Land Information Systems

The need for land information

• There is a growing need all over the world for land as a
basis for planning, development and control of land
resources.
• Continuing expansion of production in the industrialized
world exerts increasing pressure on scarce natural
resources.
• Similarly pressures on natural resources in the 3rd world
stem mainly from unabated population growth.
• The two basic forces driving the current interest in LIS are
1) The demand for quicker access to more and better land
information at a reasonable cost
2) The stream of modern technology useful for LIS
improvements e.g. GPS, Remote sensing, computers, etc
 The concept of LIS
• LIS- acquiring, managing, retrieving, analysing, displaying land records.
• FIG Definition
• A Land Information System is a tool for legal, administrative and
economic decision-making and an aid for planning and development
which consists
➢ a database containing spatially referenced land-related data for
defined areas
➢ procedures and techniques for the systematic collection, updating,
processing and distribution of the data.
The base of a land information system is a uniform spatial referencing
system for the data in the system, which also facilitates the linking of
data within the systems with other land-related data
The concept of LIS
 Typical LIS
• Cadastre as a primary component
➢ broad context -- description of legal and fiscal interests in land
➢ typical context -- land ownership records
• Legal cadastre - parcel-based description of interests or rights in
real property; typically supported by titles or deeds, and registry.
• Functions of a legal cadastre:
➢ define property rights (often in conjunction with formal and case law)
➢ describe the extent (spatial, sometimes temporal) of property rights
➢ support land transfer
➢ provide evidence of ownership (e.g., using land as collateral)
➢ program administration (e.g., enforcement of laws, targeting of
incentives)
➢ public land management
 Typical LIS
• Fiscal cadastre - property valuation and land
taxation.
• Functions of fiscal cadastre
➢information base for property taxation
➢distribution of funds from public programs
➢monitoring and supporting land markets
➢information for growth management and land
use planning
 Typical LIS
• maintained by unit of government responsible for
tracking land ownership, control
• parcel-oriented
• hard copy maps and/or CAD or GIS software for
spatial representations
• relatively large (cartographic) scale (e.g., 1:4800 in
rural areas, 1:1200 in developed areas)
• bridge between legal (e.g., deeds) and technical
(e.g., maps, GIS coordinates) land descriptions
• may incorporate other technologies
 Typical LIS
• maintained by unit of government responsible for
tracking land ownership, control
• parcel-based
• hard copy maps and/or CAD or GIS software for
spatial representations
• relatively large (cartographic) scale (e.g., 1:4800 in
rural areas, 1:1200 in developed areas)
• bridge between legal (e.g., deeds) and technical
(e.g., maps, GIS coordinates) land descriptions
• may incorporate other technologies
 Parcel-based LIS
• A parcel is a unit of land with homogeneous tenure
interests.
• Why are parcel-based land information systems of such
importance?
➢ A primary reason is that much of human life, human
activities and human property have meaningful links with
specific pieces of land
➢ However, Parcel numbers do not express the geographical
location of a property directly. This has led to the idea of
geocodes.
 Parcel-based LIS
Geocodes

• These are normally the co-ordinates of boundary points or of a certain

point on the parcel such as the centroid or the principal building, if any.

• Geocodes permit a direct relationship between the information and its

geographical location.

• In this way all information stored in the data system in question can be
automatically transcribed on to maps.

• The information is no longer tied to a certain administrative area, but can

be included in any selected and delimited area.

• Parcel-based information systems, therefore, have great flexibility

 Land unit identifier
• It is essential that every unit in an LIS be uniquely
identifiable.
• This is of special importance in a parcel-based land
information system where the land unit identifier is the
common key, linking different land databases.
• The simplest identifier is a unit designation, which reflects
the sequential order of registration in a countrywide or
provincial system
• However, this kind of designation does not give any
indication of location, and it becomes impractical with
increasing numbers of units and subdivisions
 Desirable features of a land unit identifier
• Easy to understand;
• Easy to remember for the landowner;
• Easy to use by the public and administrators;
• Permanent, not requiring change in case of sale, etc.;
• Capable of being updated at subdivision or amalgamation;
• Unique and with perfect correspondence between record
and ground;
• Accurate and unlikely to be transcribed in error;
• Flexible enough to be used in all forms of land registration.
• Economical to introduce and to maintain.
Types of identifiers - Hierarchical identification systems

1) Volume and Folio

• Vol.45 Fol.175 --- the unit is described on the 175th

page of the 45th volume, which normally also
indicates the sequential order within the
registration district of the first registration of the unit.

• It is a simple system

• However, retains many of the drawbacks of a

system based strictly on the order of registration.
Types of identifiers - Hierarchical identification systems

2) Plan number and unit number

• This is often a number of the survey plan according to

the date of the survey, with the land units numbered in
some consecutive order within the plan.

• An alternative is to use the number of each

topographical map-sheet and to assign numbers to the
units within a sheet in a certain order (according to time
of registration or according to geographical position).
 Types of identifiers - Hierarchical identification systems
3) Municipal unit-block-sub-block-land unit number.
• A municipal unit such as a county, city, town, township or municipality is
subdivided into blocks, within which units are numbered in some consecutive
order.
• The divisions are often based on existing sub-units such as those town blocks
or on administrative-historical boundaries such as those of parish or village.
• The parish or village name can be used as a designation, but is often replaced
by serial numbers, especially in connection with data processing.
• A unit may, for example, have the number 12-08-15-045, meaning unit no. 45
within village no. 15 within parish no.8 within municipality no.12, while on a
daily basis, only the village name and unit number are used.
Types of identifiers - Hierarchical identification systems

4) Municipality and street address.

• A serial number can be substituted for the name of the
street.
• The street address is probably the most widely
understood of all identifiers, but not all land units are
located alongside a road or have natural link to a road.
• Neither are streets and roads always permanent.
• However, the street address is often used parallel with
other land-unit destinations.
Types of identifiers - Grid identification systems

• A grid is a set of mutually perpendicular and horizontal

lines forming equal squares on a map, used as a
reference for locating points and areas.

• Grid co-ordinates are a pair of numbers which locate a

point in terms of its distance from two given axes.

• The grid may be related to latitude and longitude.

 Types of identifiers - Grid identification systems
• Grid co-ordinates or geocodes are very useful for locating parcel-
based information in an automated system, and they are included
with increasing frequency often in land unit records.
• However, they are rather impractical as identifiers because of
their many digits which make them awkward for the general user.
• For example, if the co-ordinates are 1234/5678, one could present
them as 15/26/37/48 by pairing numerals in corresponding
positions. The first two digits would then represent a higher
geographical block, the next two a lower one, etc. for most
purposes, one could omit the 15/24 and refer only to 37/48
Types of identifiers - Hybrid hierarchical identifiers

• For example, the province and the county could be

identified by the name or number, while further
identification of the land unit could follow a grid
method.
Types of identifiers - Hybrid hierarchical identifiers

• For example, the province and the county could be

identified by the name or number, while further
identification of the land unit could follow a grid
method.
 The benefits of properly implemented LIS
• Increased security of land titles
• Significantly reduced times for land transactions
• Greater transparency and traceability of land
transactions
• Reduction in fraud
• Reduction in corruption in the land sector
• Increase in the reliability of information about land
resources (quantity, quality & ownership)
• Use of evidence-based decision making in
government programs
• Increased confidence in the land administration
system
• Increased access to credit