Land Administration - Part 1
2.1. Land Administration
2.1.1. Land
The concept of land includes properties, utilities, and natural resources, and encompasses the total natural and built environment within a national jurisdiction, including marine areas (Williamson, et al., 2010).
Land can be viewed from a variety of perspectives, depending on the context within which it is being discussed, as exposed in Figure 4.
Figure 4 - Perspectives on land (United Nations, 2004)
Therefore, land has many different meanings in a society, and even to the same person. Those could include (Zevenbergen, 2002):
- economical asset (for industry, but especially for commercial farming);
- social security (especially for subsistence farming);
- place to live (compare the Habitat Global Campaign on Secure Tenure);
- ‘a family heirloom’ (like castles and mansions in England):
- power base for jurisdictions (governments in exile miss this very much);
- place to put down transport links;
- places of social-cultural importance (worship, historical monuments etc.), etcetera.
The way it is ‘defined’ differs between those approaches. Land is preliminary defined by the use of patterns, which if enough individualized and supported at some point by a legal construct, can be ‘owned’. Even then a difference can exist between ownership and use (…) (Zevenbergen, 2002).
The role of land in the economy of each nation is not always obvious, but is of great significance. Without secure land rights there can be no sustainable development, for there will be little willingness by local people and by foreigners to make long-term investments. At least 20% of the gross domestic product (GDP) of most nations comes from land, property and construction (UNECE, 2005).
The land sector in a particular country is evidently a complex system composed by quite an extensive list of technical and legal aspects that have direct impact on economic development and environmental as well as social dimensions. Land policy, as the overall guideline for the formulation of regulatory frameworks and tools with respect to land and stating the values and objectives to be followed by the land sector, sets the basis for the construction of healthy land tenure systems (Antonio, et al., 2014).
As shown in Figure 5, under these frame conditions, there are a number of hierarchical levels. In this regard, Enemark (2009) cited by (Antonio, et al., 2014), argues that this hierarchy shows the complexity of organizing policies, institutions, processes, and information for dealing with land in society. This conceptual understanding provides the overall guidance for building a land administration system in a given society, independent of the level of development. The hierarchy should also provide guidance for adjusting or reengineering an existing land administration system.
Figure 5 - A comprehensive representation of the land sector (Magel, Klaus and Espinoza, 2009), based on Enemark, 2006 cited by (Antonio, et al., 2014)
It is now internationally accepted that poverty, land rights, conflict and the sustainable use of natural resources are correlated, and that secure access to land for the rural poor is fundamental to improving their livelihoods. Furthermore, asset ownership by the poor is increasingly recognized as essential to sustained, broad-based economic growth (ILC, 2005).
Land is thus a scarce resource involving a wide range of rights and responsibilities. When poorly managed, it can become contentious often leading to disputes, conflict, degradation and other problems, all of them drivers of slum development and poverty in urban areas (Clos, 2011).
PS: This text is extracted from my Master's Thesis in GIS and Science (published at RUN: The implementation of an Enterprise Geographical Information System to support Cadastre and Exp... ) Dissertation's State of Art Chapter 2.
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