The term Cadastral comes from Latin base term Cadastre referring to a registry of lands. Cadastral Surveying is surveying having to do with determining and defining land ownership and boundaries. 

 There are groups of people think surveys are relatively unimportant until they find they have located many hundreds of thousands of dollars of improvements, buildings, etc. on someone else's land. Suddenly the value of knowing where your land is comes into perspective.

  The practice of finding boundaries is neither a purely legal process, nor a purely scientific process. It is something in between with a twist. The boundary surveyor in finding an old survey must be cognizant of the legal description of the land and any conflicts which may affect it. This involves not only knowledge but skills in research and investigation. Then the surveyor must be part archeologist to find physical evidence of previous surveys and occupation on the ground. Throughout the process the surveyor must understand the concepts of good measurements to find and describe what is found, and be able to interpret it's relationship to the record. In the end those that do it well find it can be rewarding and fun, sort of as mathematical detective work, with archeology, dendrology, geology and paralegal aspects thrown in. So we sometimes use the old saying "Land Surveying" is both an art and a science.