Cadastre and Land Information Systems for Decision-Makers in the Developing World

Abstract

Land Information Management Systems (LIM systems) for many African countries should be designed without a cadastral layer, as most countries have only about 1 percent cadastral coverage and the average GDP per capita of the continent is USD665. Joining LIM systems with cadastral systems has prevented the technical innovation required for the development of practical land information systems for poverty alleviation in Africa. Rather, a national spatial framework should be set up with visualization as its core component Such a framework could be used by a wide range of decision-makers, including nonspecialists. Linking mechanisms could be used so that the existing cadastre could be a sub-system of the LIM system, but not dominate it. Keywords and phrases: Africa, land information for decision-makers, inadequacy of cadastre, poverty alleviation, equity, new technical approaches, identifiers, reference frameworks, visualization, informal settlement INTRODUCTION This paper discu...