National Topographic System

The National Topographic System or NTS (Système national de référence cartographique) is the topographic system used by Canada for providing general purpose maps of the country. NTS maps are available in 1/50,000 and 1/250,000 scales. The maps provide details on landforms and terrain, lakes and rivers, forested areas, administrative zones, populated areas, roads and railways, as well as other man-made features. These maps are currently used by all levels of government and industry for forest fire and flood control (as well as other environmental issues), depiction of crop areas, right-of-way, real estate planning, development of natural resources and highway planning.