P. van der Molen, director Land Information
Cadastre and Public Registers Agency
PO Box 9046
7300 GH APELDOORN
tel -31-55-5285258
fax -31-55-3556850
E-mail p.vandermolen@ap.kadaster.nl.net
ABSTRACT
Some developments may be observed in so many countries, that they may function as trends, and should be adopted by the surveying community. They are:
1 INTRODUCTION
Establishment and maintaining land registers and cadastres never can be a purpose in itself (Henssen 1990). The system of land registration and cadastral mapping serves society in various fields, from tax levying, via facilitating the real estate market, to land management in a broad sense. A critical succes factor for land registry and cadastre as a consequence is the extent to which the needs of society are being satisfied. Such a statement seems to be kicking an open door, but at the same time we may notice that in many countries we unfortunately observe a lack of efficiency and effectivity of existing systems of land registry and cadastre (e.g. Hendrix 1995). World leading political plans (like the AGENDA 21 and Global Plan of Action HABITAT II) encourages better legislation, less bureaucratic procedures, customer friendly attitude, less complexity in conveyance, a better availability and accessability of land information. With that in mind, it is not a surprise that a prerequisite for the developers and managers of a succesfull system is the awareness of the needs of the society, of the customers, and the capability to translate these demands into a sound concept of land registry and cadastre and into clear objectives how to run the business.
So external orientation is a 'must', and therefore is it necessary to take into account developments in society which seems to have a certain 'magic', and have the aura of being a trend.
2 THE CONCEPTUAL APPROACH
2.1 Indiginous rights
Systems of land registry and cadastre are mostly based on old european concepts of individual property rights. The Austria-Hungarian system of 'Grundbuch und Kataster', the napoleanic system of public registers and cadastre, the Torrenssystem with the land certificates, they all presuppose the existence of an individual man-land relationship. Consequently a Cadastre is many times defined as 'a parcel based system representing the relationship from man to land'.
Though land nowadays may be replaced by capital, it still is as an important factor in economic development specially in developing countries. A long time it was common opinion that indigenous land tenure systems were an obstruction to development and sustainable institutions were able to develop only with the imposition of management rules from outside.
Experiences in Africa (e.g Nigeria, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya) show that one should be careful in replacing indigenouw systems of land tenure by european models that miss the inherent flexibility of such indigenous land tenure systems. In these areas land is a common property resource, in which rights to the resources are controlled by an identifiable group. So questioning the relationship man-land is replaced by the relationship man-group (Luning 1995).
In New Zealand historically, the Maori society did not recognize individual ownership. Maori land was held communally. Tribal chiefs allocated land to families and clans. They are unfamiliar with formal land transactions and they are reluctant to accept freehold ownership specially in rural areas. Though 'the european land tenure system is a veritable engine of destruction of Maori land holdings ', there is much willingness in New Zealand to adress the Maori's land grievances, by improving the cadastral system by taking into account the Maori cultural values (Morad and Jay 1997).
Experiences in KwaZulu-Natal make clear the tensions between tribal land and rapid urban development and the problems which arise when creating and awarding land titles according to the existing South African cadastral system, rather than the indigenous land tenure and andministration system. In one case new residents did not occupy the sites to date, (probably) because of the influence of the people whose customary land rights have been infringed (Fourie and Hillerman 1997).
In Papua New Guinea the existing Torrens title registration system has not been modified to handle multiple ownerships of parcels of land, especially shares in land, and to record customary tenure. The government of PNG wants to improve the deficiencies of the existing system, f.e. by introducing a customary land management system (Iatau and Williamson 1996)
In Canada it is recognized that the existing cadastral system has a deleterious effect on the registration of aboriginal land claims, inuit owned land and indian land. Knowing that these areas have their own juridictions, and thus their own land tenure, there are ideas to establish a generic cadastral system which can manage all these different land tenure systems (Charlebois 1996).
2.2 Informal rights
In the situation that individual property exists, however not as a formal title, it is noted that in many projects of land titling and registration, there is insufficient thought for the actual transformation from informal into formal property. Even when formal titles have been issued, they become informal again as a result of e.g. sales, inheritance, and gifts. Inappropriate laws encourage this development. Experiences in Peru show that people within the informal community exactly know who is the rightful claimant of which lot of land. Titling projects elsewhere show that the traditional approach of land adjudication procedures imported from outside, does not work. In Peru however, informal proof of ownership (as used by the informal cummunities) was accepted in order to being transformed into formal ownership, and this information was collected openly from all community members at the same time (McLaughlin and Palmer 1996) (De Soto 1994).
2.3 Re-establishment of property rights
In the situation of re-establishement of property rights, like in the former GDR, it was recognized that the application of the traditional German system of land registry and cadastre, would solve the existing problems of unsurveyed land and usufructs by creating new land plots with a clear man-land relationship. However: this could not be done in a reasonable period. So it was necessary to adopt new legislation providing new instruments to clarify the legal status of land more quickly. It was decided in the case of undivided courtyards to accept other kinds of identification features (like tax assesments) as a proof of evidence for ownership. These features could be used to being recorded in the land registers. Contrary to the other German states (where exact positioning of boundary mouments is compulsory), it was furthermore decided to establish a graphical cadastre, for which no detailed landsurvey was required (Vogel 1995). Sometimes it is even debated if the German automated cadatral system, which may be very detailed and precise, can be used in the future because of the necessary investments of establishment and maintain (Zuhorst 1996).
2.4 Trend
There is a growing awareness that decisions on systems of land tenure, land registry and cadastre only should be taken keeping in mind the local, social, cultural, and political contexts.
3 INTEGRATED SERVICE DELIVERY
3.1 Dissatisfaction
There is a growing dissatisfaction among citizens and private enterprises with the complexity of government procedures and bureaucracy. Umbrella organisations of businesses complain about the administrative burden. Citizens do not understand why they have to drop in by innumerable governemental desks, before they can go-ahead with f.e. the building of a house. On top of the list with gifts wanted in the communication with government is: one stop shopping. No doubt that land information will be part of that.
3.2 Response
The response of the government in many countries is a policy of integrated service delivery to citizens and businesses. Such a policy seems to be a simple objective, but it may be for sure that streamlining the 'front office' at the same time places great demands on the 'back office'. Here we see the interwovenness of strategy and information technology. As the strategic alignment model of MIT says: for implementing strategy you need workprocesses, for implementing IT you need your systems, so improving your strategy together with IT, makes it necessary to redesign your work processes, and to reengineer your systems (Vanstrealen 1995).
3.3 Observations
How that may be, we may observe in many countries serious efforts from the govermnment to encourage integrated service delivery. I will name a few (main source: ICA 1997).
The information economy in Australia is soundly on the political agenda. Based on reports like 'A national policy framework for structural adjustment within the Commonwealth of information', integrated service delivery is considered to be the new service paradigm of government. Aims are a seamless face to the citizen, the use of all kinds of media, a quality concept and a lot of business process redesign (McDonald 1997).
In Canada the Advisory Committe Information Managament, a deputy minister-level committee, is exploring ways how technology can be used to improve services to Canadians and Canadian businesses. Objectives are implementing a client-focused approach to service delivery, and identifying opportunities for streamlining service delivery by integrating services both across federal departments and with provinces.
In Denmark the minister of Research and IT presented an IT White paper to the parliament, discussing providing better services and creating efficiency. Aim is a better access to government information as well.
In Finland many projects of electronic government are being implemented, such as providing common formats and procedures to make communications with government easier. One stop shopping is a goal. The Social Security Service already has a dense network of service points, with advanced IT-support.
In Ireland one focusses on social services. The lack of integration between various social services is a matter of concern. The services concerning adjudication of entitlements, to a pension, medical card etc, and payments, grants, cards, free travel passes ets are being integrated in a so called Integrated Social Service System ISSS (Dervan 1997).
In the Netherland pilot projects are being implemented to deliver integrated services to the citizens and businesses in the field of 'building and living', 'know-your-rights', and 'elderly and disabled persons'. These pilots aim to integrate the services of various ministeries, provinces, municipalities, and -as far as the 'building and living' desk is concerned- the Cadastre and Public Registers Agency. The Agency is even co-financing this project. Next to this activity, the Agency is transferring its public desk from its own regional offices to local municipalities, in order to provide a service point closer to the citizens.
In Spain a pilot project is going on called 'single window'. The three levels of government (central, regional and local) are involved, they aim for providing the possibility for citizens to have easy access to services and facilities by electronic means, and to effect transactions and operations electronically.
In Sweden a goverment committe reported october 1997 on how to provide essential official information to the citizens. Key words are accessability, service, quality, security and integrity.
In the UK the 'government.direct' initiative (1996) brought many interesting projects, like 'Direct Access Government', which is a one stop shop for all main government departments, like 'Geodata' which represents a completely new service for planning and construction industry, providing availability of high level geographical and geological data from six different goverment departments and agencies. The SCOTLIS initiative provides information on land and property in Scotland to individuals and businesses. SCOTLIS is a partnership between the Registers of Scotland, local authorities, Ordnance Survey and RICS in Scotland.
3.4 Trend
Observing the developments in many countries, we may consider the integrated service delivery from governments, agencies, provinces and municipalities to citizens and businesses as a trend, which will demand providers of geo-data (Mapping Agencies, Cadastres) to adopt this paradigm and cooperate in pilot projects.
4 DATA SHARING
4.1 Increasing use of GIS
With the introduction of low-cost, use-friendly, desktop GIS, the interest in using GIS-technology in government and industry has continued to increase over the past years (Lee 1997).
Especially at the local government level, GIS serves a tool for land management activities. Land information (legal situation according to private law, to public law, land use etc) as a consequence is destined to be one of the corner stones of a local authorities coorporate information infrastructure (e.g. Lilburne and Rix 1991). Justifying investments in GIS is not always easy because some of the benefits are to be considered as intangible 'soft' benefits, e.g. more rigorous data management, improved data security, improved access to data, and reducing the potential for maladministration and liability. Nevertheless the application of cost-benefit analysis seems to be possible, after exploring tangible and intangible benefits, costs involved, and the relationship between costs and benefits (Worall 1994).
4.2 Datasharing
It is well known that the costs of data procurement accounts for over half over the total system costs, may be even more (e.g. Lee 1997). Sharing and re-use of information can help to avoid duplication in data-capture and data-processing and thus will reduce costs and improve reliability.
Also the trend towards integrated service delivery requires datasharing, because communication between citizens, businesses and governemnt through a 'single window', the datasets of various departments and agencies are involved. In chapter 3 the 'front office' was being adressed, in chapter 4 mainly the 'back office' and these are to be seen interconnected.
4.3 Observations
Though in many countries attention is being paid to datasharing, I will observe only a few.
In Finland the use and development of so called 'national databases' is a permanent topic in the Advisory Committee for Data-administration in Public Management. This Committee is a body for municipalities and government for co-operation in IT. National databases are e.g. the register of population, the register of enterprises, the real estate registers, and the land ownership and mortgage registers. The databases are an important part of the national data infrastructure. The aims of the Committee are a.o. rational maintenance by data capture only where the data is 'born', doing datacollection only once, and sharing data as wide as possible (Kongas 1997).
In Korea recently was adopted the 'Rules and Regulations on Government Info-sharing', aimed to facilitate the flow of information across governmental departments, agencies, and local governments. Attention was paid to e.g. scope of info-sharing, co-ordination mechanisms, and security (ICA 1997).
In the Netherlands the National Council for Geo-information (RAVI) published a plan to re-structure geo-information infrastructure (1993, the plan will be reconsidered soon), with much attention to datasharing. In the field of geo-information the plan analysed the (then) current situation, and proposed to link 4 national databases in order to avoid multiple datacapture and maintenance: the population register from the municipalities, the register of private enterprises of the Chambers of Commerce, the databases of the Cadastre and Public Registers Agency, and a national register of houses and buildings. At date the population registers of the municipalities are being automated and linked together, establishing a national database, which is linked to the cadastral databases. A new law on the registration of private enterprises recently came into power, providing country-covering unique identifiers for enterprises (also small businesses); as a consequence the databases of the separate Chambers of Commerce will be linked together and also will establish a national database. This database will be linked to the cadastral databases in the foresee-able future, an agreement with that purpose was signed last december. A national database on houses and buildings however is still under debate; considering the various definitions of what is supposed to be a house and building (all tailormade for specific existing legislation), a great effort is required to bring parties involved together.
In Norway new institutions for common data have been established, for example a body for information about companies, and a cooperation between ministeries and the central bureau of statistics about collection of data from Norwegian municipalities (Sorgaard 1997).
A rather new phenomena is the (national) clearinghouse for geo-information. Such a clearinghouse, being a essential part of a national geo-data infrastructure, provides product-informnation from various sources by making meta-data accessable, and facilitates the acquiring of datasets (see supplement). For example: the Netherlands' National Clearinghouse for Geo-Information is a partnership of providers of geo-referenced datasets, like the Central Bureau of Statistics, the National Institute for Environment and Health, the National Research Institute for Agriculture and Soil Sciences, the National Topographic Service of the Ministry of Defense, and the Cadastre and Public Registers Agency (acts as chairman of the partnership). The European standard for metadata (CEN/TC287) is being applicated. The clearinghouse uses communication-networks e.g. the Internet to link computernodes which contain geographically referenced data in order to enhance the accessability , communications and use of geo-data. Experiments are going on with viewing geo-data over the Internet, using GIS-functionality for selecting, presenting, and analyzing of data, the so called 'geo-shop' (De Gunst and Van Oosterom 1997).
4.4 Trend
Observing the developments in many countries in the field of datasharing, the surveying community should be aware of adopting this development, by participating in datasharingprojects and by showing the willingsness to adopt appropriate standards.
5 INTERNET
5.1 Dissemination of geo-data
Disseminating geo-data through internet and intranets is becoming a beckoning prospect. (Black 1997) considers two nagging issues before this technology can reach its potentiel:
For both issues solutions are being developed, and more or less available (e.g. Black 1997, Batty 1997).
Of course the availability of digital geo-databases is being pre-supposed. In many countries the work to establish digital geo-databases is in progress. Denmark and the Netherlands finished recently the country covering digital cadastral map. Other countries will follow soon (with this respect small countries obviously have the advantage of being small).
An interesting taxonomy of potential network usage and attempts to identify the 'flash points' in access-to-information practices and policies between institutional plans and market realities, may be found in (Coleman and McLaughlin 1996).
5.2 Observations
How that may be, data dissemination by (closed) intranets may be come across in many countries (e.g. Sweden), but making data available (selling) on the public internet is still under research (e.g. Nordic Countries, the Netherlands, UK).
5.3 Trend
Taking into account the rapid developments in solving the problems in the usage of Internet (band with, vieuwers/browsers, transport-security, secure paying facilities) the potentials of Internet are a beckoning perspective for disseminating land information.
6 CONCLUSIONS
Without being a 'trend-watcher', some developments may be observed in so many countries, that they may function as trends, and should be adopted by the surveying community. They are:
What unfortunately could not be presented as a trend, is the harmonisation of real estate legislation in the European Community. Authorities do not agree on this point whether article 222 of the EEC-Treaty gives power to the European Commission to do so (Bartels 1996 is positive). This article says that the Treaty does not influence the character of property rights in the various member-states. The recently into power coming Time Sharing Directive 94/47/EC provides some legal protection for buyers of time-shares in property rights, anyway without trying to harmonise the chaos of different legal rights of time sharing as occurs in the various member-states. How that may be, keeping in mind chapter 2, a unified system of land registry and cadastre should not be aimed for in the European Community. However: we may think about a common set of minimum requirements for legal security for property rights to be met in all the menber states.
REFERENCES
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SUPPLEMENT
Interesting web-links
National Clearinghouses: