you're migrating from ArcMap, the ArcMap to ArcGIS Pro migration guide covers how to restore your DLS lookup workflows in the new environment.

Try a conversion now — enter NW-36-42-3-W5 into the Township Canada search to see what the ArcGIS Pro locator returns: GPS coordinates, boundary polygon, and survey grid context for a quarter section near Sundre, Alberta.