Towards a Malaysian Multipurpose 3D Cadastre based on the Land Administration Domain Model (LADM) – An Empirical Study

One of the important global issues with regard to property is the scarcity of vacant land for development. Many countries, including Malaysia, do not have enough vacant land on the ground surface to cater for rapid development. In the last couple of decades, there has been an increasing demand for property development in urban areas, resulting in the division of property ownership so that different owners can own a delimited space on, above or below ground surface. Under 3D cadastre, the 2D cadastre management of data cannot meet the real land management of the three dimension space aspect and property. It is essential to introduce the 3D cadastre of Three-Dimensional National Digital Cadastral Database (3DNDCDB) management model. Since the individualisation of property has traditionally been concerned with the subdivision of land using on surface boundaries in the cadastral system, it is appropriate now to consider how three-dimensional situations should be handled from the legal, technical and organisational aspects, and how other countries have addressed similar issues. This paper solely concerned with the theoretical aspects of the study, particularly land, land administration system, land information system and cadastre system. It covers the definitions, history and components of each concept related to properties. It also covers and explains the theory and framework of the Malaysian Cadastre System, good governance involved in land administration and cadastre. The present 2D National Digital Cadastral Database stored information in 2D planimetric. After taking consideration the framework of LADM’s core classes and the design concept of it, therefore, choosing a 2D/3D Hybrid Cadastre model since it is suitable for the current situation in Malaysia. In order to achieve the objective, some of these matters must take into consideration, i.e. (a) Method of data collection (b) Adjustment and calculation of observed data (c) The products, and (d) Changes to the format and structure of existing system. It is hoped that this study will provide a better understanding of the nature of 3D-NDCDB, besides adding new information to the available literature in the field. I envisage the main contributions of this study to the present knowledge to be in the cadastral survey and mapping, and land registration practices in the Malaysian Cadastre System from the legislative and technical viewpoints