Dr. Daniel Steudler
Scientific Associate
Federal Office of Topography
Swisstopo
Switzerland

Biography
Dr. Daniel Steudler has a degree from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, Switzerland, the University of New Brunswick, Canada and from the University of Melbourne, Australia. In 1985, he earned the Swiss license for licensed land surveyors, and since 1991 he is a scientific associate with the Swiss Federal Office of Topography swisstopo, active for the Federal Directorate for Cadastral Surveying. Since 2006, he also is part-time lecturer at ETH in Zurich and Lausanne. Since 1994, Daniel is involved in FIG-Commission 7 activities, first as co-author of “Cadastre 2014”, then as chair of several working groups and as chair of the FIG-Task Force on “Spatially Enabled Societies”.

Abstract


This presentation will give an introduction into the cadastral system of Switzerland, its historic background, legal principles, and organizational and conceptual elements. It will also look into the challenges that are waiting in the future and how the professional community is preparing itself. Two years ago, Switzerland celebrated the 100th anniversary of cadastral surveying, based on the introduction of the civil code in 1912. Over the years since, the sound legal basis was translated into a reliable and widely accepted cadastral system – consisting of the land registry and cadastral surveying – securing a total real estate value of over EUR 2,000 billion, which constitutes a significant element of the national economy. The cadastral system nowadays is managed and maintained in digital format, which has legally and conceptually been defined in 1993. With the basic conceptual elements introduced at that time, cadastral surveying laid out the basis for the ensuing developments of a spatial data infrastructure in Switzerland. Based on those conceptual elements, Switzerland started a new project in 2012 in order to extend the purpose of the cadastral system: in addition to the traditional private-law rights, this project now introduces public-law restrictions into the cadastre, providing more transparent and more complete information about land and its legal facts.