Digital Cadastres Facilitating Land Information Management

7. Design Issues 
Several issues are crucial to systems development as detailed in (Kurwakumire, 2013a) and in 
section 6 of this article. Digital cadastres, like any other information system, are implemented in a 
society or organisation. As a result, the implemented technology becomes part of the social system 
in which it is implemented. The social construction of technology is discussed in Pinch and Bijker 
(1987). To ensure successful implementation of a system, there is need to take the social 
interactionist role in order to: (1) explain, understand and analyse similar implementations, (2) 
identify problems and setbacks (organisational, technological, capacity) as well as good practices 

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and (3) develop a set of best practice procedures and strategies to foster a better and informed 
implementation. Among problematic implementation issues is failure to take cognizance of change 
management as it is crucial to the success of systems adoption.
Organisations are shaped by their own cultures, values and institutions. To foster change, 
organisational learning, which is also a process rather than a once-off activity, is crucial to the 
success of a digital cadastral implementation. The workers within the cadastral offices should 
understand and appreciate the need and benefits of transition to a digital cadastral information 
system. This should be coupled with staff development and training which should be done in a 
piecewise manner as the system is introduced. The introduction of the digital cadastre can result in 
organisational structure changes in which some departments and or sections can be eliminated while 
new ones may also be created. For a smoother implementation, there should be a mechanism to 
migrate and retain all employees within the new structures otherwise the implementation will face 
intensive resistance. However, with the initial implementation, it is likely that some processes need 
to be outsourced since conversion of analogue spatial data to a digital form takes considerable time 
and effort. Systems must be user centered and interactive (Kurwakumire, 2013a). This transforms 
users from passive to active users as demonstrated in the web 2.0 concept described in (De 
Longueville, 2010).