SIE 526 Cadastral and Land Information Systems

Instructor:        

Professor Harlan Onsrud, onsrud@spatial.maine.edu, Rm 336 Boardman,581-2175, fax 581-206

Meetings:         

Tues and Thurs at 12:30 to 1:45, 336 Boardman

Description:     

Colonial Spanish, English, and French land records traditions and alternatives reviewed. Examines the goals and purposes of land tenure systems with attention to social, political, legal, economic, organizational, and technical issues. Explores U.S. modernization efforts and problems of developing countries. Lec 3.

Goals:  

(1) Consider some of the current land problems now facing a wide range of nations

(2) Explore the role of land titling and mapping in addressing those problems

(3) Become familiar with both colonial European and alternative cadastral traditions

(4) Become familiar with the goals and purposes of land tenure systems

(5) Gain an appreciation of political, social, and cost issues

(6) Gain an understanding of the organizational and technical issues that support such systems or improvement of such systems

(7) Look at some very practical guidelines for implementing land titling systems

(8) Consider land records modernization efforts in the U.S. (primarily deed recording system automation and ties to government GIS),

(9) Look at some cadastral project implementations worldwide.

(10) Critique the guidelines for improving land rights systems and develop further strategies.

Recommended Texts:

Land Law and Registration, S.R. Simpson (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ Press, 1976)

Land Information Management: An Introduction with Special Reference to Cadastral Problems in Third World Countries, Peter Dale and John McLaughlin (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988)

Land Registration: Managing Information for Land Administration, PhD Dissertation, S.E. Nichols (University of New Brunswick, 1993)

Land Registration and Cadastral Systems: Tools for Land Information Management, Gerhard Larsson (Harlow Essex, England: Longman, 1991)

The Other Path: The Invisible Revolution in the Third World, Hernando DeSoto (New York: Harper Row, 1989)

The Story of Land: A World History of Land Tenure and Agrarain Reform, John P. Powelson (Lincoln institute of Land Policy: Cambridge, 1988)