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.