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February 2004 |
Spatial data, good governance and society
Recently it is more common to use the word governance (and especially good governance) to characterise the administrative and policy processes. The critical characteristics of good governance have become:
- Accountability
- Transparency
Their successful pursuit depends to a considerable extent on the successful adoption of appropriate information technologies and the corresponding adjustment of organisational structures and procedures. Recent developments in informatics enhance networking and the establishment of multi-party information infrastructures. These, in turn, help create the enabling environment for customised demand-driven data capture, data processing and information presentation. Close connection of information with organisational mandates and management processes can thus be designed and maintained.
Influence on Land Administration and Cadastre
The developments of the past 20 years have strongly influenced the institutions of land administration and cadastre. Land administration is described as all the processes that deal with tenure, use, value and management of land (Enemark, 2001). Tenure, use and development (value) relate to land and property (land parcel+building).
Management is the task of controlling land development in order to balance economic growth and environmental protection under criteria of sustainability and equity. Permit systems are used to control developments. Governmental reform has influenced tenure and land markets. Large amounts of titles have been given in settlement formalisation procedures, land restitution and privatisation processes. Low interest rates have been a stimulus for property development and an active land market. Rise in property prices has stimulated consumer confidence. Property development and property prices have also been a stimulus for the revitalisation of property taxation as traditional (decentralised) tax.
Private landed property plays an essential role in market economies and represents a great part of the national wealth. Land administration, comprising land registration and Cadastre, is therefore a cornerstone of society and governance. Accessible, affordable and good quality land information is also important to comply with criteria of good governance.
Cadastral data is considered the backbone of the spatial data in modern market economies. Together with the base topographic data, they are referred to as ‘foundation data’ (Groot, Mac Laughlin, 2000) and play a major role in the discussion around the establishment of spatial data infrastructures.
The topographic data provide the ‘land’ basis, which describes the territory, and provide a complete spatial partitioning (Molenaar, 1998). The cadastral data describe the man-tenure-land relationship. Cadastral data often do not make up a complete spatial partitioning. Both data sets share the geodetic network. A cadastre can become a multi-functional institute (Williamson, 2000).
The Bathurst and Bogor Declarations are clear examples of new visions for the institutions of Land administration and Cadastre. In practice though, politicians, managers and technicians in cadastral organisations do not commonly share these visions and often still perceive the cadastre as 19th century fiscal institution.
Cadastral Development projects In Argentina
The past 15 years
Argentina, a federation of provinces, used to be a highly centralised state. The Argentine Government has adopted neo- liberal concepts in the past 15 years. A governmental reform programme included a great amount of decentralisation to the provinces. World Bank loans have been provided to finance tax reform and provincial development projects. Each province has its own cadastre, making up for a total of 23 provincial cadastres and one for Buenos Aires Capital District. The Argentine cadastres have traditionally been predominantly fiscal cadastres. As part of the provincial tax reform programmes, property taxes were to be revised and updated.
Cadastral development projects have therefore been initiated during the 1990s. The objectives of these projects were largely to have an up-to-date set of parcel-based data, which would serve fiscal cadastral processes. The economic justification of the projects was provided by the increase of property taxes. The major increase of income came from an update on the building data. Identification of non-declared build-up areas was already accountable for an increase of 10-30% of tax income, even with old values and tax rates.
In the development of these projects the tax focus has been dominant. The fiscal parcel (which is not necessarily the same as the legal parcel) was the prime geospatial object. In urban areas, aerial photography provided the basis for an update of the data. This was complemented with a building census to provide new data for valuation. Expectations of provincial and Central politicians (as well as officials from the World Bank) were focussing almost entirely on the revenue side of the projects. Support for the development of multi-purpose Land Information Systems was far more difficult to obtain.
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