FIG Commission 7 - Cadastre and Land Management

Term 2015-2018

Highlights	Commission Chair 2015-2018
Based on results from previous years, Commission 7 has provided assistance and knowledge for the implementation of the overall FIG strategy as far as related to cadastre and land management.		Dipl. Ing. Gerda Schennach, Austria

There is a focus on

• providing visions for future cadastre and land management
• taking the role as a mastermind in developing effective land management
• thinking about new models of land administration for sustainable development
•  initiating professional discussions on new business models as required by a changing society
• securing land tenure and advocating citizens’ rights

acting from a pragmatic perspective of what is achievable in a surrounding of cultural and social diversity and how commitment among stakeholders can be created for the benefit of the society and for the reputation of the profession in providing sustainability and advocacy to citizens, land owners and stakeholders.

Besides organizing or co-organizing events within the scope of Commission 7, representatives of the Commission have participated in a considerable number of events all over the world. The list of events would be too long to be published here, reports are to be obtained from www.fig.net and from relevant websites of the events. As far as Commission 7 was coorganising, more details are given by the WG in charge of organisng the event.

Working Group 7.1 – Fit-For-Purpose Land Administration

Working Group 7.1 aims at generating answers to the globally growing demands on land governance, the Continuum of Land Rights and on responsible tenure by continuing its work on developments of STDM, LADM and Fit-For-Purpose in cooperation with partners from UN FAO and UN Habitat/GTLN and others for the goals of the post-2015 Development Agenda.

Cooperation on the implementation of Voluntary Guidelines with UN FAO will continue. Further activities will focus on providing appropriate models including innovative land rights and tools for improving global coverage of evidence. Aspects of land consolidation and readjustment of land will be investigated in cooperation with FIG Commission 8. Trainings will be developed in cooperation with the YSN.

Working Group 7.2 – Land Management in Climate Change and Pre- and Post-disaster areas

Working Group 7.2 aims at building upon results of co-operation with FAO and at establishing links to the networks of professionals from land administration institutes and organisations and international and national bodies who are in charge of disaster management in order to raise awareness about the need of appropriate documentation of land rights in disaster situation and to facilitate co-operation with the relevant institutions in terms of securing rights of land owners in areas of high risks (e.a. with SIDS Small Islands Developing States and others).

Climate Change entails long-term impacts on land and land tenure which may effect citizens significantly in their economic situation. Working Group 7.2 work on analysing about longterm strategies for compensating impacts on land owners.

The group is also interested in supporting the development of better land information systems that reduce risk, optimise resources during response activities and help reconstruction efforts after a disaster has occurred.

In this, it is proposed the incorporation of new data collection technologies, such as drones, as a core element of better land management for disaster response.

Working Group 7.3 – Crowdsourcing Land Rights

The aims of Working Group 7.3 were modified and reduced compared to the original 8 of 17 ambitious aims originally established. The Working Group provided an international joint FIG Commission 7 and Commission 3 Seminar in Malta in 2015 and through support of the World Bank Group, created a Guide for “New Technology and Emerging Trends: The State of Play for Land Administration” - an inventory of existing crowdsourcing approaches to capturing evidence of land rights within the Land Administration domain; both formal and informal. This activity was directly aligned with the objectives of WG 7.3.

Working Group 7.4 – Citizen Cadastre

At the FIG Working Week 2015 in Sofia, Bulgaria, Dr. Conrad Tang and his PhD Student Haongdong Zhang recommended a scientific method for the assessment of cadastral systems. The method was presented in detail at the FIG Commission 7 Annual Meeting 2015 in Malta as well. WG 7.4 is preparing to disseminate the questionnaire to professionals and relevant institutions all around the world to get to a clear situation about the quality of cadastral systems.

In April 2015, the World Cadastral Summit was held in Istanbul, Turkey. At this meeting the Istanbul Declaration was signed by most of the participating countries. It is very important from the point of view of WG 7.4, that :

„A “Cadastral Affairs” initiative on a global scale is needed within the pattern of the United Nations or other similar global organizations. In this context, an “International Association of Cadastre” and a “Cadastre Research & Development Center” is to be formed at the global level; to contribute to the further developments of the country's cadaster services by training and consulting and producing solutions to solve problems“. WG 7.4 planned to be active in following to support this intiative, connected to the activities of the WG.

Due to the structural changes in the Hungarian Land Administration, to which the chair is affiliated, there were no major achievements from the Working Group directly. However at the Annual Meeting 2016 of Commission 7 and in the Geoconference in Coimbra/Portugal many issues of the WG 7.4 policy were presented and discussed, but these were not directly influenced by the leadership of the WG.

WG 7.4 supported the thematic preparations for the Cadastre 4.0 Workshop in 2016.

The WG was represented at FIG Working Week 2017 in Helsinki Finland, and made a presentation at GeoPrevi 2017 International Symposium in Bucharest, Romania, 14-16 September 2017.

Terms of Reference

Commission 7 deals with all issues of land rights and land administration, as well from a service provider as from a user and citizen perspective. A special focus is given to cadastre and land management infrastructures as being fundamental for sustainable development.

Key topics of Commission 7 activities are:

• land tenure in diversity of cultures and society
• cadastre and land registration 
• legislation / governance / e-governance / reforming cadastre
• security of land tenure, data and information / access to information for citizens
• public trust in land administration systems / fraud prevention
• Fit-For-Purpose and pro-poor land administration / low cost models
• new technologies for remote and in-situ data acquisition on land rights / social media and third party data capture / crowdsourcing / role of land owners
• land use and land policy
• valuation and taxation of land / land markets
• land consolidation and land readjustment for rural and urban areas
• multi-dimensional and multi-temporal cadastre
• impact of climate change and disasters on land rights
• standards in land administration
• capacity building in land administration

Mission statement

The Mission of Commission 7 is:

• to provide a global forum for enhancing and exchanging knowledge about cadastre, land administration and land management
• to encourage the development of pro-poor land management and land administration tools
• to promote the importance of sustainable land administration infrastructures as being essential for sustainable development and economic growth
• to underpin the use of innovative and advanced technology in cadastre and land administration
• to raise awareness of the role of surveyors in land administration matters to the public and among stakeholders.

• Annual Report, 2018
• Annual Report, 2017
• Annual Report, 2016
• Annual Report, 2015

Working Group 7.1 – Fit-For-Purpose Land Administration

Policy Issues

• identify role of Fit-For-Purpose Land Administration in relation to sustainable land use, food security, climate change etc. in the post-2015 Development Agenda
• implementing the ‘Continuum of Land Rights’ and the STDM into operation at country level including innovative methodologies for fast and low cost recording of land rights and appropriate land rights for future housing, including proposals for innovative land rights (new models of leasehold, tenure of public land etc.)
• identify the value of land consolidation and land readjustment for rural and urban areas in poverty prevention programmes
• develop the second edition of the Land Administration Domain Model with ISO on behalf of FIG by integrating partners from local-national, regional and international organisations, NGOs, NPOs, insurances, re-insurances, bank companies, bar associations 
• promoting the development of innovative hard- and software solutions for land administration
• identify the needs for further development, quality improvement and system optimisation after Fit-For-Purpose Land Administration is implemented

Chair

Dr. Ir. Christiaan Lemmen, The Netherlands
email: Chrit.Lemmen[at]kadaster.nl

Working Group 7.2 – Land Management in Climate Change and Pre- and Post-Disaster Areas

Policy issues

• assessment of land tenure in post-disaster areas
• pre-disaster assessment / documentation of land tenure
• legal/institutional/technical Fit-For-Purpose methods to secure land rights in pre- and post-disaster areas
• impact of climate change on land tenure / loss of land, land use changes
• compensation for value changes, consolidation of agricultural land, adjustment of urban land in post disaster regions
• new technologies for data capture in pre-disaster areas / validation of third party data
• cooperation models with public authorities / voluntary guidelines in conflicts
• capacity building in disaster response bodies
• spatial data infrastructures for pre-, during and post-disaster response (link to FIG Commission 3)

Co-Chairs

Daniel Páez (PhD), Colombia
email: dpaez[at9uniandes.edu.co

Working Group 7.3 – Crowdsourcing of Land Rights

Policy issues

• family of mobile devices supporting remote and in-situ capture of evidence of land rights
• global platforms managing evidence of land rights and obligations
• service delivery models
• scalability and capacity building of trusted intermediaries and land owners
• role of social media / validation of third party data
• impact on perception of security of tenure
• managing unintended consequences and privacy
• cooperation with public authorities in recognition or conversion of informal rights
• link to Working Group 7.1 Fit-For-Purpose Land Administration 
• impact on land professionals and associate curriculum

Chair

Dr Robin McLaren, United Kingdom
email: robin.mclaren[at]KnowEdge.com

Working Group 7.4 – Citizen Cadastre

Policy issues

• land tenure and culture and society needs
• multi-dimensional and multi-temporal cadastre
• security of land tenure
• alternative forms of land tenure in changing society (generation property, affordable land, temporary urban and agricultural land tenure) complementary to WG 7.1
• role of land owner as key stakeholder
• privacy issues / access to data for citizens 
• responsibilities of public authorities / cooperation models / fraud prevention
• analysis of trust in different land administration models
• assessment models for performance of land administration systems
• training of land owners / capacity building in institutional bodies
• building codes and IPMS
• standards for data in land administration
• representation in Joint WG on 3D Cadastre of Commission 3 and 7

Chair

Gyula Iván (M.Sc.), Hungary
email: ivan.gyula[at]fomi.hu

Joint Working Group on 3D Cadastre of Commission 3 and 7

The results of the previous term (2010-2014) of the joint WG provide a solid basis for the next 4-year term of the WG. The concept of 3D Cadastre is here to stay and the number of implementations is increasing, quite often with ambition to become LADM (ISO 19152:2012) compliant.

In 3D, physical and legal 3D objects are aligned and land administration is connected to other registrations via SDI: buildings, tunnels, cables/pipelines, terrain elevation, etc..