pyTRS¶

pyTRS (imported as pytrs) is a pure Python library for parsing Public Land Survey System (PLSS) land descriptions (or “legal descriptions”) for use in data analysis, GIS mapping, spreadsheets, etc. It accounts for common variations in layout, abbreviations, typos, etc. and can therefore process a range of real-world data.

THIS LIBRARY IS NOT TO BE USED FOR ANY UNLICENSED COMMERCIAL PURPOSES OR FOR GENERATING OR MODIFYING LEGAL DESCRIPTIONS IN ANY LEGAL DOCUMENT! Intended for data analysis purposes ONLY. Read license and disclaimer prior to using for any purpose.

Feel free to reach out via my GitHub with feedback or inquiries, or to let me know if you run into any issues.

Also visit the GitHub page for a quickstart guide.

Bird’s-eye View¶

import pytrs

The two primary parsing classes in the library are PLSSDesc and Tract, which are automatically imported as top-level classes.

The conceptual difference between these two classes is that a Tract represents land within a single specific section; whereas a PLSSDesc can represent land across any number of sections in any number of townships (i.e. one or more tracts).

Parsing a PLSSDesc object will create one or more Tract objects.

Tract objects can also be created directly, for when our dataset already has the description blocks separated from their respective Twp/Rge/Sec.

Tract objects can also be parsed, in which case they will break down their respective descriptions into lots and aliquot “quarter-quarters”.