The empirical approach to strengthen coordinated cadastral database accuracy

Abstract

The coordinated cadastral database in Malaysia is known as National Digital Cadastral Database (NDCDB) with an expected accuracy of ±10cm in rural and ±5cm in urban area. Till date, there are approximately 7.8 million land parcels and 22 million boundary markers in the NDCDB for the whole of Peninsular Malaysia and Federal Territory of Labuan covering total area of 132,183 km2. Since 2010, NDCDB block adjustment has been carried out continuously without giving prime concern to eliminate gross errors in the adjustment’s input data. This approach aims to propose a methodology to improve the positional accuracy of the existing NDCDB through utilisation of the current eKadaster application. A comprehensive investigation in the office and field processes has been carried out to prove the efficiency of the methodology introduced. This investigation was focused on the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) right of way (ROW) survey from Dungun to Besut where displacement of 1 to 6 meters relative to the NDCDB coordinates, as shown in the Land Acquisition (LA) Plan, have been identified. Areas involved are coded as Block T10701, T1100101 and T1100102 which are located in Lubuk Kawah and Pelagat Sub-districts, in the state of Terengganu. Positional accuracy of the NDCDB after adjustment was further verified by comparing the coordinates of randomly picked ground proofing points in the field using Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) observation. This will determine the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) of the respective NDCDB Block based on actual observations and adjusted coordinate values. With that, it can be concluded that the proposed approach is reasonably practical and capable to improve and strengthen the positional accuracy of existing coordinated cadastral database used in Malaysia.