On July 25 the Kadaster amended its general terms and conditions for the provision of its products and services, as a result of further insight into the Kadaster’s position as defined in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). A passage concerning invoicing has also been deleted.

View the current general terms and conditions for the Cadastre’s provision of products and services.

The Secretaria da Receita Federal, part of the Finances Ministry, is responsible for managing federal taxes. They integrate information about people and enterprises. 

Prepare pilot SINTER: a new integrated cadastral system

For land taxes, Receita Federal took part in a project of integrating their information with data of the Registration Offices and the INCRA (Rural Land Reform and Cadastral Institution), thus georeferencing 70% of the country surface in terms of land ownership. The next step for Receita Federal is to integrate the mapped urban information of all 5558 municipalities with all other available information. This is a challenge: Brazil does not have one nationwide land administration system, but many decentralized systems. The purpose of the study visit was to prepare a pilot for SINTER, the new integrated cadastral system in Campinas, Belo Horizonte and Fortaleza; cities with good urban cadastres.  

Sharing experiences

During the study visit, Kadaster shared experiences about the land administration process, property valuation and taxation, and the national spatial data infrastructure.

In March 2019 l’Agence du Domaine et du Foncier (ANDF), in partnership with Kadaster, commenced the first pilot testing new methodologies for optimising the process of cadastral data collection. The methodology should be fast, affordable and good-enough to meet the needs of all in society.

Inclusiveness is key

In the pilot taking place in Tori-Bossito (Southern Benin), a configuration of Emlid Reach GNSS rovers and base, combined with the MapIT GIS app, is being tested. Besides selecting the most appropriate equipment, we also design the optimal method of involving land owners, users, and key community stakeholders: inclusiveness will be key in the new methodology. Besides a methodology that fits the purpose for individual parcels, the pilot will reveal a realistic understanding of time and costs required to scale-up the approach for all of Benin.

That’s why the International Red Cross made a ‘Missing Maps’ appeal to the world. Several Kadaster employees used their free time to update the maps of the flooded areas, made available by the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap community.

Kadaster supports Beira

Kadaster is involved in a land administration project in the city of Beira. This city was hit first and is badly damaged. Fortunately, all produced data was saved thanks to periodic backups. The city hall, the project rooms and related equipment however were severely damaged. Kadaster is supporting the municipality of Beira in the needed reconstruction of the city hall. Together with all Dutch partners in this project, other project implications and related measures will be investigated.

Author: Martien Tomberg

Productive contributions

In addition, Kadaster actively contributes to various commissions, most notably 3, 7, 8 and the International Office for Cadastre and Land Records (OICRF). The commission work plans were presented and approved by the general assembly. Furthermore, a task force on Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) was launched to focus on how the SDG’s relate to the surveying profession.

FIG 2020 Amsterdam

Next year, 10-14 May 2020, we will welcome the FIG community to Amsterdam. At the closing ceremony, the FIG flag was handed over to the Local Organising Committee of Amsterdam 2020, led by our colleague Paula Dijkstra. We look forward to welcoming you all next year, where ‘Smart Surveyors for Land and Water Management’ can familiarise with the Dutch surveying profession.

Author: Marije Louwsma

Since 2017, Kadaster has been supporting its colleagues in the Western Balkan region to strengthen their professional access to information about land through this SPATIAL project: 8 agencies of 6 countries participated.

Sharing knowledge and experiences

More than 20 regional workshops were organized in which each of the participating organisations shared their experiences and knowledge on the selected theme of the workshop. Kadaster facilitated round table discussions and the definition of quick wins and actions for each organisation. The workshops, with over 240 participants, have strengthened the regional network, creating better understandings of the addressed topics.

North Macedonia  

The cooperation between the Agency for Real Estate Cadastre (AREC) of North Macedonia and Kadaster focused on three topics: implementation of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) Strategy; development of the Address Registry; and updating of the Topographic Maps.

Serbia 

The cooperation between the Republic Geodetic Authority (RGA) of Serbia and Kadaster focused on drafting the NSDI strategy and legislation; support for mass property valuation; strengthening institutional and organisational capacity on Open Data, Key Registers; and becoming a more service oriented organisation.

Bosnia–Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro and Albania

For Bosnia–Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro and Albania emphasis was placed understanding the organisational and technological state-of-play. This was achieved through organising regional workshops, focussing on themes related to spatial data.

Goals for future cooperation

After 27 months, we have a good understanding of the status of all 8 agencies, their needs and their wishes for future cooperation with the Netherlands. The aim is to continue the cooperation and further strengthen professional access to information about land at both national and regional level.

Land owners point the boundaries of their parcels using a GPS antenna. Local youngsters are being trained to use a dedicated app for the registration of boundary points and social data. You'll find more information about the project on the website landinpeace.com.

Watch the video on YouTube

Scope of the Evaluation

The evaluation is expected to cover the following programme components:

• Fit-For-Purpose Land Administration progress and  development (within this programme)
• Partnership performance
• Programme set-up and execution
• Recommendations for follow-up and scaling up (impact level)

The total duration of the evaluation will be 15 working days within the period of 25 June – 3 August 2018, and will result in an Evaluation Report written in English. 

Required Qualification  

• Profound knowledge and proven experience in Evaluation, Assessments and Monitoring of Development programmes, Government to Government projects and practical experience with the implementation of donor funded capacity building and knowledge exchange projects advising national and local governments in developing countries/countries with the transition economy
• Understanding of land governance and/or land administration issues related to implementation of the Fit-For-Purpose Land Administration approach
• Excellent writing skills
• Fluency in English required

The expert that is selected and carries out proper programme evaluation will be remunerated. Both professional and academic experts in the field of land administration are welcome. 

Application

A request for the Terms of Reference or any other queries can be addressed to Ms. Suzanne Valkman at kadaster.international@kadaster.nl. To apply, please send your motivation and CV to the same email address. Please note that the deadline for application is June 1st, 2018. It is our aim to have the selection concluded by 15th June 2018.

Imagine, you are a Nepalese farmer who wants to start an apple orchard on the land that belonged to your grandfather. Enthusiastically, you start planting the first few trees. You go to the bank to apply for a loan. But then they tell you that you need a certificate to proof you own the land. Even though your parents and grandparents have always worked this land, it turns out the land registry does not have this certificate.

Obtaining a certificate turns out to be more difficult than you expected, you become desperate and your family’s future becomes more uncertain every day. Why is the government making this so hard? It must be possible to simplify all this?

For 70% of the world’s population, a story like this is reality. These people are being chased from the land they have been living on for generations and generations. They are victims of conflicts over land, sometimes even resulting in death. A good land administration is the basis for a solid society. Legal certainty – knowing what belongs to whom – is of great importance. But often, the procedures to achieve this are complicated and not transparent. 

Together with the Netherlands’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kadaster is working on methods and technologies to make this process easier, more affordable and faster. Our ambition is land rights for all within one generation.

This animation film shows why things must change (length of film: 5 minutes).

The Kadaster in Jordan (Department of Land and Surveys; DLS) has the Prime Minister's assignment of being a paperless organization by 2020. This is not easy in a society where digital documents are not yet seen as reliable. In the end an efficient and transparent digital land administration system must be in place.

Digital land administration system

A first step towards this is to digitize all archives (both deeds and maps) and to integrate the files into the existing workflow. The Netherlands' Cadastre, Land Registry and Mapping Agency (Kadaster) helps DLS to develop a roadmap on how they can best handle this. Because of the experience in the Netherlands and in many other countries, DLS can learn a lot from both mistakes that were made and successes that were achieved. Eventually, a manual on how to handle this huge task ahead, will be the final product of this project.

In the presence of the Dutch and Swedish Ambassador, the agreement was signed by the Director General of DLS and Suzanne Valkman, Manager for the Asia and Middle East Region of Kadaster. 

23 May the 'Closing Ceremony' of the EU Twinning project took place. The Dutch Ambassador congratulated the Jordanian Department of Land and Surveys (DLS), the lead partner Swedesurvey and Dutch Kadaster with all the achievements and fruitful spin-off. The EU Delegation named the project: a ‘dream project’ and wished they had more of these well-running projects!

Simplify procedures en enhance capacity of employees

During the project, efforts have been made to reduce discrepancies between the cadastral map and reality on the ground, representing building information in the cadastral system, simplifying procedures and enhancing the capacity of employees. 

Less interruptions

Also, physical adjustments have been made in one of DLS's main Land Registry Offices. For example, there is now a front office and a back office, which makes sure that registrars and notaries can now work without being constantly interrupted by customers who have questions. One of the registrars spoke the memorable words: "I feel like I’m in heaven! At last, I manage to concentrate and complete the difficult files”. 

Kadaster has launched the game Move a Lot. Move a Lot is a puzzle game in which you re-parcel land within a certain time, solving spatial problems.

The central question of Move a Lot is: How do we best manage the little space we have in the Netherlands? While playing through the game you will encounter a wide range of topics such as: agriculture, infrastructure, real estate, water, energy and nature.

The strength of area development

The game is part of our program ‘The strength of area development’. This year we look at the fact that we have been playing a role in improving land use for a 100 years. We use this as an opportunity to engage our partners in talks about the future of land development. We also want to show how the Netherlands is developing spatially and raise awareness.

Curious?

Take a look at our trailer

You can download Move a Lot in the Apple app store and Google Play store.