Network database design for conflict and post-conflict Land Tenure Information Systems (LTIS)

Alaa Dabboor,Michael Barry

doi:10.4314/sajg.v7i3.8

Abstract

The paper presents the Talking Titler Network (TTN) database design, for conflict and post-conflict land records. In conflict and post-conflict situations, the constellation of interests from displaced persons, witnesses, and people who currently occupy the land that displaced persons once owned are often difficult to unravel, and conventional land record data models are often restricted in the type and scope of data to handle these complex situations. One solution is a database design that can capture multiple, overlapping and layered tenure relationships in a changing environment that are too complex for the relational data model to handle. The Triple Store graph database development system and its ontology languages were used to design and develop the TTN prototype. The authors’ observations from the Gaza Strip, an ongoing conflict situation, and Somaliland, a post-conflict situation, were used as illustrative contexts. The test results show that graph database flexibly captured, described, and automatically revealed tenure patterns. TTN simplified the complexity of tenure relationships among objects by organizing them into sets of connected triples, revealing tenure relationships, and visualizing tenure information as a graph network, and as a table. The design shows promise in capturing complex, contested tenure relationships.

Highlights

It is seldom feasible to apply conventional land tenure administration approaches to conflict and postconflict environments as these may bias the holding of property rights in favour of particular groups, introduce inefficiencies, and possibly exacerbate the situation (Augustinus and Barry 2006)
(LTIS) database design, the Talking Titler Network (TTN), which is designed to capture structured and unstructured data and represent tenure relationships that may be too complex for a relational database to handle
Conventional Land Tenure Information System (LTIS) are seldom designed to support tenure security in conflict and post-conflict situations as their database design is too rigid for these situations as tenure relationships become dynamic and fluid in conflict and post-conflict situations

Summary

Introduction

It is seldom feasible to apply conventional land tenure administration approaches to conflict and postconflict environments as these may bias the holding of property rights in favour of particular groups, introduce inefficiencies, and possibly exacerbate the situation (Augustinus and Barry 2006). The TTN prototype uses a schema-less design model implemented in a graph network database, which should be better suited to complex tenure situations (Strauch 2009; Zicari 2015) It incorporates rudimentary data mining (DM) and social network analysis (SNA) techniques. The relational model may be ill-suited to the complexity inherent in some conflict and postconflict situations, where numerous many-to-many relationships may be represented in unstructured and conflicting data It is poor problem solving and strategy formulation practice to constrain a solution by adopting a particular database model or a universal standard upfront without first examining the different LTIS alternatives that may best fit a problem situation (Barry and Asiedu 2016). The TTN development methodology is described, followed by a discussion of the tests on the prototype

Conflict and Post-Conflict Situations

TTN Database Design Model

Data Mining and Social Network Analysis

TTN Development Methodology

TTN Database Test and Results

Conclusions