Towards e-Land administration: electronic plans of subdivisions in Victoria

Abstract

The Internet and web technologies are now thoroughly integrated into the business of the cadastre, with initiatives like VOTS, LASSI, SMES, LANDATA and SPEAR completed or well underway in Victoria. These technologies provide great opportunities for better service delivery, more customer satisfaction and reductions in operating costs through integrated electronic land administration.

With this systematic introduction of the Internet and web technologies into the business of the cadastre, electronic lodgement of plans of subdivisions (ePlan) are about to introduce a new era to the surveying industry by providing an infrastructure for the digital lodgement, exchange, alteration, examination and approval of plans of subdivisions and their associated documents and data in this State.

A number of components are needed to be established and a number of current systems are needed to be re-engineered through the ePlan project implementation. This article introduces the Victorian ePlan initiative and outlines the technical component of the system. The ePlan initiative will bring significant benefits to the surveying profession, land development industry, local councils, State Government agencies and instrumentalities and other key stakeholders involved in the land development process by optimising the current practices of submitting plans of subdivision in Victoria, both paper-based and PDF-based plans, by making them fully electronic.

Finally, the article discusses that the electronic plan of subdivision is not an end by itself; rather it is a means that facilitates achieving a number of goals remarkably authoritative cadastral database, standardised data exchange between user and databases and electronic land development process.