Survey Department of Sri Lanka

Overview

The Survey Department of Sri Lanka, also known as the Department of the Surveyor General, is Sri Lanka's national mapping and surveying authority and the country's oldest continuing government department. It is headquartered at 150 Kirula Road, Colombo 05, and operates under the Ministry of Land and Land Development.

History and Founding

The Survey Department was established on 2 August 1800, following the cession of Ceylon to the British in 1796. It is the oldest unchanged government department in Sri Lanka. Throughout the nineteenth century, the department conducted block surveys for land settlement, topographic surveys, and irrigation, road, and railway surveys. By the early twentieth century, it had established a national geodetic triangulation network and mapped the entire island at one inch to one mile scale.

Collections and Holdings

The department maintains an extensive archive of maps, survey plans, and geospatial data products. Holdings include topographic maps at scales of 1:10,000, 1:50,000, and 1:250,000; cadastral survey plans for land ownership and legal documentation; historical maps from the colonial period; and a national Land Information System (LIS) containing records for approximately 1,100,000 land parcels. A national atlas of Sri Lanka was published in 1988. The department also maintains digital topographic vector databases and GIS data layers covering administrative boundaries, transport, hydrology, and land use.

Key Functions and Services

Core functions include geodetic control networks, cadastral and boundary surveys, topographic and contour mapping, satellite remote sensing, GIS services, and hydrographic surveys. The department is Sri Lanka's national focal point for GIS and remote sensing and participates in the Global Mapping Project. It operates the Institute of Surveying and Mapping in Diyatalawa and chairs the Land Survey Council. Public access to maps and geospatial data is provided through the department's website and provincial offices.

Access

Maps and survey plans are available to the public through the department's head office in Colombo and district survey offices nationwide. Digital services are accessible via the department's website.