User Forum - Monetising Geospatial Value for Land Administration


Clarissa Augustinus
Chief Land Tenure and Property Administration
Section Shelter Branch Global Division
UN-HABITAT
Kenya


ABSTRACT
Most developing countries have less than 30 percent cadastral coverage. This means that over 70 percent of the land in many countries is generally outside the cadastre and land register. This has caused enormous problems for example in cities, where over one billion people live in slums without proper water, sanitation, community facilities, security of tenure or quality of life. This has also caused problems for countries in regard to food security and rural land management issues. The Global Land Tool Network (GLTN), a coalition of international partners, has taken up this challenge and is supporting the development of eighteen pro poor land management tools, to address the technical gaps associated with unregistered land. The products and tools being developed to fill this technical gap are a key value proposition of GLTN. Two of these products or tools will be highlighted, the Social Tenure Domain Model and the pro poor land records.

The security of tenure of people in the 70 percent areas is based on other forms of tenure, not individual freehold. Most rights and claims off register are based on social tenures. GLTN partners support a continuum of land rights, which includes rights that are documented, undocumented, individual and group, pastoralist, slums, legal, illegal and informal. This range of rights generally cannot be described relative to a parcel, and therefore new forms of spatial units and a domain model has been developed to accommodate these social tenures, termed the Social Tenure Domain Model (STDM) (Augustinus, Lemmen and van Oosterom: 2006). This is a concept, a model or standard, and a software. STDM has been supported by champions from the International Federation of Surveyors. It is currently being piloted and some of the findings will be reported. Also, the GLTN partners have developed a pro poor land records system (Zevenbergen, Augustinus, Antonio and Bennett: 2012), supported by the International Union of Notaries, which still has to be piloted. This system may well be the key for Western companies trying to manage reputation risk in Africa and Asia, when they acquire large tracts of rural land.

These two approaches should open up new markets to the land industry as the 70 percent off register land rights and claims are brought into the formal system over time. These two products are an emerging value proposition as they make it possible for all citizens to be covered by some form of land administration system, including the poor. They should increase the security of tenure of these people and supply other commodities. Like the conventional cadastre, a range of business processes for the public sector should be able to be built on top, such as the delivery of electricity, water and roads, making land markets more transparent and stable, information for city and rural land management (e.g. transport, watersheds). The 70 percent of people off register should be able to have similar, but not necessarily all the same, business process products or commodities as the current 30 percent of the people who have registered land rights.

Aside from land administration, some of the new types of commodities which can be linked to STDM are being piloted and some are under consideration. STDM is being piloted in Uganda by slum dwellers working with an INGO, Slum Dwellers International, and the municipality of Mbale. There STDM is supplying a spatial base to the participatory enumeration approaches used by civil society and the slum dwellers to improve governance and services. Some other commodities or uses which have been identified by potential users, once the open source software is released, are post disaster environments (Haiti), post conflict situations (DRC), for carbon sequestration, bee management and access to rangelands, community fishery management, city wide slum upgrading, community protection against eviction during land grabbing and first evidence of land rights through co-management approaches between the community and the state. The business model being used by GLTN partners to create and commodify these products is different and complex. The stakeholder community at this stage consists of GLTN partners which include donors such as Sida and Norway, international land research and training institutions, global INGOs and their associated national NGOs, big multilaterals like the World Bank, IFAD and FAO, and very importantly the global professional bodies such as the International Federation of Surveyors, the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors and the International Union of Notaries. It is this group of people that are funding, doing the research and development, and piloting these tools and products. They are doing it in a way that all partners and the public benefits. Many Dutch institutions such as ITC/UTwente and the Dutch cadastre have made a major contribution to the development of STDM and the pro poor land records. At this stage the tools are public goods. They have however not yet been institutionalised within government and that will be the next stage. It is likely that a range of business models will be built on top of these products/tools in the future.

The technical gap covered by STDM and the pro poor land records are in the critical path of the delivery of a number of the Millennium Development Goals namely, Goal 1 on food security, Goal 3 on the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women, and Goal 7 on ensuring environmental sustainability, including improving the lives of slum dwellers. Finally, using current approaches cannot deliver robust security of tenure, land information management, land administration or land management at scale, to a large part of the land in developing countries, both in the rural and urban areas. This gap is affecting the sustainability of the planet. GLTN partners are working to fill that technical gap both for people and for the planet.
Dr. Isaac Karikari
National Project Coordinator, GLAP
Ministry of Lands & Natural Resources
Ghana



ABSTRACT
The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) of Ghana, under the United States funded Millennium Challenge Account (MCA), assisted Ghana’s Lands Commission to introduce land title registration (on a pilot basis) to rural Ghana through a systematic title registration exercise. This initiative was different from the purely sporadic and voluntary approach that, until very recently, had been adopted by the Lands Commission for titling urban areas in Ghana. This was the first ever rural systematic land title registration exercise in Ghana. Various innovative interventions or strategies were introduced by MiDA for adoption and replication, including very intensive sensitization programs within affected Communities than had previously been done. The conversion of oral leases to longer-term written documentation of land rights that were registrable helped to migrate to Title Registration itself, using Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanisms as tools for conflict/dispute resolution. This Presentation deals with the strategic lessons so far learnt with MiDA’s Rural Land Registration Activity within the framework of the broader Land Administration Project, drawing out strategic and technical lessons for future implementation from both ‘Projects’. The presentation will show that the cost of titling a Parcel, from a range of US$43.67 to US$165.00 (depending on whether such items as survey infrastructure - the establishment of a Continuously Operating Receiver Station, for example - was included or not), imply that a country-wide systematic title registration in rural areas would have significant budget issues for Ghana. The Presentation would argue that Ghana’s relatively high unit costs for the ‘titling pilot’ are normal for a pilot and will decline substantially to between US$20 to US$30 per parcel with scaling up, and hence should not be interpreted as symptoms of inefficiency.
Jill Urban-Karr
Executive Vice President
Stewart Global Solutions Division – PropertyInfo Corporation
USA



ABSTRACT
Expanding Our Vision of Geospatial Technology Use: Holistic Thinking about the Enterprise and Geospatial Technology
The real benefits of geospatial technology are found (1) in the intra- and inter-organisational sharing of geospatial data and (2) the ability of geospatial software and analytical tools to reveal heretofore hidden relationships among data in disparate datasets. These benefits improve operations and lead to more sophisticated analysis, resulting in better service, cost avoidance and actual cost savings. Drawing on examples in North America, this presentation will demonstrate how geospatial technologies are used in various governmental units. The governments involved include county governments in the United States and several national governments in Central America and the Caribbean. The selected examples will illustrate several themes. One, of course, is the financial benefit derived from shared use of a common geographic database. Shared use of a common database eliminates duplicate data collection or creation and thus in itself saves significant sums. But beyond that, the examples will also show the ways in which geospatial technologies have (1) improved workflow and operational efficiencies in the land registration process; (2) prevented potentially costly errors in the land transfer process; and (3) improved revenue collection through the use of geospatial technologies in audits of local tax collection procedures. The presentation will conclude with an analysis of the problems encountered by these jurisdictions in the use of geospatial technologies and the reasons why the technologies have not been utilized as fully as they could be. The lessons learned will benefit other jurisdictions as they plan and implement their own use of geospatial technologies.
Dr. Eva Pauknerova
Senior Advisor - ICT Department
Czech Office for Surveying Mapping and Cadastre
Czech Republic



ABSTRACT
First records concerning an inventory of land within the territory of recent Czech Republic (Central Europe) are from the year 1022. The nearly thousand-year history of land administration went through different phases, including turbulent ones. Since 1993, the Czech Office for Surveying, Mapping and Cadastre (CUZK) 1), which is an autonomous supreme body of the state, coordinates and ensures the administration of surveying, mapping and cadastre in the Czech Republic. Current Czech Cadastre of Real Estate (KN) was established in 1993 and it has integrated the land registry (rights) and the records of real estate into one tool. The Information System of the Cadastre of Real Estate (ISKN) has been in function since 2001. This integrated information system provides support to both, the administration of the Cadastre and the user services of the Cadastre2). Newly, ISKN personates an integral component of the Register of Territorial Identification, Addresses and Real Estates (RUIAN), which was launched by CUZK successfully on 1st July 2012. RUIAN represents one of four Base Registers supporting public agendas and services in the Czech Republic3). Deployed 24x7, it also provides up-to-date information on selected territory for viewing by citizens4) and open data for further re-use. RUIAN is a significant element of Czech SDI and it will contribute with harmonized data to the INSPIRE5) in 2013. Land administration in the Czech Republic will be briefly introduced from the perspectives of (i) tools and products; (ii) the organisational model in context of Czech e-Government and (iii) challenges and benefits, to respond to the question: „How to convert data, information, knowledge and systems related to land administration into (societal or business) value and benefits ?“ The concept and development of RUIAN have established a new approach to up-dating and maintenance of spatial data in the Czech Republic. There are about 7000 authorities involved in the editing (including all administration levels - from local, regional to national). The authorized editors act (in their fields of competence) for municipal and building authorities, cadastral and statistical offices from the whole country. This cooperation model and ICT tools enable elaboration and maintenance of country wide data products, which are provided for users from both, public and private sectors. A broad practical use of KN and RUIAN is proved constantly by millions of accesses to related web-services. Czech case demonstrates, among others, the crucial role of efficient administration tools in the transformation process aiming to recover the country‘s economy and to build up a trustful public administration, as in the post-communist countries after the political changes of the year 1989.
Virginia Cram-Martos
Director - Trade and Sustainable Land Management Division
UN Economic Commissions for Europe
Switzerland



ABSTRACT
Land Management Challenges in Europe and Central Asia
Together, Europe and Central Asia constitute a vast and diverse region which faces a multitude of land management challenges and opportunities. Some of the most important regional challenges are how to:
  • Provide secure housing and property rights for the more than 50 million people who live in informal, unregulated housing
  • Improve systems of property registration and property rights in countries where private property ownership was unknown just two decades ago
  • Increase the use of e-government technologies, which provide unique opportunities (for new or more efficient services and greater access to data) and challenges (such as new threats of fraud)
  • Shape the roles and responsibilities of land registry, cadaster and related organizations in order to bring the most benefit to citizens
The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) works to improve land management practices in the region and so encourage economic development. It does so in close cooperation with its member States, and at their request, by: conducting workshops; undertaking original research; producing best practice guidelines; documenting case studies; and carrying out other activities in order to assist member States to explore these issues and take practical steps toward addressing them.
Tommy Oozeer
Project Manager
FPS Finance
Belgium



ABSTRACT
The CadGIS project is the ultimate result of the strategy initiated by the General Administration of Patrimonial Documentation (GAPD - part of the Belgian Federal Public Service of Finance) to modernize the cadastral map. This project consists in the implementation of the cadastral Geographic Information System (GIS). The project main objective is to manage the cadastral map and deliver the geographically referenced data in a more efficient and appropriate way. CadGIS will offer the Patrimonial Documentation agents an integrated tool relying on modern technologies. It will also offer to the citizens and the Patrimonial Documentation partners some simple but fast ways to obtain the geographic data while ensuring privacy. More specifically, the project aims to proceed with the improvement of the data intrinsic quality and the legal certainty. In this matter, the services of the General Administration of Patrimonial Documentation have already accomplished a large amount of work, mostly by making the cadastral map continuous. The CadGIS project is divided into two sequential phases. The first one, which has already been achieved, has delivered four web based GIS applications (also called viewers) and others services related with the INSPIRE directive that enable on-line visualization of the cadastral map. CadGIS is an e-government application. As such, it simplifies processes and makes the cadastral map information more easily accessible for citizens, partners, businesses and other local or national organizations. Besides the application basic mapping functionalities, the user has now the possibility to digitally order a legal cadastral extract document or a digital data copy in a more easy and convenient way. For authenticated users, the whole data delivery process is really fast and smooth. Launched in November 2012, a lot of users have been responding with interest and enthusiasm. The Administration is communicating as much as possible on this new system and is being more and more requested to contribute to Belgian and European geospatial forums and awards.
M.A. Louwsma
Senior Project Leader Spatial Planning
Cadastre, Land Registry and Mapping Agency
The Netherlands



ABSTRACT
‘Public participation in re-allotment’
A tendency in governance to give the public more responsibility is seen in the Netherlands. It is argued that people themselves know best what they want, so give them more power to interactively participate in public processes. Last decades, land consolidation was often started to realise certain aims which were laid down in spatial policies. Quite a few new nature restoration areas have been realised for example by land consolidation. Due to strong budget cuts the authorities have less money available to realise such goals. Besides governments land owners also significantly benefit from a better allotment. Especially farmers profit from a more suitable allocation of their parcels. A study conducted by WUR showed that the economic benefits range between €30 to €600 per hectare, depending on the degree of improvement and the size of the farm .
Public participation
Given the governmental budget cuts and the economic interest of farmers, it suits farmers to take responsibility for their own situation with respect to re-allotment. The role of government has often shifted to facilitating processes. With respect to these developments, public participation in land consolidation is evident whether it is through the use of internet or in a group participation setting. A small group of 8 tot 10 farmers sits together to make a new allotment plan.
Role GIS
A GIS facilitates the interactive process. A special workspace in GeoMedia has been made to ensure an immaculate administration of the re-allotment. This is strongly related to the role of Kadaster in land consolidation projects, namely guarantee legal certainty for all title holders involved. The juridical basis of land consolidation is described in the Land consolidation Act .
Sr Dr Zainal A Majeed
Director of Survey & Mapping
Department of Survey & Mapping
Malaysia



ABSTRACT
The development of generic geospatial dataset towards effective multi-purpose cadastre

The paper develops a strategy and work of GIS-based datasets using a module called GIS Layer Management system (GLMS) in the cadastral-based State Survey and Mapping Department of Malaysia (JUPEM). Multi-purpose cadastral has materialized to support the need of not only cadastral dataset but large-scale GIS layers to respond to demand of rapidly growing geo-information. JUPEM has geared up so that cadastral works in JUPEM are currently comprised of the assortment of GIS layers unified together with cadastral databases. Several data themes include hydrography, gazetteer, building, roads, villages and administrative boundaries. The research outlines task conceded using customized, existing software particularly used for cadastral job. Field data collection involves gathering of non-spatial information, populating of point and line data as well as practical delineation of boundaries. Digitization tasks were carried out utilizing aerial photograph, online Bing and Google Map, topographical map and gazetteer as the source data. Villages and land reserve boundaries were determined with the participation of chiefs of the village and their committee members. Non-spatial data collected in the field, were indexed and integrated with the spatial features in a spatial database. As for the delineation of village boundaries and electoral boundaries, field effort with survey team, the people, state authority and village’s chiefs as well as related agencies were carried out. This has been an organized participatory GIS works which eventually the team members have jointly recognized the gist of the task and the purpose of GIS mapping. Non-spatial information were collected and tabulated as attribute file in GIS. The structure table for the non-spatial data was formulated and used as the best informative assets that catered for the delineated region of the villages. The project has perceived the integration of field collecting participatory data, some source data for verification, the existing cadastral database and the GLMS module. With this prototype it is likely that the recognition of a generic and potential multi-purpose cadastral system will realistically transpire in Malaysia.
Frits van der Wal
Sustainable Economic Development Department
Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs
The Netherlands




BIO
Frits van der Wal studied Tropical Soil Science at Wageningen University in The Netherlands. Between 1980 and 1994 he worked as a land evaluation and soil scientist in Kenya, Mozambique and Tanzania. Between 1994 and 2001 he was team leader in integrated rural development programs in Tanzania. From 2001 onwards Frits works as the focal person for strengthening land governance in the Sustainable Economic Development Department of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In that function he regularly assists Netherlands embassies in developing countries in strengthening land governance. Frits is actively involved in the EU Working Group on Land Issues, the International Land Coalition, the Global Land Tool Network and the Netherlands Academy on Land Governance (LANDac).

ABSTRACT
In the last decade, The Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs has steadily increased its support to strengthening land governance in developing countries. Up to 2007, the focus was merely on improving land tenure security by strengthening land administration and land policy design processes. From 2008 onwards increased attention has been given to other aspects of land governance as well: conflict resolution, gender equality, inclusive economic development, investor-community relations, natural resources management and decentralization. With the long-term support to the International Land Coalition (ILC) and the launch of the Netherlands Academy on Land Governance for Sustainable and Equitable Development (LANDac), The Netherlands Ministry has become increasingly involved in national and international debates, research and advocacy. This has resulted in a catalytic role at global levels (e.g. in the context of the activities of the EU Working Group on Land Issues or the strengthening of the Global Land Tool Network) as well as increased support to in-country processes aiming at improved land governance and broad-based sustainable socioeconomic development. Against this back ground some lessons learned will be shared and discussed.
Booncherd Kidhen
Director General
Department of Lands
Thailand




ABSTRACT
Monetising Geospatial Value for Land Administration: Thailand Experience
Land is a precious property, capital and collateral to the security of family and social in many aspects such as residence, agricultural, industry, commercial and investment. Revenues from land transactions in Thailand contribute to the increase of government revenue at average of 50,000-70,000 million Baht with 5-7 million cases per year. The Department of Lands is responsible for issuance of title deed document (certificate of ownership) and certificate of utilization to private land holder with the objective to protect land boundary and right in land tenure of the people. As secure tenure in the form of a freely transferable title deed provides the incentive to capitalize on the asset through land improvement, the issuance of the title deed will increase the land value and open door to medium and long term credit. Security of tenure also fosters land markets and promotes investments in the land and its sustainable use, increasing productivity, raising incomes, providing employment opportunities, enhancing capacity building and increasing confidence of land and property owner in the protection of property as property is fundamental to their livelihood. The presentation shall focus on how Thailand is leveraging from land administrative practices and getting tangible and intangible value by applying geospatial tools for land administration.
Kevin Daugherty
World Wide Sales Manager
Land Administration Solutions
Trimble Navigation
USA


ABSTRACT
Geospatial Technologies Used in Land Administration
Many professional land administrators deal more with policy and procedures, than they do with technology. This presentation will open with a base understanding of the importance and relevance of land administration; to set the stage for the application of the newer positioning and geospatial technologies that are being used to measure and monitor land and land practices. Technologies will be categorized by type and function, with a discussion on the products (data) they produce; and the options for which technologies are suitable for different data collection approaches. The presentation will show how these technologies support GIS data management systems.
Aida Opoku-Mensah
Director ICT&S&T
UN ECA
Ethiopia



ABSTRACT
Land Administration Challenges in Africa
The management of land must be accorded priority attention in all countries in order to unlock the overall performance of national economies. This is best done through comprehensive land policies developed to address all the cross-sectoral needs and the unique circumstances in each of the countries. The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) has set out an exercise to develop some guiding principles to govern land management information systems in Africa. Some thirteen global principles give an overview of some broad concepts that system designers, managers, users and decision makers should routinely bear in mind in regard to land management information systems. Addressing is also critical to cadastre and to the delivery of services in today modern era. Regrettably, Africa still lags behind other regions in terms of providing permanent or transient addresses for better public services delivery (access to markets, emergency response, goods delivery, etc.) both in urban and rural areas. ECA has undertaken an innovative effort with the Government of Ghana to develop a Policy Framework for Addressing Systems (PFAS) in this country. The framework will form the basis to guide and coordinate all activities related to the development of urban geographic service infrastructure (including standards, interoperability, geocoding systems, etc.).
Alex Piliptchak
Sr. Director, Product Strategy
Thomson Reuters
USA



BIO
Born in Ukraine, Mr. Piliptchak studied mathematics and computer science in the University of Kiev and has worked in the software industry for more than two decades. Since the late 90s, he has focused on technology application for land information management in support of land tenure, equitable taxation, natural resource management and other adjacent areas. Through many years of work on numerous US-based and foreign projects, Mr. Piliptchak was able to gain a global prospective and experience in the field of land information systems.

ABSTRACT
New Era of Land Information
Benefits of using information technology to improve land administration and make it more efficient has long been recognized and continue being realized by government agencies. The industry, however, is undergoing revolutionary changes where the benefits of using comprehensive land information are recognized by private sector and government agencies not involved directly in land administration. Government agencies are pushed outside of their traditional public service space and challenged to establish information and service products similar to those successfully provided and operated by private sector in other industries. History and characteristics of successful information products allow us to understand challenges that government agencies inevitably face developing value needed to successfully monetize land information as well as the strength of private sector in overcoming similar challenges. The vision for symbiotic government collaboration with private sector and harnessing innovation, agility and strength of private sector companies is turning into reality, becoming a model for sustainable land governance.
Mihir Vardhan
Director Settlement and Land Records
Government of Goa
Government of India



ABSTRACT
Dharnaksh
By 2010, Goa had become the first State in the country to have 100% computerized land records, both the graphical map data as well as alphanumeric Record of Rights. All the Land Records departments’ offices across the State are interconnected on a State Wide Goa Broad Band Network and all activities of the department are computerized and online. In 2011, the department took a giant step forward in fulfilling its vision of “Land Records From Anywhere”, by undertaking the DHARNAKSH project, which envisaged implementation of information dissemination services over the web. In December 2011, a website was commissioned with facilities for viewing extracts of any land parcel across the State along with its integrated land use and ownership information. The website www.dharnaksh.com was initially put to departmental use as a part of beta testing and was opened to public in 2012. Public Users can also make an online payment and obtain a certified copy, either through online download or through post or by collecting it from any of the departments’ offices. The old system of manually updating the cadastral records on mutation, is replaced by a full-fledged GIS/LIS which has features for digital authentication of updates, archival of all old records for legal dispute addressing and Information Dissemination.