Detailed Report
List of Participants
Executive Summary
The 1996 Annual Meeting of FIG Commission 7 was officially opened by Professor Detrekoi (President of the Hungarian member society of FIG) who spoke of the importance of cadastre and land management and wished the meeting every success. Ian Williamson (Chairperson of Commission 7) thanked Professor Detrekoi and also welcomed Mr Bartosch (Secretary-General of the Hungarian member society) and 60 participants from 30 countries and the 17 accompanying persons. He then gave a background to the history of Commission 7 and its current operations through its three working groups. Finally, he highlighted the support given by France, Switzerland and Germany to bring observers from 7 countries to the 1996 annual meeting. Ian Williamson also noted the acceptance of 7 new delegates and 4 new corresponding members to the Commission since the Delft meeting. Special mention was made of the appointment of FIG Past-President, Mr Earl James (Australia) as a correspondent to the Commission.
Activities since the 1995 Annual Meeting in Delft
Ian Williamson
Chairperson - Commission 7
22 August 1996
Detailed Report
Monday 17 June (Session 1)
The 1996 Annual Meeting of FIG Commission 7 was officially opened by Professor Detrekoi (President of the Hungarian member society of FIG) who highlighted the importance of cadastre and land management and wished the meeting success. Professor Detrekoi also welcomed a special guest to the meeting, Mr Fritz Hrbek who is the former President of CERCO. Ian Williamson (Chairperson of Commission 7) thanked Professor Detrekoi and also welcomed Mr Bartosch (Secretary-General of the Hungarian member society) and 60 participants from 30 countries and the 17 accompanying persons. He then gave a background to the history of Commission 7 and its current operations through its three working groups. Finally, he highlighted the support given by France, Switzerland and Germany to bring observers from 7 countries to the 1996 annual meeting. The official roll call was conducted and apologies noted (see attached list). Ian Williamson also noted the acceptance of 7 new delegates and 4 new corresponding members to the Commission since the Delft meeting. Special mention was made of the appointment of FIG Past-President, Mr Earl James (Australia) as a correspondent to the Commission. The agenda for the meeting was adopted with the additions of Session 3A (Monday 17 June) and Session 5 (Friday 21 June).
Monday 17 June (Session 2)
Report on Activities since the 1995 Annual Meeting in Delft
Adoption of a Policy on Attendance at Commission 7 Annual Meetings
The following policy relating to attendance at annual meetings of the Commission was discussed and adopted at the meeting. Given that the meeting is partly for administrative and planning purposes, and is a meeting of FIG member societies, it was considered that some limits be imposed upon attendance. At the same time, the Commission strongly encourages participation by new delegates and accepts that the policy must remain flexible.
Justification of Policy
FIG Statement on the Cadastre
The Chairperson reported that the FIG Statement on the Cadastre has now been translated into 11 languages: these being English, German, French, Spanish, Russian, Latvian, Dutch, Chinese, Czech, Danish and Hungarian. Copies of translations into other languages should be sent to the Chairperson and the FIG Bureau in London. The Chairperson of the working group responsible for the statement (Tommy Österberg) thanked all members of the working group for their involvement.
FIG Newsletter
The Chairperson advised that production of the FIG Newsletter is now based in Sweden under Tommy Osterberg. Contributions are required for the newsletter and delegates should forward all contributions to him.
FIG Commission Home Page
The Chairperson advised that summaries of all Commission 7 documents would now
be placed on the Commission 7 World Wide Web home page http://www.sli.unimelb.edu.au/fig7.
Forthcoming Activities of Commission 7
1996
1998
1999
2000
2001
See later in report for details of the 1997-1999 Commission 7 Annual Meetings.
Monday 17 June (Session 3A)
This session was included in the program to enable several miscellaneous reports to be heard.
Austrian GPS Cadastral Control Survey
Ernst Höflinger (Austria) presented a report (see attached) on the use of GPS to upgrade the Austrian cadastral control network. A new geodetic framework has already been developed to support the remeasurement process and will result in a more efficient and effective network for cadastral and other surveys.
Women in Surveying Program
Agneta Ericsson (Sweden) spoke first to this issue and noted that in some countries women had already made a major contribution to the surveying profession (for example in Sweden where 50% of surveyors were women). However this was not the case in many other countries. It was noted that:
In addition, Gabriele Dasse spoke of the Women in Surveying initiatives undertaken by the German member association over the past year, and called for:
It was agreed that Agneta Ericsson follow up these suggestions on behalf of Commission 7 and report in Malaysia.
Report by Don Grant (Australia) on Cadastral Reform
"Cadastral concepts are changing. The major changes are due to automation of systems, the digitisation of both spatial and aspatial data, and the integration of data sets. The data sets are now becoming far more comprehensive than the traditional spatial, legal and fiscal cadastral components which we have all experienced in our working lives. Indeed, the very word `cadastre' is taking on a wider meaning. Whilst this is having a large impact upon the systems of data management, it is also having a profound effect on institutional and structural reform."
"The degree and speed of reform is a function of the socio-economic condition and ambition of any country. There is no constant rate of change. Each state or nation will adopt change at a different and hopefully manageable pace. But as technology details are resolved the issues of people and power continue to be foremost in the organisational and structural changes which are taking place."
"As commented earlier, the concept of "cadastre" is changing. To some, the term will always remain static, to others it will grow and embrace the utility aspects of power, water and access since these all reveal some level of rights over the ownership and use of land. More and more, cadastre is being used to deal with land use which is often a function of geographic shape, catchment area, drainage pattern and vegetation cover. Perhaps we are seeing a return to land use concepts of early man who lived in better harmony with his environment that what we have seen through the industrial and post-industrial eras. There will be no universal perception of the cadastre. The shape, purpose and extent of the cadastre should be relevant to the existing needs, culture and evolution of each jurisdictional society. The organisational shape of jurisdictional cadastral management will change to meet those needs."
International Journal of Land Administration
Richard Bullard (UK) spoke of this new journal to commence publication next year. To launch the journal, an International Conference on Land Management will be held in London, UK, from 6-8 January 1997. Commission 7 strongly supports the establishment of the journal. The Chairperson, Ian Williamson, is on the Board of the Journal and is responsible for "Cadastre and land reform".
The Bogor Declaration
Ian Williamson spoke of the Conference on Cadastral Reform in Bogor, Indonesia, sponsored by the UN and outlined the resulting Bogor Declaration and its recommendations. The meeting resulted in a commitment by Commission 7 to support a workshop as per Recommendation 3 of the Bogor Declaration and to assist in conducting forums for land registry officials.
UN/ECE Meeting of Experts on Cadastre and Land Registration Systems
Ian Williamson and Jürg Kaufmann (Switzerland) spoke on the UN/ECE Meeting of Experts on Cadastre and Land Registration Systems, held in Geneva, Switzerland, from 26-27 February 1996. The meeting was attended by participants from 27 countries and representatives of agencies such as UNIDO, EUROGI and FIG. The meeting recognised the importance of land administration issues for the promotion of land and real property markets. From the meeting came a formal statement and guidelines on land administration. The next stage is to establish a steering committee Chaired by Helge Onsrud (FIG Commission 3 Chairman, Norway) to undertake the organisational and coordination work prior to the next meeting on "Financing and Cost Recovery in Cadastre", to be held in Geneva in March 1997.
Commission 7 agreed that Ian Williamson should maintain contact with Helge Onsrud concerning the activities of the steering committee, and that Paul Munro-Faure (Vice-Chairperson, Commission 7) should seek membership of it.
Monday 17 June (Session 3)
During this session, Working Groups 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3 met to discuss the work performed to date and to plan future activities. Their reports were presented on the last day of the meeting.
Tuesday 18 June
1-Day Workshop on Land Management in the Process of Transition
The 1-day Workshop on Land Management in the Process of Transition was open to all interested participants and was attended by 130 delegates. The workshop was officially opened by Dr Fenyo, Head of the Land and Survey Department of the Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture. Delegates heard from 13 local international speakers and a full proceedings will be produced for the event. Because of the need to translate several Hungarian papers into English, the proceedings of the workshop will be distributed to delegates within the next 3 months (by September 1996). The proceedings will be published with the support of a grant from the FIG Bureau.
Wednesday 19 June
Delegates to the meeting and accompanying persons visited several historical and cultural sites along the Danube River in the morning and were then conducted through the Vac Land Office to receive technical presentations on the office's modernisation program and reallocation of land back to private citizens. Later, the Mayor of Vac gave a presentation in the historic city chambers and hosted a reception at a local restaurant.
Thursday 20 June
During the morning, delegates made presentations on the issues of privatisation and cost recovery for cadastral data in their respective countries which were summarised by Don Grant (Australia) into a 2-page paper (attached). During the afternoon, delegates visited the Budapest Land Office, which was followed in the evening by a dinner hosted by the Hungarian Society of Surveying at the Agro Hotel.
Friday 21 June (Session 5)
On the final day of the annual meeting the working groups met for final discussions and working group chairmen (Paul Munro-Faure and Jürg Kaufmann) reported on their progress during the meeting. Matters relating to forthcoming annual meetings of the Commission were also discussed.
1997 Annual Meeting of Commission 7, Malaysia
Dato' Abdul Majid (Malaysia) made a presentation to delegates on the format of the 1997 Annual Meeting of Commission 7. He presented a draft program of events and delegates also discussed the program prepared by Tommy Österberg (Sweden) for the 1-day workshop relating to the work of Working Group 2 (Developing Countries) to be held in conjunction with the meeting.
The major topic for discussion at the annual meeting will be individual country reports by participants. As in past years, presentations will be limited to 5 minutes duration and 2 overhead transparencies. One overhead is to show the major cadastral and land management initiatives currently being undertaken. The second overhead should show statistics such as: population; number of land parcels; total cost of running the cadastre and land registry; numbers of professional and technician surveyors; percentages of the cadastral map held in digital form; percentage of cadastral indexes computerised; and the percentage of land titles computerised. Ian Williamson is to work with the secretary of Working Group 7.1, Daniel Steudler (Switzerland) to determine the most useful statistics to be collected and the design or a pro forma for their presentation by delegates.
Annual Meeting and FIG Congress, Brighton, 1998
A draft program for Commission 7 at the FIG Congress, to be held in Brighton (UK) in 1998, was presented by Ian Williamson. Delegates discussed the selection and presentation criteria, and the program outline. Abstracts of papers are required to be with the Chairperson 1 February 1997, the final draft program for Commission 7 will be presented at the Annual Meeting in Malaysia in 1997. In addition, a draft of the contents for the Commission 7 1994-98 report to be presented at the Congress was discussed.
Commission 7 will also conduct its 1998 annual meeting at the congress and conduct several technical tours, as well as handing over the Commission to the new Chairperson. Paul Munro-Faure is currently considering the new working group themes for the 1998-2002 period of the Commission. Included in the annual meeting will be the traditional cadastre and land management technical tours.
1999 Annual Meeting of Commission 7
A proposal to conduct the 1999 Annual Meeting of Commission 7 in New Zealand was received from Bill Robertson with the support of the Institution of Surveyors, New Zealand, and was accepted.
Annual Meetings of Commission 7 Beyond 1999
Several tentative proposals have been received to host Commission 7 annual meetings beyond 1999. A decision on the Commission 7 meeting in 2000 will be made in Malaysia. Discussion supported the concept of having the meeting in Europe in the week before the FIG 67th PC Meeting in Prague.
Draft Vision Statement for FIG
Delegates discussed the draft Vision Statement for FIG (attached) and several amendments were proposed. Ian Williamson will forward the suggestions to the FIG Bureau for its consideration (see attached).
Close of Meeting
Ian Williamson closed the meeting at lunchtime and thanked the hosts, the Hungarian member society, for their excellent organisation and generosity. He also thanked the other organisations that had helped sponsor the meeting, as well as the Commission 7 office bearers and delegates for their participation and input.
The meeting closed at 12.30pm.
Ian Williamson
Chairperson - Commission 7
22 August 1996
Country Participant
Australia
Austria
Benin
Belarus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Egypt
Finland
France
Germany
Hong Kong
Hungary
Korea
Madagascar
Malaysia
Nepal
Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Senegal
Slovakia
Slovenia
Sweden
Switzerland
Turkey
United Kingdom
Yugoslavia
Apologies Name
Belgium
Canada
Denmark
Greece
New Zealand
Netherlands
Norway