Structured approach to land issues through SES elements

Abstract

In order to respond to economic, social and environmental challenges, societies need sound and reliable information about their resource "land". The foremost important data set – before taking any strategic or operational decisions – is about who owns a particular piece of land. Such information is to be provided by well-organized and efficient systems such as land registration and cadastre, which are core elements of a "land administration" system. Land administration systems themselves can be considered as the basic documentation layer serving "land management" with relevant information to carry out land related activities such as land-use planning, land consolidation and other land related implementation policies. Landownership information in this context is very crucial as things always happen on somebody's land; land ownership is not the sole information though, but it is more often than not at the core of the solution. In order to take benefit on a macro-economic level of spatial or location-based information, data needs to be organized in such a way that it can be integrated and shared among stakeholders. Interoperability is key to make best use of geographic information. This can be achieved by establishing a spatial data infrastructure, which observes three conditions that will allow it to be operated in either a centralized or decentralized federated environment.