LAND AND LAND ADMINISTRATION IN CADASTRAL SURVEYING

LAND AND LAND ADMINISTRATION IN CADASTRAL SURVEYING

Land as a resource

   Land is the ultimate resource, for without it life on earth cannot be sustained. Land is both a physical commodity and an abstract concept in that the rights to own or use it are as much a part of the land as the objects rooted in its soil.

   Good stewardship of the land is essential for present and future generations. These Guidelines are concerned with the administration of land as a natural resource to ensure its sustainable development. They address the social, legal, economic and technical framework within which land managers and administrators must operate.

   From a legal perspective, land extends from the centre of the Earth to the infinite in the Sky. In the present discussion, however, the focus will be on that volume of space that encompasses the surface of the Earth, all things that are attached to it, and the rocks and minerals that are just below it. Land includes areas covered by water such as seas and lakes, all building and construction, and all natural vegetation.

   Objects that are not attached to the soil, such as motor cars, animals and human beings, are not part of the land, although they will be subject to the rights that control the use of the space that they occupy. “Air rights”, that is, rights to use space above the land, are in some jurisdictions treated as being part of the land, but will not be discussed here.

    Land and its use may be examined from many different points of view. From an ecological perspective; land plays a vital role in the breeding and survival strategies of many living species.       The history of human settlement has been dominated by national and international conflicts men and women may kill or may be killed in fights over the boundaries of their nations or of their individual properties.

   These Guidelines focus on land as something over which individuals or communities have rights of ownership and use, that can be bought and sold and be subject to tax, and that is the basis of economic production.

   In many countries the term “real estate” is used to describe land. Some differentiate between the land and the buildings attached to it, referring to the latter as “property”. In these Guidelines, unless otherwise stated, the term “land” will be treated as all embracing, while real property refers to man-made constructions.

   The role of land in the economy of each nation is not always obvious, but is of great significance. Without secure land rights there can be no sustainable development, for there will be little willingness to make long-term investments. Countries in transition will, in particular, find it difficult to obtain some foreign investment.

   There is a need to manage the wealth of every nation, at least 20% of whose gross domestic product (GDP) can come from land, property and construction. All countries need to determine the ownership and value of land and property, and to monitor and manage their use so that the value of these assets may be enhanced.

Cadastres and land registration

   The ownership, value and use of land. although independent in concept, arc interdependent in practice. Each attribute of land needs to be carefully managed and to achieve this there must be good land records: of ownership to ensure security of tenure; of value to ensure fairness in land and property taxation and equity in the compulsory acquisition of land for State purposes; and of the use of land to ensure efficient resource management.

   Every land administration system should include some form of land registration, which is a process for recording, and in some countries guaranteeing, information about the

Ownership of land.

   A right is something to which some person or group of persons is entitled. The function of land registration is to provide a safe and certain foundation for the acquisition, enjoyment and disposal of rights in land.

   A land administration system should provide order and stability in society by creating security not only for landowners and their partners but also for national and international investors and moneylenders, for traders and dealers, and for Governments.

   Although systems of land registration are frequently directed at protecting the interests of individual landowners, they are also instruments of national land policy and mechanisms to support economic development.

   A cadastre is similar to a land register in that it contains a set of records about land. Cadastres are based either on the proprietary land parcel, which is the area defined by ownership; or on the taxable area of land which may be different from the extent of what is owned; or on areas defined by land use rather than by land ownership, Cadastres may support either records of property rights, or the taxation of land, or the recording of land use.

   Cadastres may also be used in a multi-purpose role to provide a wide range of land related information. In such cases, it is best if they are constructed around the proprietary land parcel, as this is the legal basis for all dealings in land.

   Where ownership has not yet been proved, as may be the case where the land is being restored

to former owners, such multi-purpose records can be built around the land parcel as defined by rights of use.

   The cadastre is an information system consisting of two parts: a series of maps or plans

Showing the size and location of all land parcels together with text records that describe the attributes of the land. It is distinguished from a land registration system in that the

latter is exclusively concerned with ownership.

   Both a cadastre and a land register must operate within a strict legal framework, but a land register may not in practice record all land over a whole country since not all citizens may choose to register their lands. Furthermore, when introducing a new system of land registration, selected areas may be given priority and other areas excluded for the meantime in order to maximize the best use of resources.

   The cadastre however should be based on complete coverage of a country, since it may be used for the purposes of land taxation. Surveys for the cadastre can be used to support a land registration system and indeed in many countries the term “cadastral surveying” is used to describe the survey of land for the purposes of recording ownership.

   In Finland and Sweden, for example, real property formation, mutation, land consolidation, cadastral mapping, registration of real properties, ownership and legal rights, real property valuation and taxation are all combined within one basic cadastral system. In many parts of Europe, however, the cadastre evolved as a support for land taxation, while the legal processes of land registration were dealt with separately by lawyers and the records entered in land books, for example the German Grundbuch.

   Dual systems therefore emerged and these are being reintroduced in some eastern European countries as part of land reform programmes. Use rights arc being recorded in the reformed cadastral system, while ownership rights are being treated under the traditional notary system. This is leading to duplication of effort and more complex processes of land administration than might otherwise be necessary.

   It will be important in the longer term for these separate systems to be brought into one unified system. Different countries interpret the term “cadastre” in different ways and this can lead to great confusion when analysing systems.

   The common understanding is that a cadastre is a form of land information system. The term “land information system” is applied to a wide range of spatial information, including environmental and socio-economic data as well as data related to infrastructure systems and the cadastre.

   A land information system is not necessarily land parcel-based, unlike a juridical, fiscal or multi-purpose cadastre. Instead it may be an inventory of forest resources, or of soils,

or of geology and may incorporate a variety of types of data.

   A cadastre is more specifically focused on the ownership, value or use of land parcels.

Data that may appear in a cadastre include: geometric data (coordinates, maps);

property addresses; land use; real property information; the nature and duration of the

tenure; details about the construction of buildings and apartments; population; land

taxation values. Data may relate to single plots of land or may cover many properties, as

in land-use zoning. The data may be used to support private land transactions, to

support land markets, or to assist in the administration of diverse sections of the

economy such as: agriculture; environment protection; fishery; forestry; housing; landuse

management and zoning; public utilities; transport.