Infrastructure Engineering

The importance currently placed on sustainable development recognises the fundamental role of land administration and the management of land based resources. This acknowledgement of the pivotal role of land administration and tenure security reinforces the need to recognise all interest and responsibilities in land, particularly those of a customary and traditional nature. The United Nations Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (Pritchard 1998) respects the unique relationship between indigenous people(s) and the land, recognising the need to protect these traditions and cultures. A number of countries (specifically the United States of America, Canada and New Zealand) have implemented legal and institutional mechanisms for the recognition of this unique relationship and connection to land. In doing so it provided the precedent for the recognition of interests in land as held by indigenous peoples of Australia. In Australia the legal recognition of indigenous interests in land occurred in 1992, with the passing of the High Court’s decision concerning Mabo and others v the State of Queensland (no.2) (1992) 175 CLR 1 and the subsequent development and implementation of the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth). This federal act provides for the recognition and protection of native title within the framework of the Australian legal system . Its (native title interests) origins and foundations are those of traditional laws, connecting indigenous Australians with land and waters (S223 NTA 1993). (For complete abstract open document)

This thesis aims to investigate what principles should guide the development of land administration infrastructures to adequately address the governance needs of evolving rights, restrictions and responsibilities between government, corporate bodies, community groups and individuals to better support sustainable development objectives. (For complete abstract open document)

This research is composed of four broad sections: introduction, background, research and conclusions. The introductory phase describes the research problem and aim. It asserts that property rights, restrictions and responsibilities over land are designed and administered in a disparate, ad hoc and disorganized fashion which makes achieving sustainable development objectives difficult, if not impossible. This thesis aims to develop a framework for organizing the management of property rights, restrictions and responsibilities in a way that enables the achievement of sustainable development objectives by citizens and governments. The background section explores the problem more deeply. First, it looks back to the root causes: a diverse range of drivers including environmentalism, free market economies and social equity are producing legislative and policy sprawl. Second, it looks at the limitations of current attempts to overcome the problem: traditional land administration tools are being bypassed, small ad hoc legal and technical solutions are favoured and only limited holistic approaches exist. Third, the background section investigates the emerging tools being applied to the problem: ontological design, social learning, SDI and spatial technologies, uncertainty theory and new funding models could all profoundly influence the management of land interests. The research section uses the contextual understanding to develop, justify and execute a robust research design. The hypothesis articulates that expanding the existing land administration systems with new tools and principles would enable better management of property rights, restrictions and responsibilities and consequently assist the achievement of sustainable development objectives by citizens and government. A mixed methodology involving both qualitative and quantitative studies is required to test the hypothesis. Additionally, top-down (government) and bottom-up (parcel) perspectives are also used. The sheer size of the legislative sprawl (Federal – 514 statutes, State – 620 statutes, Local – 7 statutes) and the administrative effort required to manage it is exposed at all levels of government. However, amongst the tangle of bureaucracy, pockets of very well managed, automated and spatially integrated land interests is uncovered. Additionally, the underutilized potential of the cadastre and existing registry to manage ‘some’ interests is identified. The bottom-up case studies provide a detailed insight into the effect of old and new land interests on individual parcels. The historical complexities of existing cadastral and registration systems and their deficiencies are also clear. Together, the results from these equally weighted case studies are used to test the appropriateness of the hypothesis, and generate components of an updated land administration toolbox, one capable of managing all interests in land. The conclusions section synthesizes the results and develops the ‘RRR Toolbox’ and ‘Property Object’ concept. The ‘RRR Toolbox’ includes eight components: policy, legal, tenure, institutional, cadastral and registration, spatial and technology, capacity and emerging tools. If a jurisdiction wishes to coherently manage its land rights, restrictions and responsibilities, then each of the eight components needs to be addressed and acted upon. The ‘Property Object’ is defined as an advanced descriptive framework of the key attributes (objective, action, spatial extent, people impacted, duration) that make up an individual property interest. The property object permits holistic treatment of all property interests, from ownership down to simple access powers, and also enables meaningful contrast between different interests. Together, the ‘RRR Toolbox’ and ‘Property Object’ provide new and innovative perspectives on the research aim. The results of the case studies reveal the hypothesis to be a point of truth. Together the concepts help to deliver sustainability objectives. However, this thesis does not claim to fully solve the problem: more work on each of the toolbox components and their implementation in different jurisdictions identified is required.

Infrastructure Engineering - Theses

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