Land Management and Development

Land management is the process by which the resources of land are put into good effect. Land management encompasses all activities associated with the management of land that are required to achieve sustainable development. The concept of land includes properties and natural resources and thereby encompasses the total natural and built environment. Land Administration Systems (LAS) are institutional frameworks complicated by the tasks they must perform, by national cultural, political and judicial settings, and by technology. This paper facilitates an overall understanding of the land management paradigm. The paper presents a model for sharing LAS among countries with diverse legal systems and institutional structures by identifying an ideal and historically neutral LAS model for: servicing the needs of governments, business and the public; utilising the latest technologies; and servicing rights, responsibilities, restrictions and risks in relation to land in support of sustainable development. The model is designed for developed economies but allows incremental adoption of the model by countries at transitional stages of economic development. The model reflects drivers of globalisation and technology development which support establishment of multifunctional information systems incorporating diverse land rights, land use regulations and other useful data. A third major driver, sustainable development, stimulates demands for comprehensive information about environmental conditions in combination with other land related data. It is argued that development of such a model is important or even necessary for facilitating a holistic approach to the management of land as the key asset of any nation or jurisdiction.