Also known as the recorded plat survey system or recorded map survey system. A method used to describe and identify the location of a parcel of land. The lot and block survey system is often used in densely populated metropolitan and suburban areas.

The lot and block system usually starts with a large tract of land that has already been described by another form of survey system, such as a metes and bounds description or the Public Land Survey System. The large tract of land is then subdivided into smaller lots on a lot and block survey. The survey showing the subdivisions is often called a plat map, which is typically recorded in the county recorder's office where the property is located.

Though the recorded plat map will most likely include a metes and bounds description to delineate the individual subdivided lots within the larger tract of land, each subdivided lot will also have numerical or alphabetical block and lot identifiers assigned to it. Once recorded in the public county records, the plat map becomes the legal description of all the lots in the subdivision.

Referencing a subdivided lot's block and lot identifiers and the map's recording information is all that is required for the subdivided lot's legal description.