8 COVER STORIES European Cadastres and National Mapping continued from cover Lithuania’s Cadastre, Valuation, and Address Management System Lithuania’s State Enterprise Centre of Registers (SECR) is responsible for the nation’s real property cadastre and register, address register, and register of legal entities. It also performs real estate valuation for taxation purposes. SECR uses Esri technology for computer-assisted mass appraisal and to update, manage, and distribute cadastral and real estate information for some 2 million land parcels, 700,000 buildings, and 500,000 engineering constructions and utilities. All of Lithuania’s real estate records and cadastral data are integrated into one system. The digital cadastral map contains a wealth of information on administrative boundaries of counties, municipalities, cities, and settlements; centerlines of streets and roads; cadastre units and blocks, land parcel boundaries, and reference point coordinates; centroids for buildings and addresses; centerlines of engineering utilities; valuation zones of real properties; topography; and orthoimagery. Prior to registration in the real property cadastre and register, SECR’s 11 branch offices use the KADAGIS cadastre GIS application to remotely update the cadastral map. Using ArcGIS and the .NET Framework, KADAGIS has more than 50 user-friendly functions that efficiently control and speed up operations, such as data entry, editing, quality control, and updating of the central cadastral database. Updated cadastral parcel boundaries are entered from either coordinates or vectorization of scanned and georeferenced maps. Parcel areas and distances between boundary vertices are automatically checked. Additional Recent Deployments in Ukraine, Russia, and Bulgaria Strengthen Land Information Management Across Europe Highlights „ Esri’s GIS platform technology is used by many of Europe’s NMCAs. „ Surveyors are able to submit cadastral data electronically. „ A new case handling system brings both text registers and cadastral index maps into an integrated GIS. and value of land but may also include information on land use; legal restrictions; regulations concerning how land can be used; and the registration of important assets or infrastructure, such as utilities. As the demands on Europe’s national mapping and cadastral agencies (NMCAs) increase and their role continues to broaden, the fundamental importance and value of using GIS also grows. GIS technology allows NMCAs to not only run their core business national cadastre effectively and efficiently but also integrate it with other themes of information in the national SDI. In so doing, NMCAs can meet many other requirements for land and geographic information, particularly in the context of sustainable development and better land management. Esri’s GIS technology is the preferred platform of many of Europe’s NMCAs. Cadastral and land registration systems vary across Europe, reflecting different historical backgrounds, cultures, legal frameworks, and organizational models. The following examples show how Esri is supporting successful cadastral systems across Europe. attribute information is either entered manually, such as survey type and name of surveyor, or generated automatically, such as cadastral unit and block codes, municipality code, and parcel centroid coordinates. The system supports 700 checkouts for disconnected editing each day. Providing access to the wealth of information managed by SECR is a critical and important task, as users—including private surveyors, banks, real estate agents, and citizens in general—demand more and better land information services. SECR has taken advantage of ArcGIS Server technology to support a number of applications, from browsing and viewing data to updating and integrating new data in its central registers. A cadastral maps web application allows users to obtain information on real property cadastre and register data, property addresses, and valuation zones by searching by unique identifier, address, or geographic location. Private surveyors can also use the application to upload new cadastral (parcel) surveys in a variety of formats and compare them with existing registered parcels to ensure that parcel boundaries are correct. SECR has also launched a lightweight web browser application that allows private surveyors and SECR staff to enter new data directly into the central cadastre database. This ArcGIS Server application eliminates the need for a desktop application to produce cadastral survey documentation. With just a web browser and a variety of editing tools on the web, a surveyor or SECR staff member is able to submit cadastral data electronically without paper cadastral files and manual data input. The system also includes digital signatures, which are already used by notaries who approve real estate deeds and other administrative documents. Further operational efficiencies are being realized through the Address Register application, implemented using ArcGIS Server—Java, which allows municipalities to update address data, along with coordinates, directly to the central address database. ArcGIS is also an important component of SECR’s mass appraisal system, supporting taxation of real property. Because the system is GIS driven, it is possible to compute property values using a range of different characteristics, such as valuation zones, land use, area, year of construction, and building materials used. Tax formulas can be automatically applied and computed, and periodic revisions due to changes in law or tax fees can be easily accommodated. Through the application of GIS technology, SECR is able to largely automate the process, minimizing human intervention, saving time and costs, and ensuring repeatable and reliable results. Sweden’s Automated Cadastral Workflow Lantmäteriet is responsible for Sweden’s cadastral services, managing information for approximately 3.2 million properties. The Swedish cadastral system is well regarded worldwide for its effective land legislation and administration. Since the late 1990s, ArcGIS has been an important component of the overall system. It supports many aspects of land administration in Sweden, including surveying and mapping; real property formation; production of cadastral maps; public utilities mapping; property valuation and tax assessment; and national, regional, and local planning. Through the implementation of ArcGIS software with other technologies, such as GPS, and new working methods, Lantmäteriet has been able to improve the efficiency of its cadastral procedures. These efficiency gains have been partly realized through better workflow and job management. Using GIS, the system ensures that legally defined procedures are followed in a unified production line. Users are taken through each stage of the process, from fieldwork and computation through data processing and documentation to the final storage of the data. Commands from a job are automatically stored to be available the next time the job is opened. Recently, Lantmäteriet initiated a new project to deliver further efficiency through the implementation of a new case handling system that brings all property information together—both text registers and cadastral index maps—into an integrated GIS. The goal is to create an efficient cadastral procedure with which most customers can create their own cases (subdivisions) and automatically validate them against the property formation rules stored in a GIS database. This new cadastral case handling system is part of a service-oriented architecture, whereby more general systems (e.g., financial and document systems) are connected. A central component of the system is the process engine, which has the ability to hold a cadastral case together throughout the process. The GIS solution is based on ArcGIS. The data in the GIS database comes from different sources and is validated among other controls with the topology rules built into the GIS database environment. In parallel with building up the new case handling system, an ongoing project at Lantmäteriet stores and delivers object-oriented land and property information in a central database. The new cadastral case handling system Green represents European cadastral and national mapping organizations using Esri technology.