Infrastructure Engineering - Research Publications

Permanent URI for this collection

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 10 of 19
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    A new vision on cadastral data model
    Kalantari, Mohsen ; RAJABIFARD, ABBAS ; WALLACE, JUDE ; WILLIAMSON, IAN ( 2006)
    Land administration systems are evolving towards an integrated land management paradigm designed to support sustainable development. In this paradigm, land administration delivers four functionalities: land mapping, land registration, land valuation and land development, each with specific data elements, with the cadastral data model at the core. Cadastral data modelling potentially plays a key role in both data and business management in modern land administration systems. However, some modifications to existing data models could potentially improve their capacity to deliver sustainability. Firstly, the existing role of land parcels and properties as core building blocks in land administration systems can be significantly extended to make the cadastral fabric available to assist management of a wider range of rights, restrictions and responsibilities by using the concept of legal property objects: an entity defined by a law or regulation which relates to a physical space on, below or above the earth. This can be interpreted as a new land related commodity, land parcel or a property. Secondly, although land parcel and property identifiers are key elements of interoperability within land administration subsystems, the paper argues that they have not yet given appropriate emphasis in cadastral data models. Among the identifiers, spatial identifiers can potentially simplify data exchange and work flows among land administration functionalities on a much wider basis. Finally, the paper discusses technical issues raised by changing the cadastral model: the advantages and disadvantages of spatial identifiers, possibilities for spatially presenting rights restrictions and responsibilities, and consistency between various legal property objects.
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    Re-engineering land administration systems for sustainable development: from rhetoric to reality
    Williamson, Ian P. ( 2001)
    Current land administration systems are the product of 19th century economic and land market paradigms and have failed to properly support sustainable development. The need for urgent reform is accepted, but the way forward unclear in many jurisdictions. This paper will discuss current international initiatives and research to develop a new land administration vision to promote sustainable development. Within this context, this paper describes the changing humankind to land relationship, identifies some of the growing environmental pressures facing modern society and the need for sustainable development, explores the evolving role of land administration in society and highlights the need for land administration systems to play a more proactive role in supporting sustainable development objectives. The process to re-engineer land administrations is briefly reviewed. The paper then highlights the development of a national land administration vision and strategy. In proposing strategies the paper draws on international trends and experiences such as highlighted in the recent United Nations - International Federation of Surveyors Declaration on Land Administration for Sustainable Development.
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    Land administration "best practice": providing the infrastructure for land policy implementation
    Williamson, Ian P. ( 2001-12)
    Land administration systems, and particularly their core cadastral components, are an important infrastructure which facilitates the implementation of land use policies. While most land administration systems traditionally have a primary objective of supporting the operation of land markets, they are increasingly evolving into a broader land information infrastructure which supports economic development, environmental management and social stability in both developed and developing countries. While a great deal of attention is given to land use policies world wide concerned with such areas as forest management, coastal zone management, environmental sustainability and managing the urban environment, less attention is given to the infrastructures which facilitate the implementation of the associated policies and programs. Importantly all these activities rely on some form of land administration infrastructure which permits the complex range of rights, restrictions and responsibilities in land to be identified, mapped and managed as a basis for policy formulation and implementation. As a result there is an increasing interest in the concept of land administration infrastructures and their core cadastres, in the principles and policies concerned with establishing such infrastructures and in “best practices”. In addressing this need, this paper attempts to explain the evolving concept of land administration infrastructures, the concept of “best practice” and the concept of a land administration “tool box” of principles, policies, laws and technologies which are useful in reforming or re-engineering land administration systems in support of a broader land policy agenda.
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    The role of land administration in the accession of Central European countries to the European Union
    Bogaerts, T ; Williamson, IP ; Fendel, EM (ELSEVIER SCI LTD, 2002-01)
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    Evaluation of land administration systems
    STEUDLER, DANIEL ; RAJABIFARD, ABBAS ; Williamson, Ian P. ( 2004)
    Currently there are no internationally accepted methodologies to evaluate and compare the performance of land administration systems. This is partly because land administration systems are in constant reform, and probably more importantly, they represent societies’ different perceptions of land. This paper describes the development of a framework to measure and compare the performance of land administration systems. The research is of particular relevance since it develops a management model which links the operational aspects of land administration with land policy.
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    The United Nations - International Federation of SurveyorsDeclaration on Land Administration for Sustainable Development
    Williamson, I. P. ; Grant, D. ( 2000)
    The changing humankind-land relationship and current global and local drivers suchas sustainable development, urbanization, globalization, economic reform and theinformation revolution, demand land administration responses. Of the global drivers,sustainable development may be identified as having overall significance because ofits dynamic economic-political, social, and environmental dimensions. At the heart ofthe challenging opportunity-cost decisions for sustainable development is the pressingneed for land administration systems to evolve speedily and appropriately to supportthe sustainable development imperative.Current land administration systems are the product of 19th century paradigms of landmarkets, which have a narrow cadastral (land parcel) focus. As a result they havefailed to properly support these global and local drivers. The evidence of the failureincludes issues of poverty, access to land, security of tenure, development rights andenvironmental degradation.World opinion on aspects of sustainable development, as represented by UnitedNations (UN) global summits and declarations (for example UN Earth Summit, Riode Janeiro, 1994; UN City Summit, Istanbul, 1998; UN Food Summit, Rome, 1998),have highlighted the importance of land administration to support sustainabledevelopment, but have provided few practical implementation strategies. This ad hocapproach has resulted in rhetoric, rather than reality, in developing land administrationsystems to accommodate sustainable development objectives. Governments, on theother hand, have generally been willing, if not anxious, to reform land administrationfor sustainable objectives, but there are no clear directions or models to adopt.As a preliminary step towards overcoming the uncertain relationship between landadministration and sustainable development, a joint United Nations-InternationalFederation of Surveyors Workshop on Land Tenure and Cadastral Infrastructures forSustainable Development was organised in B
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    The Evolution of Modern Cadastres
    WILLIAMSON, IP (International Federation of Surveyors, 2001)
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    United Nations-FIG Bathurst Declaration on Land Administrationfor Sustainable Development: Development and Impact
    Williamson, I. P. ; Grant, D. M. ( 2002)
    The joint United Nations-FIG Bathurst Declaration on Land Administration forSustainable Development was prepared at an International Workshop on CadastralInfrastructures for Sustainable Development organized jointly by the FIG and theUnited Nations in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia, on 18-22 October 1999.The Declaration was presented formally together with position papers prepared asbackground for the Workshop at an International Conference in Melbourne, Australia,on 25-27 October 1999. The Workshop and Conference, together with the resultingDeclaration, were part of the Work Plan of Commission 7 (Cadastre and LandManagement) and were three years in the planning.The paper will review the activities leading up to the Workshop, Conference anddevelopment of the Declaration, and will discuss the impact of the Declaration.Following on from the Workshop and Conference, presentations were made at variousUnited Nations conferences as well as the FIG General Assembly. In addition therehave been numerous workshops and conference spawned by the Declaration. Thepaper will also look to the future to consider how the Bathurst Declaration can be builtupon to the benefit of all countries as well as professional surveyors. Importantly thepaper will discuss the impact of the overriding outcome from this initiative in that ithas stated a clear relationship between land administration and sustainabledevelopment.
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    Spatial Data Infrastructure to Facilitate Coastal Zone Management
    STRAIN, LM ; RAJABIFARD, A ; WILLIAMSON, IP (Coastal CRC, 2004)
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    Making the SDI concept relevant to Asia-Pacific countries: the PCGIAP experience
    HOLLAND, PETER ; WILLIAMSON, IAN ; RAJABIFARD, ABBAS ; Manning, John ( 2005)
    Development of regional spatial data infrastructures (SDI) is one of the distinctive features ofthe last decade. This is mainly due to the need for seamless consistent spatial data beyondnational boundaries to support decision-making at a multi-national level. The development ofthese regional initiatives began with the creation of regional SDI coordination groups such asthe Permanent Committee for GIS Infrastructure for Asia and the Pacific (PCGIAP), formedin 1995 under the auspices of the United Nations Regional Cartographic Conference for Asiaand the Pacific (UNRCC-AP).The aims of the PCGIAP are to maximise the economic, social and environmental benefits ofgeographic information in accordance with Agenda 21 by providing a forum for nations fromthe Asia and Pacific region (the largest region in the world) to:Share experiences and cooperate in the development of a regional SDI;Contribute to the development of the global SDI; and,Participate in any other form of activity such as education, training, and technologytransfer at different jurisdictional levels.Over the past ten years, the PCGIAP has confronted a number of issues associated withbuilding a regional SDI. The group has also assisted member nations in their national SDIinitiatives.This paper describes some of the experiences of the PCGIAP, in particular:The establishment of a new geodetic datum for the region;The benchmarking of cadastral systems;The conceptualization of a framework for marine zone administration in the future; and,The strategic issues confronting the PCGIAP at the start of its 2nd decade of operation.