Reengineering cadastre and land registration systems and business opportunities

The international initiatives by various agencies (such as World bank, FAO, UN, FIG, etc.) suggest that cadastre and land registration systems are currently undergoing major changes worldwide. On such changes, the emerging trends focus on easy access to land, security of land tenure, establishment and operation of efficient land markets, formalization of property rights, incorporating customary and informal settlement areas, development of land information systems (LIS), etc. These trends have encouraged many nations to adopt land information systems by reengineering their land administration systems with uses of Geo-ICT and communication infrastructure, and to support the long-term sustainable development
including market economy.

While reengineering cadastre and land registration systems, the implementing agencies face many challenges in the issues of organizational, legal, financial and technical elements. These elements require tremendous efforts and cost.

This paper discusses firstly evolving trends on land administration systems in general to highlight the new requirements influenced by changing humankind to land relationships and user needs. Secondly some principles of reengineering are identified relevant to the cadastre and land registration systems where land information systems are part of Geospatial data infrastructure. Examples from Nepal and Bhutan are then summarized to assess the current situations of systems and needs for reengineering them are discussed. Lastly, cadastral domain models are proposed as a component of reengineering process.