Towards a Standard for the Cadastral Domain

Managers of Cadastral systems often stress the differences between their systems. The one end has a deed, the other a title registration, some systems are centralized, and others decentralized. Some systems are based on a general boundaries approach, others on fixed boundaries. Some cadastres have a fiscal background, others a legal one. Etcetera. However, looking at it from a little distance the systems are in principle mainly the same: they are all based on the relationships between persons and land, via (property) rights and are much influenced by developments in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT). In this paper the authors propose the development of a standardized core cadastral data model based on the geographic standards from ISO and OpenGIS. This cadastral model will be developed in cooperation with the FIG, the research is related to the framework of the COST (Co-ordination in the field of Scientific and Technical Research) Action G9: ‘Modelling Real Property Transactions’. This paper gives an overview of progress made so far. A standardized core cadastral domain model will serve at least two important goals: 1. avoid reinventing and re-implementing the same functionality over and over again, but provide a extensible basis for efficient and effective cadastral system development, and 2. enable involved parties, both within one country and between different countries, to communicate meaningful based on the shared ontology implied by the model. A part of this paper has been presented to the FIG Working Week meeting, held in Paris, April 2003, some other parts have been presented at the workshop ‘Towards a Cadastral Domain Model’, held in Delft, October 2002 (no official publication).