On the need for national land administration infrastructures

Many nations lack a coherent national approach to land administration. Instead, land information and processes are frequently disaggregated across states, provinces, cantons, counties, or municipalities. This is particularly the case in federated countries. The growing body of land administration theory often assumes or prescribes the need for national systems; however, the justification for this approach requires further explanation. Without justification, nations that maintain disaggregated systems lack the impetus to unlock the opportunities veiled within their disparate land administration systems. Moreover, a nation's ability to respond effectively to emerging national and global-scale issues such as climate-change is greatly impeded. This paper aims to explain the need for national land administration infrastructures. Qualitative case studies of the Australian context and the method of triangulation inform the justification. The research reveals most drivers can be classified into six overarching subsets: adherence to international standards by national governments, better federal or central governance, improved shared governance, scale of economies for lower levels of government, opportunities and savings for business, and social inclusion for citizens. Unfortunately, specific drivers are found to be complex and changeable, as political, scientific and environmental debates raise policy issues: there is no single solution. As an alternative, nations must seize on the specific drivers relevant to their context. They must employ them to transform disparate land administration systems into multi-purpose national land administration infrastructures that deliver benefits to all stakeholder groups.     

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.     

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 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.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

Land management for erosion prevention: A case study for a Turkish nature reserve

As a result of landslides and soil erosion, a substantial amount of soil has been lost in Turkey. Particularly, fertile lands have long been faced with the threat of erosion, largely as a result of traditional (unplanned) land use practices. This threat is more evident in the Black Sea Region with its rough topography and rainy climate. The basic reason for this threat is the lack of organization in land use planning and control. Although proposals, in the context of this requirement, are included in national development plans, they have not been implemented. Accordingly, in this study research based on spatial data evaluation was carried out for Sera Lake located in Akcaabat, Trabzon, Turkey. For this purpose, temporal area, depth and volume changes of the lake were determined by utilizing topographic maps, aerial photographs and hydrographical measurements. To evaluate determined changes in the size of the lake and to produce suggestions to legislators for required sustainable land management activities, information on land use/cover types, land ownership and climate in the vicinity of the lake was utilized. As a result, it was determined that the area, depth and volume of the lake were significantly decreased during the last decades, as a consequence of erosion mainly caused by traditional land use practices; thus, the lake is threatened with the danger of extinction due to erosion. Precautions required for the alleviation of erosion and other adverse environmental effects which largely seem to be caused by harsh physical properties (caused basically by topography) of the region were discussed. In support of the information inherent to the region, traditional arable land use was logically determined as the basic non-natural factor (which is directly prone to erosion) to be rearranged in the context of sustainable land management. In this context, beyond nationwide actions (national agricultural policy and Soil Protection and Land Use Law), which may provide the required land management tools in the long term, it is proposed that planning and accordingly land management activities specific to the study area (Sera Valley) should immediately be commenced in close collaboration with the related public (owners or farmers). However, behaviours of different types of land users (engaged in commercial, subsistence and semi-subsistence farming) and also high number of owners and/or farmers (caused by small pieces of land parcels owned/used in shares) make the desired collaboration almost impossible. This socio-economical problem may be solved by further developing the current land registry and cadastre system in terms of customary land use rights, land use/cover changes and updating procedures.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

Effects of different land reallocation models on the success of land consolidation projects: Social and economic approaches

One of the most important steps in land consolidation (LC) is the land reallocation work, which has a prominent effect on the LC success. For this reason, land reallocation should be handled carefully. There are interview and block priority-based models for land reallocation. The application of different models may have either positive or negative effects on the success of land consolidation.     

Reformulation and assessment of the inventory approach to urban growth boundaries

Based on the theoretical framework, in this article we demonstrate how Decision Network can be used to formulate the inventory approach to urban growth boundaries (UGBs) as an application of the planning tool to a general case. In particular, in the inventory approach expansions of UGBs are considered as decision situations, land consumptions as problems, and order sizes of UGBs as solutions. We compare the time- and event-driven systems of the inventory control problem based on the decision network framework. The former in the framework is considered as making single, independent decisions in time, whereas the latter as making multiple, linked decisions in time. Our numerical example shows that the event-driven system is more effective than the time-driven system in that the former incurs less total cost than the former in the UGBs context. The implication is that making multiple, linked decisions, as manifested by Decision Network, would yield more benefits, such as lowering the total cost, to the planner than making these decisions independently.     

Establishing a modern cadastral system within a transition country: Consequences for the Republic of Moldova

This paper examines the current situation following from the implementation of a land cadastre in the Republic of Moldova, a transition country that is seeking to establish a market economy as a means of facilitating greater prosperity. After consolidating the concepts of the functions land property serve within a capitalist-based economy, we examine the current state of affairs as it exists on the ground within this former socialist state and examine the consequences of imposing western-derived views on land reform in terms of tenure security and credibility. This reveals an extensive problem of land fragmentation in the rural sector, which is in part being countered by the emergence of a land lease market that sees new individual landowners providing land for the use of commercial enterprises. However, given the unique political economy present within Moldova, this situation in many ways contradicts, if not constrains, many of the potential benefits that a formal property system is thought to allow for, and therefore the objectives behind the transition phase have yet to be fully achieved. This has forced a re-examination of theory versus the practice of land property privatisation and land market interactions.     

Application of LADM for the integration of land and housing information in China: The legal dimension

The integration of land and housing registration is a key opportunity for China: improved land governance is the intended outcome. Prior to the design of any integrated information system, the legal requirements the system must satisfy need to be identified. This paper identifies and reviews the legal requirements for the integration of land and housing information in China. Specifically, the existing legislative framework relating to land, consisting of seven levels of legislation, is interrogated. A collection of legal requirements emerges: these are categorized into themes including registration, maintenance, mortgage, transfer of real estate rights, relevant materials and archives, and preliminary notice. In order to be more applicable for the next design of the Land Administration Domain Model (LADM) country profile for China, these legal requirement are further converted into packages, classes and attributes by referring to the ISO 19152 standard. The existing databases of the Chongqing Municipality are used to support the modelling process. The paper concludes that the legal requirements can be used as a foundation for an integrated system in China.