Abstract

Paper
Transitioning to a Domesday Cadastre for the Colonial States
Track: Business
Authors: Edward OBrien

Transitioning to a Domesday Cadastre for the Colonial States

The time has come to modernize our land system to create an accurate accounting of the spatial limits of our most valuable asset; Land.

"Inadequate, archaic and inaccurate, are adjectives which may be applied to the present methods in constant use for describing property. They cause disputes, delay construction, and injure the title of the real estate involved. The economic loss and damaged confidence chargeable to this cause is considerable. The transfer of property incurs difficulties out of all proportion to its value in comparison with the transfer of any other form of wealth. Although apparent in a variety of forms, the underlying cause for this state of affairs can usually be traced to the lack of proper method of marking the ground." 1

D. David Moyer writes in a paper submitted for the Conference on Land Identifiers-The Problems, Prospects, and Payoffs (January 1972) " The problem of land description that Phillip Kissam addressed in 1936 still exist today. In fact, the problem has become more acute, not only because the description system is inadequate but also because of the rapid turnover of these parcels from one owner to another. The flow of data into, out of, and within the land-data system in the United States has increased at such a rate the entire system is in danger of breaking down under its own weight."2

Surveyors are experts at resolving individual Boundary issues, on a Parcel by Parcel basis. The Surveyor has an understanding of the rules of construction, based upon Common Law, precedents set by court decisions, and Statutory Law, and formulates an opinion of the location of boundaries that will be acquiesced to or stand the test of a trial. These boundary decisions end up as unreferenced monuments set in the field by an unknown Surveyor.

GIS offers the technology to develop a System approach to record the surveyor's individual results. A "Cadastral Network" or fabric of surveys can be modeled and recorded in GIS. In 1977 Don Wilson wrote: "Presently coordinates are not required in land surveys in this country. This law should remain as such until such a time as networks are densified to the extent that will make referencing surveys to the system feasible." 4 Every time land is transferred or land is improved a Survey should be done and it should be made part of the solution, made part of the "Cadastral Network" and not just propriety information to be lost to antiquity in the private files of the local surveyor.

How can we continue to describe land to the old oak tree that hasn't existed for two hundred years and expect that to sustain a viable business model? This paper/presentation will explore for the Colonial States the pathway to reformation of Title by rectifying Legal Descriptions, the need to register the results in an Authoritative Cadastral Geodatabase and the Legislative changes and Geospatial infrastructure that would be required to enact the changes needed.