6.4.22.6 Cadastral parcels

From Geostandards

The current version of the data specification is version 3.0. The document is available here.

This page currently contains the executive summary from the data specification document:

Purpose

Cadastral parcels are included in Annex I, which means that they are considered as reference data, i.e. data that constitute the spatial frame for linking and/or pointing at other information that belong to specific thematic field such as environment, soil, land use, and many others.

Process

INSPIRE data specification on cadastral parcels has been prepared following the participative principle of consensus building process. The stakeholders, based on their registration as a Spatial Data Interest Community (SDIC) or a Legally Mandated Organisation (LMO) had the opportunity to bring forward user requirements and reference materials, propose experts for the specification development, and to participate in the review of the data specifications. The Thematic Working Group responsible for the specification development was composed of experts coming from Denmark, Finland, France, Hungary, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom and the European Commission. The specification process took place according to the methodology elaborated for INSPIRE respecting the requirements and the recommendation of the INSPIRE Generic Conceptual Model, which is one of the elements that ensures coherent approach and cross theme consistency with other themes in the Directive.

The Thematic Working Group has established cooperation with other initiatives within the field, such as the Permanent Committee on Cadastre, EuroGeographics, the Working Group III of FIG (International Federation of Surveyors) and ISO TC 211 responsible for standardisation of geographic information.

Scope and description

The cornerstone of the specification development was the definition of the Directive on the cadastral parcels: “areas defined by cadastral parcels or equivalent”. In accordance with the particular legal system each Member State runs a related register under the responsibility of the government. Such registers are often called cadastre, sometimes land or other type of registry. Regardless of the name of the system the basic unit of area is the parcel. Cadastral parcels usually form a continuous partition of the national territory by the exception where some land owned by the governments is not subject of registration. The generic definition of cadastral parcels has been complemented by the Thematic Working Group to fit better with user requirements in the following way: the cadastral parcels should be, as much as possible, single areas of Earth surface (land and/or water) under homogenous real property rights and unique ownership, where real property rights and ownership are defined by national laws.

INSPIRE does not aim at harmonising the concepts of ownership and rights related to the parcels, but focuses on the geometrical aspects as presented in the national systems of the Member States.

Cadastral parcels in INSPIRE should serve the purpose of generic information locators. Having included the reference to the national registers as a property (attribute) of the INSPIRE parcels national data sources can be reached. Using this two-step approach other information, like rights and owners can be accessed fully respecting the national legislation on data protection. The data model for INSPIRE cadastral parcels has been prepared in a way that supports compatibility with the upcoming international standard on Land Administration Domain Model. The Land Administration Domain Model (LADM) provides a wider context for the INSPIRE cadastral parcels because LADM includes additional information on rights (bound to national legislation) and owners, which are outside the direct scope of INSPIRE.

The wide range of use-cases analysed by the Thematic Working Group allows meeting the expectations of various user communities in fields of agriculture, disaster management, soil protection, environmental public right management, public land management, urban planning, utilities, land use, and many others.

Data specification

The core element of the INSPIRE cadastral parcel model is the cadastral parcel. It is described by some mandatory elements such as geometry, unique identifier16, cadastral reference17 and the label of the parcels that supports their identification on printed maps. In case of availability Member States are also requested to supply information on the area of the parcel, when the parcel has been created/changed/retired, and the reference point, which is especially useful for visualisation.

The management of cadastral parcels in some countries reflects historical subdivision, i.e. intermediate units such as municipalities, sections, districts, parishes, urban and rural blocks, etc. Very often these units carry information related to all parcels belonging to the same unit, for example information about accuracy of measurements or the scale of original mapping. In order to refer these units with a common name the Thematic Working Group has introduced the notion of the cadastral zoning. Member States should decide about the usage of zonings in INSPIRE according to their organisational structures. Besides of carrying metadata information zonings also support portrayal and data management, especially data search. When the option of using the cadastral zonings is selected they have to be supplied with the same properties under the same conditions as stated for cadastral parcels. When several levels of zonings exist in a Member State it must be ensured that the higher level units are composed of those of lower level.

Cadastral boundaries as separate spatial objects have to be delivered only in case when information about data accuracy is associated with them.

Member States where national cadastral references are given on basic property units and not on the level of cadastral parcels have to supply them together with their cadastral reference, unique identifier, area, and the related temporal information.

Interoperability is further supported by the requirement that cadastral parcels have to be published in the ETRS89 or (when applicable) the ITRS reference systems, which is commonly used in INSPIRE. When Member States need a common projection system for a cross-border application the selection must be agreed and documented by the interested parties.

Comparable data on top of harmonised specification elements create additional value for achieving interoperability in INSPIRE. For this finality the data specification on cadastral parcels includes recommendations on minimal data quality: on the rate of missing elements, positional accuracy and update frequency. It is highly desirable that Member States consider them when they further develop their cadastral systems. Regardless whether these recommendations are met, the real values of these data quality elements have to be published as metadata usually at dataset level. For delivery of positional accuracy there is a triple choice: statement related to the whole dataset or, as mentioned before, an attribute attached to the cadastral zonings or the cadastral boundaries.

Metadata at dataset level also has to contain information about the lineage, i.e. condition of creation and transformation of data. The Thematic Working Group has provided a template for lineage to help cadastral producers to document the remaining national specificities that are inevitable even when data is published in an interoperable way for INSPIRE. It is expected that cadastral parcel data fulfilling the related INSPIRE specification allows an easy delivery according to the INSPIRE Implementing Rule on Download services.

For visualisation purposes, simple rules for portrayal are given specifying the layout of the borders of cadastral parcels and the cadastral zonings and the cadastral boundaries together with the related labels. These portrayal rules have been defined for several ranges of scales.

Conclusion

The main value of the INSPIRE Cadastral parcels model is its simple, yet flexible structure that allows data providers to publish their existing data in the most convenient way. It is also expected that those INSPIRE themes that are listed in Annex III and are related to cadastral parcels (buildings, soil, land use, utility and governmental services, area management/restriction/regulation zones and reporting units) can re-use and/or further develop the concepts of the current cadastral parcel model.

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