Workshop: Modernization of Cadastres
The Faculty of Geo-information Science and Earth Observation at the University of Twente and the Netherlands Kadaster – together with the UNU School for Land Administration Studies - conducted a joint workshop on “Modernization of Cadastres” with the Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD). The UNU School for LA sponsored the joint event with the Regional Center for Mapping of Resoures for Development (RCMRD) and Geospatial Media and Communication (formerly known as GISDevelopment). The event took place on 4-5 September in Nairobi Kenya, occurring back-to-back with the Africa Geospatial Forum.
Regional Center for Mapping of Resources for Development
Twenty surveyor generals and/or directors of surveys from RCMRD member states in southern, eastern and central Africa assembled together with experts from RCMRD, UT/ITC, the Netherlands Kadaster, and the private sector in Eastern Africa (Trimble and ESRI). Ms Aida Opoku Mensah, officer-in-charge of the Development Information Services Division at the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) provided a word of welcome, and called the workshop an opportunity for the current challenges in cadastres. The workshop addressed new developments in geo-information management and geo-information technology relevant to land administration organisations. Some topics of the workshop included, amongst many others, country experiences in modernising mapping organisations and cadastres, land information infrastructure development, e-government and land administration, inter-organisational cooperation through data sharing and open cadastres. Furthermore, the workshop facilitated the collection and sharing of professional and scientific insights and experiences, and the reinforcement of a network of national mapping and cadastre executives in Africa with land administration educational and scientific institutes worldwide.
Current Practices of Modernisation in Cadastres in Africa
The country presentations emphasized four questions:
1. In which context of land tenure system does modernization take place in each country?
2. Which modernization of cadastres is currently taking place in each country and in each organization?
3. Which modernization is needed (yet currently not possible/feasible)?
4. Which issues would require further research and capacity building for each country and organization?
In most of the represented countries, the context of modernization includes dual systems of land tenure systems. This duality concerns the simultaneous operation of systems inherited in colonial times with mostly local systems of communal and customary tenure. These historical contingencies still complicate modernisation efforts. In many cases, the modernization efforts aim at legal harmonization of these two systems, together with the adoption of more sophisticated or more adaptive technology. However, implementing new laws, new organisational structures, new data-collection technologies and new information architecture at the same time remains a big challenge in practice.
Therefore, more research is still needed in how to standardise and optimise procedures of cadastral surveys; how to improve cadastral information management and associated workflows; how to harmonize dual legal systems, which are fundamentally different; and finally, how to better involve stakeholders in land information management. In terms of capacity in the cadastral survey and mapping field, there is still a need for more surveyors, photogrammetrists, land registration officers, system developers and system managers, SDI specialists and people who are more acquainted with the developments of modern and low-cost technologies.
Sharing Examples and Pilots of Modernization in Other Countries
The workshop also presented a number of developments, challenges and difficulties caused by modernisation in other countries. Modernization in European countries is highly dominated by incorporation of new technologies, harmonization of laws and spatial-data access. Examples of coordination mechanisms in these processes include the European INSPIRE Directive, the EULIS portal, the Land Administration Domain Model (LADM) and the system of key registers. Examples of using new technologies include experiments with point cadastres, new GNSS survey instruments, new grid reference systems and alternative data storage and retrieval systems, for example, “the cloud”. Furthermore, the growing utilization of geoICT technology by citizens opens up the possibility of voluntary geographic information and crowdsourcing. Despite these developments even in Europe these efforts do not remain without problems and bottlenecks. As was shown at the event, the INSPIRE implementation in Europe still causes many uncertainties and challenges among national mapping agencies, and the rise of crowdsourced data may also challenge the role of cadastres of central spatial data providers. These experiences show examples from other countries cannot be copied. National contextual factors continue to play a central role in the implementation strategies of modernisation in Cadastres. Hence, modernization is not an end goal of delivering technical tools, but a process of socio-technical cultivation and adaptation.
Follow-up Activities
Various activities are scheduled to continue the discussions on modernization of Cadastres. During the workshop, all participants received a CD with presentations and background documents, and also the book “Spatial data infrastructures in Context: North and South”. For future cooperations, participants agreed to remain in touch after the workshop through LinkedIn. All workshop documents are going to be distributed through multiple media and channels. These include CDs, shared documents, and through the OICRF (study and documentation centre for cadastre, land administration and affiliated fields of interest - a central repository of cadastral documents, articles and presentations). In the near future, RCMRD is planning a similar workshop for the Permanent Secretaries from 17-18 November 2011, where the UNU School of Land administration (ITC/Kadaster) is going to attend as well. And finally, the Geospatial Media and communication organises a conference together with Dutch Kadaster in Amsterdam on SDI, taking place in April 2012 (www.geospatialworldforum.org/). Faculty ITC remains actively involved in both the educational and research areas of modernization. Research into the needs of modernization remains rooted in both the laboratory environment, building knowledge on theory building, prototyping, modelling and testing, and the organisational reality of management, including actions and examining the bottlenecks and problems. That’s why the discussions and exchange of ideas between academics, teachers, managers and professionals continue to remain of crucial importance.