Land Information System

Abstract

A Land Information System is a broad-reaching and complex concept that easily eludes any simple definition. By its very nature it includes on the one hand, all those unofficial procedures undertaken by individuals or small groups aimed at identifying and categorizing distinct units of property over small extensions of territory, for private and restricted purposes. On the other hand, it describes the enormous undertaking required for the identification and categorization of every single unit of property (parcel) within a nation, under the direction of a single public authority on a permanent and continuous basis, for the purpose of providing the necessary information for, among other things, the taxation of property and the provision of land use information required for the preparation of urban and regional development plans. In between these two extremes lie numerous manifestations of ‘how,’ ‘by whom,’ and ‘for what end’ the collection and maintenance of data concerning land is undertaken. For the purposes of this article it will be defined as follows: a Land Information System refers to all land-related data banks that have the land parcel as the common geographic unit, and that by means of coordination and standardization together provide an integrated methodology for the collection, maintenance, updating, and utilization of land-related information. It can be conceived as the final product of a complete network of the following three general land-related data banks or land recording systems: 1—the cadastral survey; 2—the land registration system; and 3—all relevant public, private, and mixed land information sources.