3D Cadastre
Jantine Esther Stoter, Netherlands
RESEARCH SCOPE
The scope of research on 3D cadastre is demarcated by three frameworks which determine the needs, constraints and possibilities for 3D cadastral registration. These frameworks are linked to each other in a hierarchical order:
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Juridical framework: how can the legal status of stratified properties be established? how to establish property boundaries other than traditional 2D parcel boundaries? what rights can be used and how can these rights be used?
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Cadastral framework: once the legal status of property in 3D situations has been established and described in deeds and in field works that are archived in the land registration, the next issues are how to register the rights and restrictions to property (bounded in three dimesnions) in the cadastral registration and how to provide information on the legal status of 3D property situations?
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Technical framework: what system architecture (computer hardware, software, data structures) is needed to support cadastral registration in 3D situations? what architecture is technologically possible?
CURRENT CADASTRAL REGISTRATION OF 3D SITUATIONS IN THE NETHERLANDS
Traditionally, cadastral registrations consisted of a set of cadastral maps containing cadastral parcels with (mostly) unique parcel numbers and a paper archive in which property information on parcels was maintained. Since the end of the last century cadastral registrations in developed countries have been converted from analogue cadastral registrations into digital registrations. Spatial information on parcels is no longer maintained on paper maps but in GIS and CAD or even more sophisticatedly in spatial DBMSs. Information on property and other information that is nowadays registered in cadastral registrations (mortgage, soil pollutions, monuments) is no longer (only) maintained in paper archives but in cadastral databases. A link is maintained between the digital cadastral map and the cadastral administrative database. The link provides the possibility to query the spatial part and administrative part of cadastral registration and combine the results. In more advanced systems it is possible to query the spatial and administrative part of cadastral registration in one integrated environment.
Organisation of the Netherlands’ Kadaster
The Netherlands has a deed registration, which is maintained together with the cadastral registration by one organisation: the Netherlands’ Kadaster. The national government (Ministry of Spatial planning, Housing and the Environment) is responsible for the Cadastre, although the Kadaster is an independent organisation since 1994. The organisation is financially fully self-supporting. Till recently the cadastral registration was maintained at regional level, but is now organised at one location, although the actual registration is still performed at fifteen regional offices.
The Netherlands’ Kadaster maintains the land registration, i.e. the Public Registers (Openbare Registers): a collection of notarial deeds creating or transferring real rights to land. These deeds have been (analogously) archived in chronological order. Since 1999 the deeds in the Public Registers are available in scanned format and will soon be available through the cadastral database.
Mapping real world objects
Parcels defined in 2D are the basis for cadastral registration. Constructions and infrastructure under or above the surface are not registering objects themselves. A building registration also does not exist in the Netherlands, although research has been carried out to set up such a registration in the future [92]. Therefore, the legal status of constructions above, on and under the surface is not registered on the construction itself. The legal status of the construction can be known from the rights that are registered on the surface parcel(s). The notary deed, which has led to registration, may be accompanied by an analogue drawing of the physical object but this is not obligatory. The inclusion of digital 2D and 3D drawings in the cadastral registrationis not possible at the moment.
The Dutch cadastral geographical data set contains the boundaries of parcels and parcel numbers, outlines of buildings (for reference purposes), street names and house numbers. The outlines of real world objects can be incorporated in the topographic part of LKI (which is not part of the cadastral map). Examples of such real world objects are railways and since recently also transport systems and telecom-networks. Apart from the classification code, these lines are encoded with a visibility code. The visibility code indicates the visibility of the topographic line. A visibility code ‘2’ means ‘not visible from above’.
3D registration
Regarding Private Law, the main types of cadastral recordings with a 3D component are (the Dutch terms are added in italic, in brackets):
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right of ownership;
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limited ownership rights:
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right of superficies;
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right of long lease;
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right of easement;
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right to an apartment or condominium right;
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joint ownership.
These rights are described, together with the cadastral registration of these rights.
Underground objects in the cadastral registration
A special case of legal notifications is the registration code ‘OB’ or ‘OBD’ (Ondergronds Bouwwerk: underground construction), which was introduced in 1998. This is just an indication in the administrative database of the existence of an underground object in the subsurface of a parcel. An ‘OB’ code is linked to a parcel and to a subject. The ‘OB’ code indicates the factual situation but it is not a right or restriction itself. Although it is registered as an object restriction, it has no juridical consequences and it does not indicate how the legal status of the construction has been established. To find out the legal status of the underground object, one has to find out what other rights, restrictions and legal notifications are established on the surface parcel. Recently it has become possible to add boundaries of transport systems and telecom-networks in the topographic part of LKI. If these boundaries are below the surface they are also encoded with the visibility code ‘2’ (’not visible from above’).
The right of ownership is established on a parcel and applies for all space above and below the surface parcel, i.e. the ownership of a parcel is not limited in the third dimension.An owner of a parcel can be restricted in using the whole parcel column by establishing limited real rights on the parcel, by establishing apartment rights or by imposing Public Law restrictions. When no rights are established, the rules of vertical and horizontal accession apply. Vertical accession means that the owner of a parcel also owns all constructions which are permanently fixed to the surface parcel. Horizontal accession defines that parts of a construction encroaching another parcel (above as well as below the surface) are part of the main part by accession. Both vertical and horizontal accession are a consequence of the factual situation and not established with (limited) rights and can therefore conflict in a certain situation. Another disadvantage is that the legal status of the 3D property situation, which is a consequence of the factual situation, is likely to change with the creation or destruction of constructions.
