Digital Cadastres Facilitating Land Information Management

2. Problem Context 
Manual systems of managing land information and the resource of land dates back to antiquity 
with their use still found in developing countries such as Zimbabwe (Kurwakumire, 2007, 2013a, 
2013b), Uganda (Kurwakumire, 2009), Ethiopia (Lemmen et al., 2009) and Tanzania (Mwabujoko, 
2011). In industrialised nations such manual systems have been rendered obsolete and have been 
superseded by more efficient digital cadastral systems. Furthermore there has been a chain of 
studies on the development of cadastral models that can be adopted in the development cadastral 
information systems by different nations. The models provide a conceptual schema that’s guides 
systems development while addressing issues of interoperability and extensibility. These include the 
cadastre 2014 concept (Kaufmann and Steudler, 1998) the Core Cadastral Domain Model (CCDM) 
(Lemmen et al., 2003a; Lemmen et al., 2003b; Lemmen and van Oosterom, 2006; van Oosterom 
and Lemmen, 2003; van Oosterom et al., 2006), the Social Tenure Domain Model (STDM) 
(Augustinus et al., 2006a; Lemmen, 2010) and currently the Land Administration Domain Model 
(LADM)
(Lemmen, 2012; Tjia and Coetzee, 2012; Tjia and Coetzee, 2013; van Oosterom et al., 
2013). The LADM was accepted in 2012 as an international standard for land administration. Most 
developing nations are embarking on automation projects with a notion to develop systems which 

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are comparable and compatible to those in industrialised nations (Kurwakumire, 2013a; Ali and 
Shakir, 2012; Li et al., 2012; Tija and Coetzee, 2013). At the same time the hope to bridge the 
technological gap between the developing and developed nations with respect to land management. 
However, the building of a computerised land information system takes a considerable amount of 
time especially in developing countries where map (geometric) data has not been computerised. The 
need for easy access to cadastral records and efficient land transactions necessitates the need for an 
automated land management tool, essentially the digital cadastre. 
Zimbabwe is one such nation still employing manual and semi-manual techniques based on 
indices written on card files in surveying departments in municipalities. Automation can greatly 
assist local authorities in improving the service delivery (Bekkers and Zouridis, 1999). Cadastral 
data forms the basis of the operations of local authorities as all other activities are in one way or the 
other associated to land. Local authorities are responsible for the zoning, spatial planning and 
provision of public services such as housing, educational, recreation and health facilities among 
other things. A digital cadastre addresses issues such as ease of storage and back up, information 
sharing by different departments, secure storage and remote access to information while allowing 
the possibility for performing some but not all land transactions in real time. Extra manual checks 
and authentications are still necessary particularly in land sales and transfers due to the nature and 
volatility of the land resource. Field data collection in Zimbabwe is still incomplete (Kurwakumire 
and Chaminama, 2012; Kurwakumire, 2013b) with most maps outdated. There is no metadata 
catalogue for the available land information and there exist no standards for the development of 
cadastral systems.