Investigating the conformity between the land administration domain model and the Vietnamese land administration system

LADM is the conceptual schema on cadastre which is derived from Core Cadastral Domain Model. It was submitted to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) with a desire to design and develop land administration systems (LAS) more efficiently and effectively. It is important that, if Vietnam wants to apply LADM to its LAS, the conformity between this system and LADM need to be investigated. In this paper, the similarities and differences about goals, concepts and some classes between LADM and the Vietnamese LAS are described. In Vietnam, land by law is belonging to all people with the State acting as the representative owner. It means that the citizens only have user rights on land, and therefore are qualified as "land user", but not "land owner". However, land users can have ownership on immovable properties associated with land. Therefore, there is a clear separation between rights on the land parcel and properties associated with it. Another important issue is to determine the source of land use. Depending on types of land use source, rights, responsibilities, restrictions or financial obligations shall be different. Thus, an issue is raised as how to present these characteristics in the model. Based on a literature review about LADM, understanding Vietnamese LAS, and analysis of users’ requirements, it can be seen that the adoption of LADM in Vietnam is possible. By the comparison in terms of what LADM classes can be applied directly, and what LADM classes have to be modified to be suitable in Vietnam LAS, this paper shows the country profile for the Vietnamese LAS. Some new classes are added in the model as DC_ParcelSource, DC_Forest, and DC_PerennialsGarden. DC_ParcelSource is a subclass of DC_Source which is the description of land use source for each land parcel. DC_Forest and DC_PerennialsGarden are subclasses of DC_SpatialUnit. These results contribute to more complete land administration model in Vietnam based on LADM and to lay foundation of modernization of Vietnamese LAS.