Future Cadastres: Implications for future land administration systems - bringing the world together

Study cadastral reform procedures as applied in developed countries, take into consideration automation of the cadastre and the role of the cadastre as part of a larger land information system, evaluate trends in this field and produce a vision of where cadastral systems will be in the next 20 years, show the means by which these changes will be achieved and describe the technology to be used in implementing these changes'. This was the task given to Working Group 7.1 of FIG in 1994 during the Melbourne FIG Congress. The result is the publication 'Cadastre 2014; A Vision for a Future Cadastral System'. Starting from the actual cadastral systems dedicated to support the registration of land property, the ongoing cadastral reforms have been analyzed. Two aspects initialized the reforms. On one hand, the existing cadastral systems in view of the needs of societies, have deficits and on the other hand, the possibities of information technology promise to fulfill cadastral work much more effective and efficient. A quickly growing world population leads to increasing utilization of natural resources and impacts on environment. The absolute control over his parcel the land owner used to have, is increasingly restricted by public regulations enacted in the interest of the society. The localization and the implementation of these regulations are not always fulfilled with the necessary care. The documentation is insufficient and not open to the public. This implies the danger of arbitrariness. Cadastre 2014 will be the tool to handle the aspects of land appropriate. It creates a model of the entire legal situation of land. Regulations affecting land define normally boundaries demarcating the area where a right or restriction applies. Cadastre 2014 defines these areas as land objects. Future cadastral systems will be public inventories of data concerning all legal land objects in a country, based on a survey of their boundaries. Similar procedures as in the traditional cadastral systems are applied to provide legal security for the handling of regulations based on public law. It is self-evident, that such modern cadastral systems can only be managed with the help of information technology. Data in a modern cadastral system are to be arranged in a structure corresponding to the structure of the jurisdiction of a certain country, so that the cadastre can adapt to the development of the legislation. Reliable data provided by modern cadastral systems will strongly support sustainable development. All countries are to resolve problems of the same kind in the domain of natural resource management and environment protection, the different national legislations are developing in a similar way. Modern cadastral systems, embedded in the respective jurisdiction will therefore become