Awareness as a foundation for developing effective spatial data infrastructures

The development of an effective spatial data infrastructure (SDI) often occurs in a fragmented organizational environment requiring a high level of inter-organizational collaboration. Different organizations from various jurisdictions need to work together closely when agreeing on how they will jointly register, store, use and share data and how they will make their data available to the wider society. However, this collaboration is generally regarded as very difficult. For example people often resist data sharing across organizational boundaries due to loss of control, power and independency. Organizational issues are thus considered one of the fundamental constraints to inter-organizational sharing of spatial data.     

Urban land administration and planning in China: Opportunities and constraints of spatial data models

China's economic reforms over the past decades have given rise to the development of a rudimentary urban land market. Although one cannot speak of a land “market” in the strict sense of the word, there is an urban land allocation system in which land lease rights can be acquired through the payment of a land-use fee. If the urban land market is to develop in a sustainable manner, new credible institutions need to be established that can safeguard greater legal security and transparency. For these purposes, it is necessary to establish a management system that can support the legal (tenure security), economic (leases, taxes) and broader aspects (spatial and environmental land use policies) of land administration. To make an urban land administration system socially credible and functional, land-related information should be registered and structured at a detailed spatial level, such as parcels. There is no parcel-based information system in China, but the country has developed a population registration system at a detailed spatial level that could be a starting point to develop integrated information systems, or a so-called “local spatial data infrastructure”. This paper reviews China's population registration system and their spatial units and presents a proposal for an information system that can be expanded or adapted to meet the requirements of an effective land administration system.     

The evolving concepts of land administration in China: Cultivated land protection perspective

This paper presents a holistic method by integrating three concepts (land resources management, assets supervision and political governance for sustainability) for investigation of land administration in China, taking into consideration of cultivated land protection for a testimony with econometric method. Theoretically, in this self-organizing integrated method, land resources management focuses on the productivity of land; land assets supervision centralizes on the realization of land usufruct rights in land transference; land political governance for sustainability concentrates on harmonious linkage of economic efficiency, social stability and environmental safety of land use. Their interrelations are complex. Methodologically, the results indicate that the theoretical model is feasible to explain variations of cultivated land protection with these three concepts. Cultivated land decreases with increasing land value increment multiples, and is positive with political governance concept, but not in a linear fashion. Finally the results suggest that roles of government in land administration need to be changed and strengthened, supporting complete compensation for land expropriation and modification to policies of cultivated land.     

Evaluating land administration projects in developing countries

There have been various approaches to evaluating and comparing the performance of land administration and land titling projects in developing countries. Many of these consider the efficiency of land administration processes and the capacity of institutions. This paper presents the results of research undertaken by the authors and considers the most common approaches taken to date, and the strengths and limitations of these approaches. The authors argue that improvements are needed to project design and make recommendations for more effective use of socio-economic analyses.     

Evaluation of land administration systems

Currently there are no internationally accepted methodologies to evaluate and compare the performance of land administration systems. This is partly because land administration systems are in constant reform, and probably more importantly, they represent societies’ different perceptions of land. This paper describes the development of a framework to measure and compare the performance of land administration systems. The research is of particular relevance since it develops a management model which links the operational aspects of land administration with land policy.     

An evaluation framework for earthquake-responsive land administration

In recent years earthquakes and their secondary hazards have claimed the largest number of lives of all large natural disasters. Some of the world’s most earthquake-prone zones are also areas of high population density. The impact is magnified by vulnerability factors including non-enforcement of building codes, knowledge gaps, urban poverty and poor governance capacity to manage and reduce earthquake risks. Poor security of land tenure and property rights increases the vulnerability of people and affects their ability to respond to natural disasters.Earthquake recovery and reconstruction provides very significant challenges for land agencies, with these challenges differing from one country to the next due to differences in the local context. Drawing on contrasting case studies in Haiti, Nepal and New Zealand this paper identifies the common post-earthquake land administration functions and challenges that may apply to many contexts. These lessons provide land agencies and other key stakeholders with a summary of the challenges an earthquake poses for land administration at different post-disaster stages. We also discuss the policy and regulatory, institutional, operational and preparedness lessons for land administration. From these lessons we propose a framework for evaluating the earthquake-responsiveness of a land administration system. This framework can be used by a land agency in an earthquake prone region, or where an earthquake has recently occurred, to assess what challenges to land administration might occur in the event of an earthquake, and the preparedness of their land administration system.     

Violent visions of an ownership society: The land administration project in Petén, Guatemala

This article is a case study of phase one of the World Bank's land administration project in Petén, Guatemala. Although the project's stated aims are merely to formalize an existing set of individual landed property rights, this development intervention necessarily changes the property regime, thereby changing underlying relationships that land as property embodies. Impact evaluations conducted by development economists may fail to substantively address displacement and violence that occur as a short-term effect of the project and long-term disparate impacts of the project that may exacerbate existing inequalities. The case of Petén also highlights the possibility for violent enforcement of property boundaries, where conflict surges between the disenfranchised and those who gain power under the new property regime.     

Evaluating land administration systems: A comparative method with an application to Peru and Honduras

This article develops a comparative methodology for the evaluation of national land administration systems. We propose a set of quantitative and qualitative indicators with benchmarks for each one of them that signal possible venues to improve the administration's structure and budgetary/management arrangements, in order to bring about the following goals: (1) to contribute to public sector financing through taxes; (2) to encourage the productive and sustainable use of land, and (3) to facilitate access to land for low-income citizens. This methodology was applied to the cases of Honduras and Peru in order to refine our draft evaluation indicators, while evaluating the systems of both countries. Here we present the final refined indicators and benchmarks, and the conclusions from both case studies.     

Lessons learned: an evaluation of land administration initiatives in Latin America over the past two decades

Latin America has a long and rich history of land administration projects stretching back to the 1980s and beyond. Unfortunately, this history has not been systematically analyzed nor recorded but is buried in a myriad of reports and other gray literature. Currently, almost every country in the region has a land administration project, incorporating cadastral reform, that is either in preparation or being implemented. It is therefore timely to consider what lessons have been learned from previous experience, in the region and elsewhere, and more specifically how this experience can inform current efforts. This paper starts with a summary of a recent World Bank/USAID initiative to compile lessons learned from land administration projects around the world and follows with the author's view of lessons learned in the context of project design, institutional reform and technical innovation.     

Land administration “best practice” providing the infrastructure for land policy implementation

Land administration systems, and particularly their core cadastral components, are an important infrastructure which facilitates the implementation of land use policies. While most land administration systems traditionally have a primary objective of supporting the operation of land markets, they are increasingly evolving into a broader land information infrastructure which supports economic development, environmental management and social stability in both developed and developing countries. While a great deal of attention is given to land use policies worldwide concerned with such areas as forest management, coastal zone management, environmental sustainability and managing the urban environment, less attention is given to the infrastructures which facilitate the implementation of the associated policies and programmes. Importantly, all these activities rely on some form of land administration infrastructure which permits the complex range of rights, restrictions and responsibilities in land to be identified, mapped and managed as a basis for policy formulation and implementation. As a result, there is an increasing interest in the concept of land administration infrastructures and their core cadastres, in the principles and policies concerned with establishing such infrastructures and in “best practices”. In addressing this need, this paper attempts to explain the evolving concept of land administration infrastructures, the concept of “best practice” and the concept of a land administration “tool box” of principles, policies, laws and technologies which are useful in reforming or re-engineering land administration systems in support of a broader land policy agenda.     

Extra-legal land market dynamics on a Guatemalan agricultural frontier: Implications for neoliberal land policies

Neoliberal land policies such as land administration seek to improve property rights and the efficiency of land markets to boost rural economic production. Quantitative studies of pre-existing land markets can help planners to tailor these policies to local conditions. In this article we examine an extra-legal land market currently being modernized by a World Bank-sponsored land administration effort. Specifically, we use a hedonic-type revealed preference model and household survey data to estimate the factors affecting extra-legal land prices along an agricultural frontier in Petén, Guatemala. Our model indicates that land value is significantly affected by land attributes including location, tenure status, presence of water, distance to roads, and distance to landowners’ homes, and that land prices in the northwestern Petén are estimated to have risen on average 26.5% per year between 1977 and 2000. We contend that this rate of increase provides a strong incentive for colonists to speculate in land rather than invest in state sanctioned property rights. We conclude that if frontier development programs, such as land administration, are to become attractive to settlers in Petén and elsewhere, they must compete favorably with economic incentives associated with land speculation, or alternatively, target landowners who are not interested in playing the land market.     

Development of 3D underground cadastral data model in Korea: Based on land administration domain model

Underground space is being considered as a sustainable development resource, especially in heavily urbanized areas such as Seoul, in Korea. However, regarding 3D underground property, uncertainties and gaps exist between cadastral system and real property registration system. In Korea, cadastral system is able to deal with only 2D surface parcel, on the contrary, real property registration system is able to register and manage legal status of 3D underground properties. The mismatch between these two systems causes various types of problems for underground properties such as a vertical boundary disputes between aboveground and underground ownerships, administrative confusion and dual-compensation problems for new underground construction, reconstruction and haphazard development for underground space due to the lack of systematic registration procedure. In order to overcome these problems, this research proposes a 3D underground cadastral data model, which is associated and integrated with classes in ISO 19152 Land Administration Domain Model (LADM) developed by the Technical Committee 211 of the International Organization for Standardization. The proposed 3D underground cadastral data model comprises two packages: 3D underground parcel package, and 3D underground surveying and mapping package. It would support a better service for land administration by providing reliable and accurate spatial information on 3D underground property. In order to validate the proposed 3D underground cadastral data model, the prototype is developed and implemented in real-world situation for the first time. The proposed 3D underground cadastral data model can register various types of 3D underground properties including architectures such as shopping mall, public walkway, parking lot, and etc., and civil infrastructures such as subway, road, water supply, sewage, common utility tunnel, and etc. The results show that the proposed 3D underground cadastral data model could be applicable for other information system such as land valuation and taxation system, urban planning system, construction and facility management system.     

Demand for second-stage land certification in Ethiopia: Evidence from household panel data

Ethiopia has implemented one of the largest, fastest and least expensive land registration and certification reforms in Africa. While there is evidence that this ‘first-stage’ land registration has had positive effects in terms of increased investment, land productivity and land rental market activities, the government is now piloting another round of land registration and certification that involves technically advanced land survey methods and computer registration. This ‘second-stage’ land registration differs from the registration system employed in the first round that used field markings in conjunction with neighbors’ recollections to identify plot borders. We use panel data from 600 households in southern Ethiopia to investigate household perceptions of and demand for such a new registration and certification. Our study revealed relatively low demand and willingness-to-pay (WTP) for second-stage certificates. The WTP also decreases significantly from 2007 to 2012. Our findings indicate that farmers do not believe that the second-stage certificate enhances tenure security relative to the first-stage certificate except in instances in which first-stage certification was poorly implemented. The demand for second-stage certificates appears to come primarily from governmental authorities, as it can provide a better basis for land administration and produce accessible public documentation of land-related affairs.     

A comparison of land unit delineation techniques for land evaluation in the Western Cape,South Africa

Land evaluation, an integral part of land use planning, has been established as one of the preferred methods to support sustainable land use management. In essence, land evaluation aims to compare and match each potential land use with the properties of individual parcels of land, also called land units. A land unit is an area that is, according to predetermined properties, different from the surrounding land and can be assumed to have homogeneous land properties (e.g. climate, soils, cover). Land components (also called landform elements, terrain units or land surface segments) are often used as land units, mainly because their boundaries frequently coincide with transitions in environmental conditions. Although land components have traditionally been delineated by studying topographical maps, interpreting aerial photographs and making field measurements, such manual mapping techniques are very time-consuming and subjective. Land component maps can be generated more objectively and faster by using computer algorithms. This paper compares the maps produced by three algorithms, namely the automated land component mapper (ALCoM), the iterative self-organizing data analysis technique algorithm (ISODATA) and multi-resolution image segmentation (MRS), to determine which technique produces the most homogenous and morphologically representative land components for an area in the Western Cape province of South Africa. The results revealed that the three methods produced significantly different land component maps. While ISODATA's units were relatively homogenous, their boundaries rarely followed morphological discontinuities. ALCoM performed better in delineating land components along terrain discontinuities, but produced relatively heterogeneous land components. Overall, MRS performed consistently well and was significantly more sensitive to morphological discontinuities than the other two methods tested. Land use managers should, however, use MRS with care as more research is needed to determine what effect its different input parameters have on land unit boundaries.     

Associating land use/cover information with land parcels represented in LADM

LADM design requires the association of external land use/cover information with cadastral land parcels. In addition to model design, related specifications are to be defined in the implementation. Yet, there are many severe obstacles against defining such specifications that are applicable to all cases. In this context, there are many different types of land use/cover classification systems for different purposes in different data quality, scale and content, which are either designed internationally or nationally. FAO Land Cover Classification System (LCCS), CORINE land cover, INSPIRE land use/cover themes, land use capability classification and Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS) are common international examples.In this study, management of spatial land use/cover data in association with cadastral land parcels represented by LADM was studied in a pilot study area in Turkey. In this context, association of spatial information as sub-divisions of land parcels (sub-parcels) was studied. Different land use/cover data sets (four types) were specifically produced for this study with an LPIS like digitization method. For the association, special overlay operations with and without predefined XY tolerances were carried out. Effects of similar yet different data sets, spatial data consistency between the produced sub-parcel data sets and land parcels, and also errors were analyzed based on the results. It is found (1) that the level of detail (base production scale) of external land use/cover data set increases spatial association errors, (2) that using XY tolerances to reduce these errors causes data inconsistency and (3) that direct spatial harmonization of two data set may be a robust solution when it is possible. In this context, in order to contribute to the implementation of LADM in terms of spatial association of land parcels and external land use/cover data, together with these data processing and analysis work, LADM modelling abstraction, availability and data quality issues of external land use/cover data, updating and maintenance issues were also discussed.     

Assessing impact of land uses on land salinization in the Yellow River Delta,China using an integrated and spatial statistical model

Intensification of agriculture and industry in salinized areas poses a risk of secondary salinization. Thus, comprehensive and spatially explicit assessments are needed to assist government in developing ecologically sound policies. Few assessments have comprehensively quantified the impacts of multiple anthropogenic activities on salinization as environmental interferences and salinity autocorrelation are largely neglected. This study tried to perform such an assessment by identifying the nature of human impacts on salinization from three aspects in the Yellow River Delta (YRD) of China. A versatile GIS-based spatial autoregression (SAR) was applied to nine selected explainable variables in six sub-region models. Sub-region model was verified as an effective tool of normalizing environmental interferences because more useful spatial information was provided compared to the whole region model. GIS-SAR model fit better and performed better in quantifying human activities, compared to the conventional ordinary least square regression (OLSR) model, as SAR can deal with spatial autocorrelation in soil salinity. Among the well-defined key determinants, oil exploitation and saline aquaculture were aggregative to salinization but only in originally highly saline sub-regions, such as coastal zone and Gleyic Solonchaks (coastal saline moisture soil) area. Two agricultural activities, crop plantation and fertilization, were mainly ameliorators in most sub-regions. The most effective salinization alleviation occurred in moderately saline sub-regions, such as floodplain and Salic Fluvisols (saline moisture soil) area, which benefitted from the development of agroforests and farm ponds. The SAR sub-region model is spatially explicit for spotting the hazardous areas and some suggestions were also provided for the policy makers.     

Co-ordination of land exploitation,exploitable farmland reserves and national planning in China

Land exploitation, as an important strategy to mitigate farmland loss and stabilize grain production, has been adopted to compensate farmland loss due to rapid urbanization in China. Bounded by the limited capacity and obvious spatial variations of national farmland reserves, it is essential to arrange land exploitation activities timely and reasonably. In this study, we propose an indicator for the status of regional land exploitation, the Exploitation Degree, to facilitate an overview of land exploitation programs in China at both provincial and prefectural levels based on project data from 2006 to 2012. To further our understanding of the regional features of land exploitation activities, we employ the Lasso model to identify and quantitatively assess influencing factors on land exploitation. Our study shows that: (1) contemporary land exploitation practices in China are significantly inconsistent across exploitable farmland reserves. Some areas are greatly over-exploited and such irrational land exploitation has been persistent; (2) related national land plans designed to guide land exploitation efforts centered on resource-rich regions and critical areas do not function as intended. Therefore, we suggest that China⿿s land exploitation policy shall be improved by reconsidering the orientation of land exploitation policy, coordinating land exploitation activities with productivity improvements and eco-system protection, and enhancing the power and scope of the plans in controlling and guiding land resource management.     

Pastoralism within land administration in Kenya—The missing link

In land administration (LA), the right to exercising property/ownership rights on land is based on cadastral processes of adjudication, survey and rights registration. Private ownership rights are now being taken up in pastoral areas, where they must contend with pastoralists’ land rights. Pastoral land use requires seasonal migrations determined by climatic conditions. This study aimed to find out how well the existing land laws and property rights in LA are able to serve the requirements of pastoralists land use, identify mismatches and put forward possible solutions. A case study was carried out in the Samburu–Laikipia–Isiolo–Meru landscape in Kenya. Data on the degree of livestock dependency among pastoralist communities, the spatial extent and patterns of dry season migrations, the resulting encounters between herders’ and non-pastoralist land use actors, and the perceptions of land rights held by actors were collected through a variety of methods and analysed. The results show that pastoralism is still active. The migration corridors reveal that herders maintain extensive dry season mobility, even though some of the corridors currently overlap with areas where land is privately owned by non-pastoralist land use actors. Moreover, the results show that most non-pastoralist land use actors have their land rights registered, but seasonal encounters with migrating pastoralists persist as pastoralists continue to exercise customary rights of communal use. We conclude that existing land laws and property rights in LA are suitable for sedentary land use, but do not address how to serve pastoralists land rights in time and space. The pastoralist's migration routes and patterns obtained indicated that it is possible to predict where pastoralists will be at a given time/drought period. This information could be used by decision makers and land administrators to identify where and when pastoralists’ land rights apply. This could provide the foundation for including pastoralists’ spatiotemporal land rights in LA. Arguments emphasize that adjudication, surveys and registration of rights should focus not only on ownership and full control of land, but also on defined periods when spatiotemporal mobility and access rights could be granted to pastoralists.