The future role of the cadastre

An important component of all nation states is building and maintaining a cadastral infrastructure. This includes cadastral surveys to identify and subdivide land, land registry systems to support simple land trading (buying, selling, mortgaging and leasing land) and land information systems to facilitate access to the relevant information increasingly through a web enabled e-government environment. For many cadastral officials and for much of society, this is the primary, and in many cases the only role of the cadastre. However the potential and role of the cadastre has rapidly expanded over the last couple of decades. Most governments assume that the primary task of this cadastral infrastructure is to support the operation of an efficient and effective land market. But what is a land market in a modern economy? Since our cadastral systems were invented, land commodities and trading patterns have undergone substantial changes: they have become complex, corporatised and international. Are our current cadastral systems designed to support a modern land market that trades in complex commodities such as mortgage backed certificates, water rights, land information, time shares, unit and property trusts, financial instruments, insurance products, options, corporate development instruments and vertical villages? Modern land markets involve a complex and dynamic range of activities, processes and opportunities and are impacted upon by a whole new range of restrictions and responsibilities now being imposed on land. They are continually evolving, primarily in response to economic energy and sustainable development objectives. They are also being driven by information and communications technologies. While modern land markets offer almost unlimited opportunities for cadastral systems to expand their relevance and usefulness, one commodity in particular - land information - has the ability of transforming the way both governments and the private sector in modern economies do business. The e-land administration concept as part of e-government initiatives is now being replaced by iLand – a new vision for spatially enabled land information. While the original purpose of cadastres was essential and useful in facilitating simple land trading to support expanding economies, and modern land markets with their complex commodities offer potential opportunities to take another leap forward, it is the land information derived from the cadastre that has the potential to transform the way modern societies function. It has the potential of transforming how tax is collected, how health services are delivered, how the environment and our cities are managed, how we respond to emergencies and terrorism, how wars are fought and how elections are run. Linked to such transformational technologies such as Google Earth and Microsoft's Virtual Earth, cadastral information has the potential for spatially enabling government (and society).17-22 Octobe