Despite the uniqueness of local systems, the range of cognitive frameworks about land, and the

difficulties in transferring institutions, design of robust and successful LAS is possible. The ten principles
of land administration in table 1.2 set boundaries for designers, builders, and managers of LAS to help
them make decisions about their local system. Overall, the principles are written with the goal of making
establishment and reform of LAS easier. The principles implement the modern philosophy in land
administration — to develop and manage assets and resources within the land management paradigm
to deliver sustainable development. They are universally applicable. Countries at the early stages of
development will not be able to use the full array of technical options or professional skills, but they can
improve land management through appropriately designed LAS.

5. Cadastre The cadastre is at the core of LAS that provide spatial integrity and unique identification
of every land parcel. Cadastres are large-scale representations of how the community breaks up its land
into usable pieces, usually called parcels. Most cadastres provide security of tenure by recording land
rights in a land registry. The spatial integrity within the cadastre is usually provided by a cadastral map
that is updated by cadastral surveys. Unique parcel identification provides the link between the
cadastral map and the land registry and serves as the basis of LAS and the land information it generates,
especially when it is digital and geocoded. The cadastre should ideally include all land in a jurisdiction:
public, private, communal, and open space.

IMPORTANCE OF THE CADASTRE

The cadastre is only one part of LAS, but its significance is profound. However, the international
experience in designing and building cadastres is so variable that it is the most difficult and complex
component to explain. The components (shown in table 2.2) can be supplied in both paper-based and
digital systems. Variations reflect the diverse patterns of legal traditions, colonial histories, and parcel
registration systems, drawn from each country’s respective historical, administrative, and legal contexts
(Kain and Baigent 1992).
Within this variability, international experience suggests commonalities in the design and historical
development of the “cadastral engines” of each national LAS, suggesting three basic approaches. These
approaches are based on countries grouped according to their similar background and legal contexts
(German style, Torrens/English approach, and French/Latin style). While each system has its own unique
characteristics, most cadastres can be grouped under one of these three approaches (see section 5.2,
“The cadastre as an engine of LAS”). Just as there are three different styles of land registration systems,
these translate to three different roles that the cadastre plays in each system. Again, while the role of
the cadastre and the land

registration styles are not definitive, table 2.3 describes the three approaches in general terms. A more
detailed account is in table 12.3, “Differences among registration systems.” Despite the importance of
the cadastre as a multipurpose and essential tool in LAS, its underlying benefits still are not fully
realized. Cadastres hold data that is verified by scientific surveying processes and held on a large scale.
Whether manual or digital, cadastres reflect the unique arrangements communities create with land
and record the arrangements on cadastral maps using scales large enough to contain detail relevant to a
multitude of purposes. Businesses of all kinds need reliable information on a large enough scale to
organize their activities, and land-use planning requires specific, accurate, timely information. Postal
authorities, utility suppliers, census collectors, emergency managers, risk analysts, insurers, and dozens
of other industries use land information on this scale of detail. Sometimes, they use it to build even
larger scale maps for asset management, especially in the land servicing industries that provide water,
power, gas, communications, and so on.

Cadastral information is also reliable in the sense that it generally relies on surveyors to create,
verify, and re-create both the descriptive data and positions of parcels on the ground. The
representation of the parcel on the map is therefore verified, even in countries with inadequate
professional skills, to the best possible standard. While most cadastres are regarded as “capable of being
made more accurate,” they still represent the on-the-ground configuration of land arrangements
according to engineering standards that are not capable of being matched by data from other sources.
A multipurpose cadastre capable of forming the engine of LAS and an SDI remained a mere vision until
computer systems developed sufficiently to offer an implementation path. When cadastres are digitized,
they become even more important, because they are capable of forming the basic layer in an SDI that
provides easily understood identification of each significant space or place. Because the parcel
configuration is dynamic, a well-maintained cadastral map stays much more up-to-date than many other
spatial datasets. The most important engineering feature of digital cadastres is their enduring vitality for
countries that build them once, build them well, and use them many times over.

The digital reorganization of land information systems stimulated new theoretical responses,
principally the identification of the SDI as the means of visualizing land in digital systems. Coordination
of land and spatial information became a major research focus. The scope of spatial information is,
however, much larger. It has closely followed the development of the land management paradigm since
2000.

Cadastral surveying and mapping

“Cadastral surveying” is the process of creating, measuring, and marking boundaries on the ground
(figure 12.16); preparing cadastral survey plans of those activities for the purpose of re-establishing
boundaries; and recording the boundaries on an aggregated (cadastral) map. Often, at the early stages
of developing a land administration system, the cadastral survey plans are either attached to a deed or
title and filed as part of the deeds/title register, or shown or “charted” at various levels of accuracy on a
“charting map.” These charting maps often have low spatial accuracy and are often at a small scale. In
many cases, the individual land parcels in the cadastral survey plan are not charted or plotted, but are
identified by reference to the cadastral survey plan (often a plan of subdivision). In some countries (such
as parts of Australia and the United States), basic valuation maps were used in the past for charting
cadastral survey plans. A “cadastral map” is usually built when the parcels in a cadastral survey plan are
plotted to scale on a map and the map is kept up-to-date. However, in many European countries, the
cadastre was originally created from a complete cadastral map normally encompassing an individual
village, parish, or jurisdiction. When the cadastral map is kept in digital form and updated digitally, it is
often referred to as a “digital cadastral database” (DCDB). Once all land parcel data is in a DCDB, it is
possible to use Web services for collecting and transferring land information and to move into an e-
government environment for managing land processes.
 The accuracy of this cadastral map, compared with other spatial information, ensures that the
spatial enablement of government systems can be achieved or pursued. LAS that rely on up-to-date
cadastral maps increasingly take on multipurpose roles. Very quickly, the benefit of the DCDB in support
of a multipurpose role in government and society outweighs its initial benefit of supporting security of
tenure and simple land markets.

Unfortunately, many government officials and professional land surveyors have difficulty
understanding this change in emphasis, with the result that use of multipurpose cadastral data slows
down. In developed LAS, the primary role of cadastral surveying is to describe and identify land parcels
for inclusion in the cadastral map or DCDB with the secondary purpose being security of tenure and
supporting simple land markets.

cadastral index map - map showing the legal property framework of all land within an area, including
property boundaries, administrative boundaries, parcel identifiers, and sometimes the estimated area of
each parcel, road reserves, and administrative names.

cadastral map - official map showing the boundaries of land parcels, often buildings on land, the parcel
identifier, and sometimes references to boundary corner monumentation. Cadastral maps may also
show limited topographic features.

cadastral mapping - the process of producing a cadastral map, usually as a result of cadastral surveying.

cadastral surveying - the surveying and documenting of land parcel boundaries in support of a country’s
land administration or land registration system. The survey often results in a cadastral survey plan that
may or may not be used to create or update a cadastral map.

cadastre - register of land information. According to the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG)
definition, a cadastre is normally a parcel based and up-to-date land information system containing a
record of interests in land (i.e., rights, restrictions, and responsibilities). It usually includes a geometric
description of land parcels linked to other records describing the nature of the interests,

Boundaries are fundamental to land administration and civil peace. Without a system to equitably and
transparently create, describe, and mark boundaries that are accepted by society, whether in formal or
informal systems, disputes and eventually civil unrest, and even war, can result. Therefore, LAS must
have a system of creating, describing, and marking parcel boundaries. Equally important, LAS need a
system of resolving boundary disputes, usually between neighbours and most commonly as a result of
encroachment. It is preferable for disputes about formal boundaries to be resolved by administrative
methods following good governance principles, such as tribunals, appointed officials such as assessors
or surveyors general, or, in some countries, land surveyors, even though judicial processes are usually
available as a last resort.

Unfortunately in many developing countries, boundary disputes can only be resolved by the
courts, with the result that judicial systems become clogged by relatively minor disputes that can take
years, and sometimes decades, to resolve, if ever. The term “boundary” refers to either the physical
objects that mark the limits of a parcel, property, or interest in land or an imaginary line or surface
marking or defining the division between two legal interests in land. Boundaries are defined by laws and
regulations, with many variations across countries and even states or provinces within a country. For
example, a landowner may refer to a fence, a hedge, or a wall, and say, “That is my boundary.” This
statement can influence a third party if it reflects the legal definition in the jurisdiction of what
constitutes “a legal boundary.” In many jurisdictions, fences, hedges, or walls may have legal standing in
marking or identifying the boundary, while in others, they may have no legal status at all. In still others,
they may play some, though not a legally defining, role in boundary determination.

A land administration system requires a boundary system underpinned by law that defines,
describes, and relates every boundary to the ground. There are many options to create, describe, and
mark boundaries on the ground. Typically, boundaries are identified on the ground by monuments,
where a monument is any tangible landmark that indicates a boundary. A monument may indicate the
boundary itself or the end or turning point of an artificial line describing the boundary; it may not be on
the boundary but reference a boundary corner mathematically. Monuments may take many forms
(figures 12.12, 12.13, 12.14, and 12.15). They can be natural features or artificial marks that meet
prescribed regulations for marking boundaries.

Creation and marking of boundaries and redefinition of land boundaries, usually by professional
land surveyors, are usually complex processes surrounded by extensive laws, regulations, and practices.
Most jurisdictions have rules, regulations, and government directions that describe all these processes.
Those used in the Danish system are outlined in table 4.5. At the same time, many countries, such as the
United States, Australia, and Canada, have extensive and detailed books and manuals that describe both
the legal and practical interpretation of the regulations based on court cases and practical case studies.
In most countries, the creation, determination, or marking of boundaries can only be undertaken by a
trained government surveyor or a private-sector land surveyor who has been licensed or registered to
act as an agent of the state to undertake boundary surveys.

Management of land disputes

Stability in access to land requires defined boundaries, titles, and interests. If LAS provide
simple, effective processes for achieving these outcomes, land disputes are reduced. The systems also
need additional dispute management processes to cover breakdown caused by administrative failure,
corruption, fraud, forgery, or transaction flaws.