A cadastre (also spelled cadaster) is a comprehensive land recording of the real estate or real
property's metes-and-bounds of a country.In most countries, legal systems have developed
around the original administrative systems and use the cadastre to define the dimensions
and location of land parcels described in legal documentation.
The cadastre is a fundamental source of data in disputes and lawsuits between landowners.
In the United States, Cadastral Survey within the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) maintains
records of all public lands.
Such surveys often require detailed investigation of the history of land use, legal accounts,
and other documents.
Land registration and cadastre are both types of land recording and complement each other.
== Definition == A cadastre commonly includes details of the
ownership, the tenure, the precise location (therefore GNSS coordinates are not used due
to errors such as multipath), the dimensions (and area), the cultivations if rural, and
the value of individual parcels of land.
Cadastres are used by many nations around the world, some in conjunction with other
records, such as a title register.The International Federation of Surveyors defines cadastre as
follows:
A Cadastre is normally a parcel based, and up-to-date land information system containing
a record of interests in land (e.g. rights, restrictions and responsibilities).
It usually includes a geometric description of land parcels linked to other records describing
the nature of the interests, the ownership or control of those interests, and often the
value of the parcel and its improvements.
== Etymology == The word cadastre came into English through
French from Late Latin capitastrum, a register of the poll tax, and the Greek katástikhon
(κατάστιχον), a list or register, from katà stíkhon (κατὰ στίχον)—literally,
"down the line", in the sense of "line by line" along the directions and distances between
the corners mentioned and marked by monuments in the metes and bounds.
The word forms the adjective cadastral, used in public administration, primarily for ownership
and taxation purposes.
The terminology for cadastral divisions may include counties, parishes, ridings, hundreds,
sections, lots, blocks and city blocks.
Other languages have kept the original t sound in the second syllable (examples: Italian
catasto, German Kataster, Slovak kataster, Czech katastr, Spanish catastro).
In modern Greek, though, it has been replaced by ktimatologio (κτηματολόγιο).
== History ==
Some of the earliest cadastres were ordered by Roman Emperors to recover state owned lands
that had been appropriated by private individuals, and thereby recover income from such holdings.
One such cadastre was done in AD 77 in Campania, a surviving stone marker of the survey reads
"The Emperor Vespasian, in the eighth year of his tribunician power, so as to restore
the state lands which the Emperor Augustus had given to the soldiers of Legion II Gallica,
but which for some years had been occupied by private individuals, ordered a survey map
to be set up with a record on each 'century' of the annual rental".
In this way Vespasian was able to reimpose taxation formerly uncollected on these lands.With
the fall of Rome the use of cadastral maps effectively discontinued.
Medieval practice used written descriptions of the extent of land rather than using more
precise surveys.
Only in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries did the use of cadastral maps resume,
beginning in the Netherlands.
With the emergence of capitalism in Renaissance Europe the need for cadastral maps reemerged
as a tool to determine and express control of land as a means of production.
This took place first privately in land disputes and later spread to governmental practice
as a means of more precise tax assessment.
== Surveys ==
Cadastral surveys document the boundaries of land ownership, by the production of documents,
diagrams, sketches, plans (plats in USA), charts, and maps.
They were originally used to ensure reliable facts for land valuation and taxation.
An example from early England is the Domesday Book in 1086.
Napoleon established a comprehensive cadastral system for France that is regarded as the
forerunner of most modern versions.
The Public Lands Survey System is a cadastral survey of the United States originating in
legislation from 1785, after international recognition of the United States.
The Dominion Land Survey is a similar cadastral survey conducted in Western Canada begun in
1871 after the creation of the Dominion of Canada in 1867.
Both cadastral surveys are made relative to principal meridian and baselines.
These cadastral surveys divided the surveyed areas into townships, square land areas of
approximately 36 square miles (six miles by six miles; some very early surveys in Ohio
created 25 square mile townships when the design of the system was being explored).
These townships are divided into sections, each approximately one-mile square.
Unlike in Europe this cadastral survey largely preceded settlement and as a result greatly
influenced settlement patterns.
Properties are generally rectangular, boundary lines often run on cardinal bearings, and
parcel dimensions are often in fractions or multiples of chains.
Land descriptions in Western North America are principally based on these land surveys.
Cadastral survey information is often a base element in Geographic Information Systems
(GIS) or Land Information Systems (LIS) used to assess and manage land and built infrastructure.
Such systems are also employed on a variety of other tasks, for example, to track long-term
changes over time for geological or ecological studies, where land tenure is a significant
part of the scenario.
== Map == A cadastral map is a map that shows the boundaries
and ownership of land parcels.
Some cadastral maps show additional details, such as survey district names, unique identifying
numbers for parcels, certificate of title numbers, positions of existing structures,
section or lot numbers and their respective areas, adjoining and adjacent street names,
selected boundary dimensions and references to prior maps.
The U.S. NOAA Coastal Services Center (CSC) has released a cadastre web tool to illustrate
offshore wind power suitability of Eastern seaboard areas.
== Documentation == Cadastral documentation comprises the documentary
materials submitted to cadastre or land administration offices for renewal of cadastral recordings.
Cadastral documentation is kept in paper and/or electronic form.
Jurisdiction statutes and further provisions specify the content and form of the documentation,
as well as the person(s) authorized to prepare and sign the documentation, including concerned
parties (owner, etc.), licensed surveyors and legal advisors.
The office concerned reviews the submitted information; if the documentation does not
comply with stated provisions, the office may set a deadline for the applicant to submit
complete documentation.Despite the age of cadastre, the notion of cadastral documentation
emerged late in the English language, as the institution of cadastre developed outside
English-speaking countries.
In a Danish textbook, one out of fifteen chapters regards the Form and content of documents
concerning subdivision, etc.
Early textbooks of international scope focused on recordings in terms of land registration
and technical aspects of cadastral survey, yet note that 'cadastral surveying has been
carried out within a tight framework of legislation' (p. 28).
With the view of assessing transaction costs, a European project: Modelling real property
transactions (2001–2005) charted procedures for the transfer of ownership and other rights
in land and buildings.
Cadastral documentation is described, e.g. for Finland as follows '8.
Surveyor draws up cadastral map and cadastral documents .. 10.
Surveyor sends cadastral documents to cadastral authority.'
In Australia, similar activities are referred to as 'lodgement of plans of subdivision at
land titles offices'
== Management ==
Cadastre management has been used by the software industry since at least 2005.
It mainly refers to the use of technology for management of cadastre and land information
in Geographic Information Systems, Spatial data infrastructures and Software architecture,
rather that to general management issues of cadastral and other land information agencies
.
== See
also ==
== Notes