ABSTRACT
Land is an essential non-renewable resource of mankind with a growing and disorderly use due to increased population pressure and demand for more space per inhabitant leading to scarcity especially in the urban centres. Basic to all other land data and helpful in describing it is its location which is fixed. The location helps in the coordination and effective use of land and monuments (controls) are used to describe the location. Cadastral controls form township framework providing references on which future surveys are tied and basic information on which township maps are made. They give information on resources available and insight into how best they can be used. Katsina township framework is an isolated framework surveyed, coordinated and freighted between 1959 and 1962. This compilation brings the history of Katsina framework into the limelights with the stark realities of the gross inadequacy of the controls. Most of the controls established have been lost and also the township has outgrown the framework in some sections. Many of the controls were lost due to lack of coordination in execution of urban public works projects. There are no up to date township maps. The preparation of any map requires adequate controls and the coordinates of these controls must be derived from ground surveys involving physical measurement of directions and distances. The picture is the same for most urban centres in Nigeria. Most plans for the urban centres are still based on out of date fragmentary information and this is partly responsible for the wastes and inefficiencies in the administration of the urban centres. The revelations of the compilation is used in designing a new framework for Katsina incorporating the existing controls that can be used. The same could be done for most Nigerian townships. The new framework will provide the necessary information for efficient planning, execution, coordination and administration of the township. It will provide adequate statistics which is essential for modern economic development of the township.