Assessment of transparency and open data in land administration in Ecuador

Modern land administration systems face challenges such as urbanization, demand for natural resources, natural disasters, unsustainable land use, and land conflicts, among others; even the last COVID-19 pandemic created disruptions in the normal functioning of land administration systems. To overcome these threats, land systems must adopt models focused on intelligence, interoperability, inclusivity, interactivity, incorporation, and investment. In addition, these new models enhance transparency, accountability, reliability, and ease of use. Good land governance and information and communication technologies are the engines to embrace this change. The current research focused on using geoportals on modern land administration systems in Ecuador; geoportals are part of the outgoing change that aims to use new technologies and open data to offer new services and improve efficiency and transparency. Ecuador has no single land administration system; each municipality manages its cadaster and land registry and performs land use and valuation functions. The central government creates national policies and norms. Still, the local
governments are mostly autonomous, so local land administration systems adopt
new technologies based on their priorities and available economic resources. For the study, research was done on the online services offered by the 24 provincial capitals, specifically to know if they have active geoportals and what type of information is shared. The main themes or characteristics used to assess the active geoportals were (T1) cadastral information, (T2) thematic information, and (T3) collaborative interface; each theme has its sub-themes with given values for the posed scenarios. This characterization provides a clear overview of the technological transformation in land administration systems in Ecuador, its
diversity, and its adaptative capacity. It shows the tendency to adopt new
technologies, create new services, and the variety in information shared but also the need for standards and regulations for land information infrastructures and open data.