Description
Land is a fundamental resource within the economic, social, and environmental spheres that requires proper administration and management for efficient use. Conflicts over land rights and access can arise from poor land management, which exacerbates social inequality and impedes sustainable development. With the increasing pressure on land resources due to population growth and urbanization, effective land administration and management are essential to ensuring political stability, social justice, and sustainable development. Despite its long history in land administration practices, Ethiopia confronts challenges due to rapid urbanization. Uncontrolled urban expansions towards the periurban areas would lead to inadequate use of land resources and the consequences thereof. To this end, modernizing land-related information and services is crucial for early urbanization. In addition, as a member state of the United Nations, Ethiopia has to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), most of which demand a wellfunctioning land administration system. Contemporary land administration and management systems depend heavily on the cadastre, which needs frequent demand to keep up with the constantly shifting dynamics of man-to-land connections. However, the traditional surveying fieldwork for cadastral mapping and refresh is time- and resourceconsuming. While better cadastral system development solutions are available with technological advancements, developing nations may not afford to implement them. The Fit-For-Purpose Land Administration (FFPLA) concept provides an alternative approach that can be applied for rapid and economical cadastral mapping and refresh. It suggests imagery over the total station field survey, general rather than fixed parcel boundaries, and a relative rather than absolute level of spatial accuracy for cadastral mapping. FFPLA further encourages the application of emerging geospatial tools and open-source software solutions. Thus, this study intended to investigate the relevance and refine the FFPLA concept for Ethiopian peri-urban cadastral mapping, using emerging geospatial technologies and open-source software solutions for (semi-) automatic extraction of parcel boundaries. Accordingly, four interrelated studies were designed and pursued to achieve the main objective. The first study examined the cadastral information demands of peri-urban areas in Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia. It also studied how the FFPLA approach is refined and extended to peri-urban cadastres. The study revealed that the current approach to cadastral development demonstrates FFPLA characteristics and is adaptable to peri-urban areas but with improvements to the political, legal, xiii spatial, institutional, and technical constraints. It suggested integrated geospatial technologies for spatial data capture and comprehensive up-skilling of the existing workforce. The study suggested integrated geospatial technologies for spatial data capture and comprehensive upskilling of the existing workforce for enhanced FFFPLA implementation. The second study reviewed global FFPLA implementation practices and innovative approaches for land tenure security, examining contemporary articles from land administration discourse. It identified successful FFPLA implementation practices in Asia and Africa, which can be extended to rapidly urbanizing areas. However, it recommended further research to determine the efficacy, practicability, innovativeness, and transferability of the identified best practices. The third study investigated the application of the AFE approach for cadastral mapping in one of Addis Ababa's periurban areas. It outlined a workflow for (semi-) automatic extraction of parcel boundaries from high-resolution images, utilizing open-source software solutions. The quantitative assessment achieved 52% correctness and 32% completeness in urban cadastres, meeting the country's spatial accuracy limits. The visual inspection confirmed the complete extraction of newly constructed boundaries. Although further checks and expert feedback are necessary, the study illustrated the potential use of AFE for affordable, reliable, and rapid cadastral mapping. The fourth study tested an AFE approach in collaboration with the USAID Land Governance Activity (LGA) Ethiopia branch for peri-urban cadastral mapping in Dukem. The quantitative assessment provided 66% correctness with the complete extraction of available parcel boundaries. The SWOT analysis revealed appealing strengths and opportunities with controllable weaknesses and threats. The LGA experts evaluate the approach and proposed it for cadastral mapping in peri-urban and emerging towns; but further enhancement and testing with different land administration settings are recommended.| Period | 26 Oct 2023 |
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| Examinee | Mekonnen Tesfaye Metaferia |
| Examination held at |
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| Degree of Recognition | International |