by
Ian Williamson
ABSTRACT
This paper reviews the activities of Commission 7 (Cadastre and Land Management) for the period 1994-98. It highlights activities such as annual meetings, annual symposia, the Commission’s three working groups and identifies some of the key individual activities of the Commission such as the production of the Statement on the Cadastre and the joint UN-FIG Bogor Declaration on Cadastral Reform. The presentation also reviews the extensive Commission 7 program at the Brighton Congress which includes presentation of 66 technical papers, two technical tours and Commission 7 business meetings.
INTRODUCTION
For the period 1994-98, Commission 7 (Cadastre and Land Management) of the International Federation of Surveyors set itself a simple but ambitious objective. That objective was to play a significant role in influencing the cadastral and land management agenda worldwide.
In working towards this objective, the Commission established a comprehensive Work Plan which was implemented jointly by the Commission 7 Secretariat, its three Working Groups (Modern cadastres, Cadastres in developing countries and Land management and cadastres) and all Commission delegates. Through the excellent support of those involved in the Commission and both the Australian and UK FIG Bureaux, I believe the Commission has met its objective for this work period.
DETAILED ACTIVITIES
During 1994-98 the Commission organised four excellent annual meetings in Fredericton (Canada) in 1994, Delft (The Netherlands) in 1995, Budapest (Hungary) in 1996 and Penang (Malaysia) in 1997. The delegates who organised these meetings and contributed so much of their time to their success are gratefully acknowledged. They are Sue Nichols from Canada, Jan Sonnenberg from The Netherlands, András Ossko from Hungary and Abdul Majid Mohamed from Malaysia. I am sure all delegates join me in thanking them for their very significant contributions.
Importantly however, the Commission could not have undertaken its work without the excellent commitment from its three Working Groups which addressed the following three areas:
These were chaired by Jürg Kaufmann (Switzerland), Tommy Österberg (Sweden) and Paul Munro-Faure (UK) respectively. These Working Groups have undertaken and implemented their own major work plans which have resulted in significant contributions to the cadastral and land management debate internationally. Each of the Working Groups supported an excellent symposium at annual meetings in The Netherlands, Hungary and Malaysia. These are summarised by the chairs of the working groups in their own reports. The proceedings of those symposia have been widely distributed and are available on the Commission's Home Page (http://sunspot.sli.unimelb.edu.au/fig7/).
In particular I want to thank the Executive of the Commission comprising the Vice-Chairperson Paul Munro-Faure (UK), who gave me excellent support throughout the period, as well as the Secretary, Gary Hunter and my Administrative Assistant Lillian Cheung. Without their continual support the Commission would not have achieved its objectives. I also wish to thank the Australian delegate to the Commission, Don Grant, who provided extensive assistance and support.
I am also grateful for the very efficient and professional support received from the previous FIG Bureau in Australia and the current FIG Bureau the UK. In particular I want to thank the Past President of the FIG, Earl James and the past Secretary General Graham Lindsay, together with the current President of the FIG Peter Dale and the Bureau Director Jane Wooley. They have all been extremely supportive and cooperative in ensuring the Commission could undertake its work.
Without doubt a highlight of the last four years has been the development of a close working relationship between the officers of all the FIG commissions. The Advisory Committee of Commission Officers (ACCO) had its genesis under the then Vice President and President-elect Peter Dale and has come of age under Vice President and President-elect Bob Foster. This committee has allowed the commissions to work much more cooperatively and constructively and undertake more joint initiatives. The cooperation has resulted in significant benefits to the running and organisation of Commission 7. Close working relationships have been developed with Commissions 1 (Professional Practice), Commission 2 (Education) and Commission 3 (Land Information Systems). I wish to express my particular thanks to John Parker, Stig Enemark and Helge Onsrud of those commissions for their support.
Last but not least I want to acknowledge the excellent support and contribution made by all the Commission 7 delegates around the world. Simply without their commitment the Commission would not be a success.
HIGHLIGHTS
What are the highlights of the last four years? They are nearly too many to mention but some certainly stand out. The annual meetings are certainly the highlights for the Commission. They are both enjoyable and informative. Other highlights include the preparation of the Statement on the Cadastre which has now been translated into twelve languages and distributed widely around the world, and accepted by such organisations as the United Nations. In addition the Bogor Declaration on Cadastral Reform was a significant contribution of the Commission and was an excellent joint initiative between the UN and FIG.
The breadth of activities of the Commission has been very significant. It has played an active role in supporting the FIG Bureau in strengthening links with UN agencies. It has run seminars, workshops or participated in activities in countries as diverse as Brazil, Argentina, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Greece, USA, Canada, Hungary, Malaysia, Korea, Australia, Singapore, The Netherlands and Sweden.
The three proceedings of the Commission 7 symposia, which focussed on the work of the Working Groups, will continue to have an influence for many years to come. These were:
I would particularly like to highlight the outcomes of the Working Groups such as the publication on "Benchmarking Cadastral Systems" (Steudler et al, 1997) from the Working Group on Modern Cadastres. In addition I would like to highlight the work on developing countries where the Commission has been able to provide a better understanding of cadastres in countries which lack sufficient financial, human and institutional resources. Lastly the commitment the Commission gave to contributing to the cadastral changes in the former socialist countries from the Working Group on sustainable land management in the 21st Century. Through a number of seminars the Commission has made a significant contribution to our understanding of the major changes occurring in Eastern and Central Europe with the move to market economies.
The many other contributions that the Commission has made are no less important and are listed in the Commission’s report of its 1994-98 activities (Williamson and Hunter, 1998) as well as in the following appendix. I have great pleasure in presenting the Report of the activities of the Commission to delegates.
THE BRIGHTON CONGRESS
The highlight of the 4-year Work Plan is the FIG Congress this year in Brighton. Most of the activities of the Commission have worked towards this Congress. I am delighted with the Commission 7 program, which will be presented in Brighton, which brings together a summary of the work of the Commission over the last four years but also has attracted a wide range of papers on cadastral and land management issues from around the world. The chairs of the three Commission 7 Working Groups will present the results of their four year work plans. It will be an excellent program which all Commission 7 delegates can be justly proud.
In total 66 papers from 32 countries will be presented in the Commission 7 program in the following sessions:
Please note that the Commission is expecting delegates who attend these sessions to have read the papers beforehand. As a result only the key outcomes from each paper will be presented in a ten-minute period leaving a reasonable period for discussion. In addition to the technical presentations the Commission will provide two technical tours. The first will be a two-part tour to a National Trust rural estate in Sussex to see examples of sustainable land management from both economic and environmental perspectives. The second component will be to visit the GIS department of Southern Water, a privatised former public utility responsible for water supply and waste water in Southern England. The second tour will start with the visit to Southern Water described above and follow with a visit to a District office of HM Land Registry in Tunbridge Wells.
The Commission 7 program will include a number of Commission 7 business meetings open to all delegates and the Annual Dinner of the Commission.
The Congress Director and organisers have done an excellent job in preparing for what will be without doubt one of the best FIG Congresses ever.
THE FUTURE
I am also delighted with the future plans of the Commission, which has been proposed by the Vice-Chairperson Paul Munro-Faure and accepted by the Commission. The last four years have laid a firm base on which the Commission can move forward from strength to strength. While I believe the Commission has made a valuable contribution to the cadastral and land management reform agenda worldwide over the last four years, I have no doubt that its influence will continue to grow to the benefit of all FIG member associations.
In closing I would urge all member associations to ensure that they have identified an appropriate Commission 7 delegate at this Congress who is able to be involved in the detailed planning of the future activities of the Commission during this Working Week.
It has been an honour and a pleasure to serve the FIG and the Commission over the last four years. Thankyou again for your friendship, excellent support and many contributions.
REFERENCE
Steudler, D., Williamson, I.P., Kaufmann, J. and Grant, D.M. (1997). Benchmarking Cadastral Systems. The Australian Surveyor, Vol. 42, No. 3, 87-106.
Williamson and Hunter (1998). Report of the activities of Commission 7, FIG 1994-98. Department of Geomatics, The University of Melbourne, Australia, 50p.
APPENDIX
Major Activities Involving Commission 7 during 1994-98
| 1994 | FIG Commission 7 Annual
Meeting, Fredericton, Canada, 8-10 October 1994 13th United Nations Regional Cartographic Conference for Asia and the Pacific, Beijing, 9-18 May 1994 Cadastral Reform Seminar at Korea Cadastral Survey Corporation, Seoul, 1 July, 1994. FIG Land Records Conference/Geomatics Atlantic '94 Conference, Fredericton, 11-14 October 1994. NALIS '94 Symposium and Exposition, Kuala Lumpur, 14-16 November, 15, 1994. |
| 1995 | FIG Commission 7 Annual
Meeting, Delft, The Netherlands, 15-19 May 1995 Seminar on Modern Cadastres and Cadastral Innovations sponsored by Commission 7 (Cadastre and Land Management), International Federation of Surveyors, Technical University of Delft, The Netherlands, 16 May1995. FIG Permanent Committee Meeting and Symposium, Berlin, 22-26 May 1995 Workshop on Cadastre in Developing Countries, Gavle, Sweden, June 1995 Australasian Cadastral Conference, Wellington, New Zealand, 14-16 June 1995 Commission 7 sponsored Urban Cadastre Workshop at the XVII Brazilian Cartographic Conference, 30 July to 4 August 1995 HABITAT II Regional Consultation for Asia and the Pacific on Access to Land and Security of Tenure for Sustainable Development, Jakarta, 28-30 August, 1995. Special Commission 7 session on cadastre and land management at the Cambridge Conference for National Mapping. Cambridge, UK, 25 July-1 August 1995 FIG/CASLE Conference on "Sustainable Development: Counting the Cost - Maximising the Value", Harare, Zimbabwe, 13-17 August 1995 |
| 1996 | HABITAT II Global Conference
on Access to Land and Security of Tenure as a condition
to Sustainable Shelter and Urban Development, New Delhi,
India, 17-19 January, 1996. Organisation of a joint UN-Commission 7 workshop in Bogor, Indonesia, in March 1996 which resulted in the Bogor Declaration on Cadastral Reform Commission 7 Symposium on Cadastre and Land Management in conjunction with the 63rd FIG PC Meeting, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 15-19 April 1996 Workshop on the reform of Surveying Curricula in Argentina, University of Patagonia, Trelew, Argentina, 22-24 April 1996 HABITAT II Conference, Istanbul, Turkey, June 1996 FIG Commission 7 Annual Meeting, Budapest, Hungary, June 1996 International Conference on Cadastral Reform, Seoul, Republic of Korea, 16 July,1996. Participation in FIG/Habitat/FAO workshop in Harare, Zimbabwe, August 1995 2nd Meeting of the Permanent Committee on GIS and Infrastructure for Asia and the Pacific, 29 September-4 October 1996 Participation at the International Conference on Land Tenure and Administration, Gainesville, Florida, 13-15 November 1996 |
| 1997 | 3rd Meetings of the
Permanent Committee on GIS and Infrastructure for Asia
and the Pacific, 1-2 February 1997 14th United Nations Regional Cartographic Conference for Asia and the Pacific, 3-7 February 1997 Meeting of Officials in Land Administration (MOLA), March 1997 FIG Commission 7 Annual Meeting, Malaysia, 5-9 May, 1997 Symposium on "Cadastral Systems in Developing Countries", FIG Commission 7 Annual Meeting, Penang, Malaysia, 5-9 May,1997. Commission 7 Symposium on Cadastre and Land Management in conjunction with the 64th FIG PC Meeting, Singapore, 11-16 May 1997 6th United Nations Regional Cartographic Conference for the Americas, New York, U.S.A., 2-6 June,1997. Meeting of the Ad hoc Group of Experts on Legislation for Surveying and Mapping, 6th United Nations Regional Cartographic Conference for the Americas, New York, U.S.A., 6 June, 1997. Participation at the iKUSASA Conference, Durban, South Africa, 24-28 August 1997 "Modern Technologies of Cadastre" Conference, Sofia, Bulgaria, 19-20 November 1997. |
| 1998 | International Conference on
Land Tenure in the Developing World, Cape Town, South
Africa, 27-29 January, 1998. International Seminar on Geographic Information Systems, Distrital University, Bogota, Columbia, 18-22 May, 1998 FIG XXI Congress, Brighton, United Kingdom, 19-25 July 1998 |
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
Professor Ian Williamson
Address: Department of Geomatics
The University of Melbourne
Parkville
Victoria 3052
Australia
Phone: +61-3-9344-4431
Fax: +61-3-9347-4128
Email: i.williamson@eng.unimelb.edu.au
URL: http://www.sli.unimelb.edu.au/people/ipw.html
Professor Williamson holds the Chair of Surveying and Land Information the Department of Geomatics at the University of Melbourne, Australia. He holds Bachelors, Masters and Doctorate Degrees in Surveying and is a Registered Professional Land Surveyor and a Chartered Professional Engineer. He is both a Fellow of the Institution of Surveyors, Australia and the Institution of Engineers, Australia. Prior to his Academic Career, he worked in a State Government in Australia, an American Engineering Corporation based in the USA and ran his own Consultancy Practice in Sydney. He is Chairperson (1994-98) of Commission 7 (Cadastre and Land Management) of the International Federation of Surveyors. His interests are in the operation, management and development of land information systems, information systems, administration systems, with particular emphasis on cadastral, land and geographic information systems.