Data modeling and interoperability for an inclusive and distributed land administration system: the case of a LADM based country profile for Kenya

Land is a very important resource worldwide, ideally all sorts of livelihood depend on land directly to a smaller or larger extent. Management of land information is a great challenge globally, more so in developing economies such as in sub-Saharan Africa. A lot of land management practices have been inherited from generations past, while others were introduced by the colonial governments to African nations. Kenya is no exception, where most land information is stored in siloed and analogue formats resulting in data loss, duplicated records, access constraints, and time wastage leading to greater inefficiencies in land transactions.
There have been several attempts to model the cadastral data over time, especially via the ISO LADM standard in 2012 and profiles for different countries, nations and regions. However, it has not been possible to have a complete land administration process in most countries. This is because of a lot of resources and time required to do so using the conventional methods. Most developing countries have not recorded some tenure systems such as customary tenure and informal ownership of land. On the other hand, the LADM has not addressed how the rights of women and pastoralist could be recorded. These have led to the following problems: 1) Incomplete land administration for the whole country, 2) Unequal rights and responsibilities for land owners, and 3) Lack of interoperability framework for Land information.
This research addresses the above problems by developing an all-inclusive, interoperable and distributed Land Administration Domain Model (LADM) profile for Kenya. This is achieved through the following specific objectives; 1) Identify Kenya’s unique requirements for the development of the LADM country profile, 2) Develop an LADM profile for Kenya based on the requirements identified, 3) Develop guidelines for Data Exchange and Interoperability based on LADM Country profile using the ISO Framework for Enterprise Interoperability Standard and 4) Implement the LADM country profile for Kenya in a test environment following the data exchange and interoperability framework developed, with the aim of contributing to the achievement of the sustainable development goals (SDGs).
The research gathered and analyzed the needs that formed part of the requirements for the LADM country profile for Kenya. Both mandatory and necessary requirements were identified. Of special interest were the four unique issues for Kenya: gender recordation and rights, community land and rights, pastoralists’ temporal rights and informal occupancy and rights. These requirements were analyzed and used to develop a LADM country profile for Kenya. Based on the ISO LADM model, classes, attributes, codelists, associations and multiplicities for Kenya were modeled. In addition, external classes necessary for integration and for efficiency in data entry were identified and proposed for incorporation.
Based on the ISO Framework for enterprise interoperability standard and the country profile developed, a data exchange and interoperability framework for land administration was developed. This considered the interoperability concerns, addressed the interoperability barriers and recommended an interoperability approach suitable for land administration. This was then localized to Kenya, where the data exchange and interoperability framework was localized to Kenyan context. Testing of the implementation of the profile was done through the technology using the Esri’s GIS software and by stakeholders’ engagements in the field. The model developed and the tools used were found to be conformal and implementable. For implementation in a national production environment, a pilot for the same is then recommended before a nationwide rollout.
In consideration of the global sustainability goals, the Kenyan country profile developed was mapped to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to ascertain its impact in the attainment of the goals. Out of the 17 SDGs, 5 goals do not speak on land explicitly, being goals 4, 8, 10, 16 and 17, the other 12 had elements of land directly or indirectly. Specifically, for this research, goal 15 and targets 1.4, 2.3, 5.a, 11.1, 15.1 and 15.3 were mapped to be addressed directly by the country profile developed.
While this research suffered challenges with the COVID-19 pandemic and the piloting, the objectives were met and the questions answered. A limited fieldwork showed that the developed country profile contributes to the interoperability between the different land sector institutions in Kenya The research finally identified areas for further research especially with the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in data collection, use of innovative technologies such as smartphones, unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), and Machine Learning to complete land administration, change management in the modernization transition, and 3D modeling to include the sectional properties (apartments) as an important aspect for inclusion of real estate into the land administration system.