Spatially enabling societies by shifting the basic building block

Abstract

Moving towards spatially enabled societies, governments have turned to best preserve, develop, allocate and use land, incorporating all interests in land. Generally, land registries contribute to recording the important interests in land such as ownership, land use, covenants, caveats, leases, easements, and mortgages in land parcels (Williamson 2002). At the same time land mapping agencies are responsible for recording land parcel dimensions to identify the extent of the interests.

In a theoretical framework, Bennett et al. (2006) analysed the problem of management of interests in land and classified them into three categories. Firstly, some interests have been poorly designed. They may be unenforceable by authorities or may provide little incentive for those who are supposed to adhere to them. Secondly, some interests are poorly administered. The administration system may offer limited public information access, have slow permit and licence processing times, or might be administered in isolation from other related interests. Finally, some interests do not exist where they ought to exist.

In a practical context, the parcel based organization of interests mentioned above encounters two problems: the interests in land are not necessarily limited to those mentioned earlier, and the interests are not necessarily restricted to specific parcels. In other words, the interests in land are diverse and some of the interests can not be defined by boundaries.

An efficient technical solution for organizing the growing number of interests in land information systems remains a challenge. The solution suggested in this chapter redefines the relationship between land and interests in the context of modern land administration systems.