Systems Or Spatial Data Infrastructures - Essay Example

Land administration systems Name Institution Subject Instructor Date Executive Summary Various tasks carried out during land administration include; maintaining cadastral records, providing spatial consents of planning, taxation as well as, the evaluation process. There has been concern over the procedures followed in land administration in various countries. This paper provides a guidance of some of the techniques that are utilized at present land administration systems in various countries. This paper provides the comparison in land administration systems in Egypt and Australia. It provides a response that Land Administration systems (LAS) can implement to inefficiencies in land management or transfer of ownership to make property market more effective. This is an indication that, LAS has the authority over regulation of land and property transfer of ownership and ensures possibilities of bias and corruption of the interested parties are avoided. Table of Contents Executive Summary 2 Table of Contents 3 1 Introduction 4 2 Justification of Selected framework in case study countries 5 3. Evaluation framework and attributes of the selected framework 7 3.1 Cadastral Surveying and mapping 7 3.2 Land Adjudication 9 4 Comparison and contrast of land administration in Australia and Egypt 10 4.1 Similarities between Land administration in Egypt and Australia 10 4.1.1 Land registration 11 4.1.2 Land Valuation 12 4.1.3. Land-Use Planning 13 4.2. Contrast between Land administration in Egypt and Australia 15 5. Conclusion 15 1 Introduction In order to put forward measures that improve Land Administration systems, it is recommended that the purpose of existence of LAS is determined as well as, their functions. A number of real estate markets do not have the qualities required for the operation of an effective market as noted by Searle and Britton (2005). Procedures such as documentation of information regarding the tenure land use and control of the use of land, is regarded as means to an end and not the end on its own as noted by Steudler and Rajabifard (2004, p.379). As a result, Land Administration can be considered as a way in which policies of land tenure are implemented as noted by Enemark (2005, p.56). There are a number of processes and systems that are addressed by both formal and informal land administrations. These include; Protection of rights of land owners during allocation. Facilitating the transition of land from one individual to another through sale, or loan Addressing issues regarding rights of land boundaries. Regulation of land use through effective planning and application of land use laws to resolve conflicts. Evaluation and taxation of land to obtain revenues and adjudication of conflicts regarding land valuation. This paper provides an emphasis on the need to inform people on their rights in matters regarding land use by comparing Land Administration Systems used in both Australia and Egypt. As noted by Bell and Cleary (2001), it provides a system that can be used by any individual or organization to resolve land disputes through effective documentation in land registration or cadastral system. 2 Justification of Selected framework in case study countries Certain countries have been able to adopt LAS system and act as good examples to the world in adoption of systems of land administration such as cadastral systems. Australia is one of the countries where these administration systems have been successfully implemented. On the other hand, countries such as Egypt have relied on traditional methods of land administration as noted in World Bank (2003). Consequently, there have been difficulties in terms of land valuation, ownership, registration and trading. Apparently, presence of drastic changes in the ways in which LAS systems need to be applied in order to meet land use requirements (Rivera and Robert,2001, p.544). This is because, there is constant change in trading opportunities and products such as, use of mortgage-based certificates, provision of anti-trust commodities that has made control of land a complex issue. Thus, it is necessary to ensure that there is control over building structures; proper service provision, reasonable business processes and adequate planning of land use to ensure improved land management. Primarily, Australia is one of the countries that has been chosen as a case study country because of the overhaul of LAS system since early 1970s to ensure compliance with National Competition Policy, creation of legislative structures that incorporated all features that were involved in land administration such as, Registrar General and Surveyor General, enable professional handling of land issues in both the private and public sector (Wallace and Williamson, 2005). Furthermore, in Australia, there has been combination of management styles by using computerized technologies to manage data concerning land, wealth and enabling easy operation, valuation, planning and addressing registration issues with little difficulties. This is relevant to modern society where high response to sustainable development is improving and it can be useful in terms of administering difficulties in rights issues of land. On the other hand, Egypt has been selected because; issuance of land from one individual to another has mainly been in form security that signifies power and prestige. Due to continued increase of population along the Nile Valley and the Nile delta, there has been scarcity of land and thus the need to ensure effective administration of land resources as noted by Cracknell (2000, pp. 42-53). The administration system of Egypt responsible for land administration has evolved through a number of regimes a far as the reign of pharaohs, followed by centralised rules that were succeeded by decentralised rules (Kaufmann, 2000, p.208). These regimes have had effect on land administration system and there has been need to formalise the system. Egypt has also been selected for the case study because there has been realisation that a number of restrictions, rights and responsibilities regarding land ownership that are present but have not been formalized by the government as a result of certain policy matters (Searle and Britton, 2005). It does not indicate that these rights are inexistent, but that they have been ignored and have not been formalized. Egypt is illustrated the system of land administration and obtaining up-to-date information regarding Land Information System. This would suffice in cases where formalisation needs to be done by suggesting certain procedures that can be followed. 3. Evaluation framework and attributes of the selected framework The land evaluation process gives the manner in which the systems are holistically evaluated. This is related to the overall performance of the system. This is based on individual small unit of systems. The performance indicators would give the nature of the system as they relate to time, cost and the environmental perspective. Surveying techniques are used and this may involve the use of cadastral surveying and mapping. 3.1 Cadastral Surveying and mapping Cadastral surveying and mapping is the process of gathering and recording data regarding a piece of land. Generally, registration and survey processes are carried out at the same time when properties are being registered (Dimova, 2010). The main concern for cadastral survey is to obtain information regarding geographical location, size and shape of a piece of land. This system has mainly been used effectively in Australia in comparison with Egypt. Figure 1 Cadastral system In Australia, digital parcel maps are generated reflecting the land allocation processes, applications and allocation patterns and even provides photographs of these pieces of land. This is then documented in the countries digital database or DCDB (Wallace and Williamson, 2005, p. 103). However, its initial purpose was to ensure better internal management of taxation process but incorporated the process of land titling to support land transactions. Despite lack of popularity of this system of Land Administration System, a number of first world countries have been able to implement its use in management of land data. Australia's LAS started operating at the same level of the European counterparts and even improve on them. In Egypt, the role of land Registration is assigned to the Egyptian Survey Authority (ESA). This is where the agency assigns responsibility to real estate owners (Kaufmann, 2000). It is also responsible for describing, measuring the extent of land, collecting information and transfer of ownership documents to legitimate real estate owners. Surveying and mapping is done by ESA and all responsibilities of cadastre are assigned to ESA. 3.2 Land Adjudication In Australia, land owners are provided with security and proof of title and methods have been devised that enable smooth transfer of interests in land. The process of preparing and maintaining maps is done by the Director of Surveys (Searle and Britton, 2005). A concept of general boundaries has been introduced so that approximate situation of a parcel of land is indicated that cannot be altered without the consent of the registrar. The registrar has the responsibility of determining any dispute arising as to the position boundary by obtaining any evidence that can be relevant towards the solution to the problem. The map information is regarded as among the factors towards arriving at the truth and the registrar is not allowed to use evidence provided by the surveyor based on his personal interpretation of the map. In Egypt, the law recommends that ESA maintains base maps upon which the national inventory can be obtained as well as conducting a number of surveys necessary to map owners of a piece of land as well as determination of political and administrative boundaries. ESA also prepares survey books that are submitted to Real Estates and Tax Departments (Kaufmann, 2000). This assists in resolving cases concerning transfer and disputes over land between two or more people. 4 Comparison and contrast of land administration in Australia and Egypt Despite the differences in economic conditions, different geographical locations as well as, the systems of government applied in these countries, there are certain similarities and differences that can be drawn in their systems of Land administration. 4.1 Similarities between Land administration in Egypt and Australia A number of similarities can be drawn from Land Administration systems in Egypt and Australia. Some of these similarities are explained below. 4.1.1 Land registration Despite the difference in geographical locations of Egypt and Australia, both governments require land owners to register their lands in order to formalise the ownership of a piece of land. In Australia, land registry ensures certain interests of land are documented. These include information concerning the nature and spatial interest of the land such as the names of the person to whom the interest relates and documentation of evidence that is important in resolving issues regarding land ownership and also information that provides value for the piece of land as noted by Bennett (2009, p.97). In Egypt, following the reign of Muhammad Ali, tax farm system was abolished and legal and administrative authority was decentralized to ensure that custom and local interests had control over the disposition of land. Peasants were able to consider the land they owned as private and also treated it the same way. People were also allowed to have individual security of their land provided they paid taxes. In both Egypt and Australia, the following parties are involved in land registration system. -National governments who are responsible for provision of administration, taxation, market data and international harmonization of land policies. Regional governments that ensure spatial planning, provision of value to a piece of land, management and information concerning land ownership. Companies and individuals that have the security rights, provide social well-being, obtain mortgage for ownership of land and housing, and mobilize markets to facilitate property transfer and potential investments. The other land registration issue that is common in both Egypt and Australia is the uniformity of laws regarding land ownership (Cracknell, 2000:47). In Egypt, this started as early as the reign of Muhammad Ali who allowed uniform laws to be used based on logical laws used in the neighboring regions and having less foreign influence. The major principles that are currently being applied in land administration in both Egypt and Australia include the following. -During the transfer of ownership, the legal requirement in both Australia is Egypt is that the transfer cannot be effected until the change or the required right is obtained or documented in the land register. In addition, the rules require that the person that acquires the property must have give consent for the change of ownership in the registration documents. Furthermore, the principle of specialty is universally accepted in both Egypt and Australia and it requires that the persons involved in the land transfer process must be unambiguously determined. Despite the low level of implementation of these policies in Egypt compared with Australia, there has been certain observable implementation in terms of considerable improvement in terms land ownership such as, an increase in distribution of land ownership from 94% to64% during the reign of Muhammad Ali. In addition, the number of farmers that own land has increased from 0.4% to 34.3% the terms of which were under the control of land owners despite few leases having written agreements as noted by Kaufmann (2000, p. 210). 4.1.2 Land Valuation In both Egypt and Australia, land is regarded as an element from which the countries obtain their wealth. In economics, it is regarded as one of the factors that contribute towards generation of wealth. It is considered that, land contributes to more than 20% of the GDP in both Australia and Egypt as noted by Steudler and Rajabifard (2004, p.376). In order to contribute towards economic growth, land taxation is done in both Egypt and Australia. The advantage of tax on land is that it does not affect the economy in any way and also does not affect the manner in which resources are allocated in the economy. Taxes on land have been regarded as means of providing revenue and have been accomplished in two major forms. In Australia, the annual levy is used as a method of taxation (Wallace and Williamson, 2005). This is where the present value of a piece of land is estimated and its rental value is determined. In Egypt, levy is done on the peasant’s farms based on the types of soil, surface areas and geographical locations from the market. Levy on taxes in both Egypt and Australia has been accomplished as a result of adequate information regarding land registration. This information in the lands registry has provided the data that has been used to determine the right amount of tax levied on a person's land. 4.1.3. Land-Use Planning There are a number of objectives that are of benefit to land administrators that can be achieved through effective land use planning. In both Egypt and Australia, land use is monitored to determine areas where it can be put into production to ensure it contributes towards better productivity for its use. Under Land-Use Planning, there is also control of land use where the government has control over the way in which a piece of land can be put to use as noted by Bennett (2009, p.86). It also involves land consolidation where land is fragmented between a numbers of heirs in case it cannot produce. The other land use policy that is implemented in Australia and Egypt is the environmental impact monitoring. This has been done by ensuring the use to which land is put does not contribute towards environmental degradation. For instance, in Egypt cultivation along river banks have been monitored by ensuring soil erosion is controlled while in Australia certain areas of land have been restricted from logging to prevent exposure to deforestation. There has also been concern regarding regional perspectives with regards to land use in Australia and Egypt (Kaufmann, 2000). Initially, focus was placed on ensuring effective planning and control of land use in urban areas but currently increasing focus is being put on rural setup. This was aimed at giving attention to local inhabitants, their economy and geographical location in addressing their concerns such as the encroachment of urban centres into the countryside to ensure rural economies are preserved and enhanced. In Egypt, increasing urbanization resulted into encroachment of government land that resulted into the need to reclaim the desert and enable agriculture to be practiced in such places. This has not been easy to achieve due to high rate of migration of inhabitants from rural to urban areas. Furthermore, public participation has been emphasized as method of ensuring land management is a success (Wallace and Williamson, 2005). This has been attributed to criticism of the government and the continuous need to ensure economic values are implemented during decision making and democracy is exercised by allowing public participation. There has been a shift in the role of planners from that of ignoring public interest to that of facilitating the interest of various groups that collectively represent the interests of the public (UN ECE, 2005). For instance, in Egypt, The Egyptian Agrarian Reform Law of 1952 has been provided to ensure agricultural land is allowed to be used by the peasants without government interference, limitations have been put on dividing agricultural land and agricultural co-operative organizations have been formed for farmers that have acquired the requisitioned land. 4.2. Contrast between Land administration in Egypt and Australia A part from the similarities in land administration in Egypt and Australia, there are certain differences that can be clearly observed in the land administration systems of these countries. These differences have mainly been observed in the manner of implementation of cadastral land surveying and mapping processes. 5. Conclusion There are continuous changes taking place in the process of land administration in any country around the world. The major aim of any land administration system is to serve the land and real estate’s markets. It also recommended that current land administrators, surveyors and lawyers become aware of current effective methods of land administration systems and avoid the use of traditional methods of land administration. Observations indicate that land administration has been effective over the last few years and is regarded as an important tool for the government compared with the traditional understanding of the law as a method of safeguarding the security of land and simple land trading. Despite the advancement of Australian LAS systems compared with Egypt, it can be considered that Egypt has chosen the right direction in investing and improving their LAS system. The improvement of land administration systems in these countries will enable farmers in the Nile Delta keep their records regarding land efficiently and also resolve matters regarding land transfer and disputes. This overview of land administration systems in Egypt and Australia provides and challenge to land administrators to develop the more advanced administrative systems that enable the creation, administration and transaction of complex commodities specifically to use information regarding land use in a beneficial manner to the society and government in general. If land administration systems are not focused on provision of transparent and efficient land information to useful platforms, there may be difficulties in accomplishing sustainable development goals and achieving the economic viabilities. References Bell, K. and Cleary, M., 2001. Protecting the Integrity of Victoria’s Cadastre: Managing the Risk, A Spatial Odyssey. Available at: at www. csdila.unimelb.edu.au/ /dtl_publish/research/37/117018.html.../. [Accessed, 18 August 2012] Cracknell, E., 2000. Evaluating Development Aid – Issues, Problems and Solutions, 46,(1), pp.42-53. Available at: www graduateinstitute.ch/webdav/site/iheid/shared/.../na200910 [Accessed 18th August 2012] Dimova, S., 2010. The role of the Agency for Real Estate Cadastre in the establishment of the national spatial data infrastructure. International Conference on SDI 2010, pp.49-62.Available at: www.evkartenn.com/sdi-2010//pdf/Dimova.pdf, [Accessed 18th August 2012]. Enemark, S., Williamson, I & Wallace, J., 2005."Building Modern Land Administration Systems in Developed Economies." Journal of Spatial Science 50(2), pp.51-68. Available at: www.vbn.aau.dk/en/publications/building...in.../export.htm. [Accessed 18th August 2012]. Kaufmann, J., 2000. Future Cadastres: The Bookkeeping Systems for Land Administration of Critical Issues and Future Challenges. International Pty Ltd under a contract on Cadastral System, Land Administration.. Marine Policy. 30(3), pp.207-219. Available at: www.fig.net/pub/cairo. [Accessed 18th august 2012] Meha, M., 2008. Analysis of Cadastral Data in the Perspective of Land Administration in Kosovo. FIG Working Week, Stockholm, Sweden. Available at: www.fig.net/pub/fig2008/.../ts05h_04_meha_2714.pdf. [Accessed 18th August 2012]. Ristevski, J. A. and Williamson, P., 2001.The Reform of Statutory Regulations Relating to the Surveying Profession. Rivera, A., and Robert, C., 2001. "Resource Constraints In Information Systems Development: A Land Management Case Study." International Journal of Public Administration 24(6), pp.521-547. Available at :www. businessperspectives.org/component/option,com.[Accessed on 18th August 2012] Searle, G. and Britton, M., 2005. Government working together through a shared land information. Available at : www. vbn.aau.dk/.../Re-Engineering_the_Cadastre_to_Support_E-G... [Accessed on18th August 2012] Strain, L., Rajabifard, A. and Williamson,.P., 2006. Marine Administration and Spatial Data Infrastructures. Marine Policy. 30 (6), pp. 431-441. Available at: www.csdila.unimelb.edu.au/.../Reform_of_statutory_regulation. [Accessed 18th August 2012] Steudler, D., and Rajabifard, A., 2004 "Evaluation of Land Administration Systems." Land Use Policy 21(4), pp.371-380. Available at: www.gsdi.org/gsdiconf/gsdi10//TS12.1.pdf. [Accessed 18th August 2012] UN ECE, 2005. Land Administration in the UNECE Region. Development trends and main principles. United Nations EconomicCommission for Europe, New York. Available at: www.unece.org/env/documents/2005/.../ECE-HBP-140-e.pdf. [Accessed 18th August 2012] Wallace, J. and Williamson, P. 2006. Registration of Marine Interests in Asia-Pacific, 30(3) .pp207-219. Available at: www. 65.54.113.26/Detail?entitytype=2&searchtype=2&id [Accessed 18th August 2012] World Bank, 2003. Comparative Study of Land Administration Systems – Global Synthesis, New York. Available at: www.siteresources.worldbank.org/RPDLPROGRAM/Resources/459596 1161903702549/S8_Burns.pdf. [Accessed on 18th August 2012] Read More