DUBLIN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Department of Spatial Information Science

Masters in Spatial Information Management (DT113)

Thesis

____________________________

Towards the 3D Registration of

Property Titles in IrelandThe Land Administration Domain Model and the design of an initial

Country Profile for the PRA of Ireland

Prepared by: Andrea Acinelli

Lecturer & Supervisor: Ms. Helen Murray

Date: September 2014

1

Abstract

In Ireland, the land administration function of land tenure is administered by the

Property Registration Authority (PRA). The PRA is responsible for approving

and registering all legal transactions affecting real property in Ireland. This

thesis sets out to investigate the design of a conceptual model for the

introduction of a 3D land registration system in Ireland based on the

International Standard ISO 19152 Land Administration Domain Model (LADM).

Recent PRA data (Arthur 2013), extracted using up to date geo-directory

information, revealed that the number of unregistered properties in Ireland,

including commercial and residential properties or both, is approximately half a

million. The same data show that the number of unregistered properties in

Dublin alone, excluding multi-storey registrations, is surprisingly more than

35%.

In Ireland, during recent decades, increasing urbanisation and the consequent

development of high-rise multi-storey buildings and underground services has

in turn resulted in multi-layered title interests. The requirement for the

recognition of separate title interests in relatively small elements of properties

such as load bearing structural elements and service shafts, and also the

increasing need for rights of ways and service wayleaves, has highlighted the

limitation of the traditional 2D mapping system as a means of registering the

descriptions of such interests. In 2010, the completion of the Digital Mapping

System (DMapS) has been of great benefit but it is essentially a sophisticated

electronic version of the traditional 2D system and does not always meet the

users demands of registering or understanding multi-layered interests.

In the meantime, new international development in the area known as 3D

Cadastre (Commission 3 and 7, FIG) have demonstrated the need for radically

new thinking on how property title interests should be described and recorded

i

for conveyances and registration purposes. After more than ten years of

research, these developments have been recently included in the ISO 19152.

LADM offers a flexible way of representing property title interests and different

types of spatial descriptions are supported based on sketches, text, geometry

(points, lines, polygons) and topology. Furthermore these types of

representation can be 2D, 3D or even a combination of both emphasising the

flexibility of LADM.

Considering the large amount of properties still to be registered to complete the

Irish Land Registry, their significant large distribution in most urban areas and

the complexity of property rights that are associated with them, it is now

imperative the introduction of a form of 3D land registration system for a more

secure way to protect ownership rights and for a better definition of the extent of

property title interests for conveyances and registration of title in Ireland.

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Declaration

I certify that this thesis which I now submit for examination for the award of MSc

Spatial Information Management, is entirely my own work and has not been

taken from the work of others save and to the extent that such work has been

cited and acknowledged within the text of my work.

This thesis was prepared according to the regulations for postgraduate study by

research of the Dublin Institute of Technology and has not been submitted in

whole or in part for an award in any other Institute or University.

The work reported on in this thesis conforms to the principles and requirements

of the Institute's guidelines for ethics in research.

The Institute has permission to keep, to lend or to copy this thesis in whole or in

part, on condition that any such use of the material of the thesis is duly

acknowledged.

Signature ____________________________ Date __________________

Candidate

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Acknowledgements

First of all I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Ms. Helen

Murray not only for her critical expert advice but also for her continuous

encouragement which allowed me to complete this thesis. Thank you for always

being available to meet me to discuss my research topic.

I would like to thank Mr. Christiaan Lemmen, Senior Geodetic Advisor at

Kadaster International, The Netherlands, for kindly answering my queries about

LADM at the start of this research.

I have to express my gratitude to Shay Arthur (former Mapping Advisor), Tom

Brosnahan (former Regional Mapping Director and current Mapping Advisor)

and Debby Keohane (Database Manager) from the Property Registration

Authority (PRA) who gave me the opportunity to research this topic through

many discussions that took place in PRA offices in the Four Courts. Your

technical assistance has been fundamental to understand the main elements of

the current PRA database schema.

I would like to wish my sincere gratitude to Mr. Paddy Shine, former manager of

the Survey and Mapping Division in Dublin City Council. Your vision on the

requirements for a modern title registrations system have allowed me to get

passionate about issues related to the representation of multi-layered property

title interests. Furthermore, I would like to thank you for the efforts you made for

securing the necessary funding for my studies. I also would like to acknowledge

Mr. Sean McDermott, Title Research expert in the Survey and Mapping Division

(DCC) for proof reading some of the chapters of this thesis but especially for the

numerous discussions held on current registration practices and the clear

explanations on complex concepts related to property and legal mapping in

general. A massive thank also to my colleagues Karl Rocks and Mary O'Meara

in Survey and Mapping and Eamon Duffy in the Architect Department in DCC

for their assistance in proof reading this document.

Most important of all, I am immensely grateful for the support received from my

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wife Claire and my two children Isabella and Giacomo during the last three

years. Often, during this period I was not able to give you the attention you

deserved but I will surely make up for that. Promise!

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Table of Contents

Abstract ...................................................................................... i

Declaration ............................................................................... iii

Acknowledgements ................................................................. iv

List of Figures ........................................................................... x

List of Abbreviations .............................................................. xii

1 Introduction ............................................................................... 1

1.1 Motivation and Background .................................................................. 1

1.2 Research objective and research questions ........................................ 2

1.3 Limits of the research ........................................................................... 2

1.4 Structure of dissertation ........................................................................ 4

2 Literature Review .................................................................... 6

2.1 People and land .................................................................................... 6

2.1.1 Introduction .................................................................................... 6

2.1.2 Land as a physical entity ............................................................... 7

2.1.3 Land as a legal entity .................................................................... 7

2.1.4 Land as an economic entity .......................................................... 8

2.1.5 Focusing on urban settlements ..................................................... 9

2.1.6 Land-people relationship is dynamic ........................................... 11

2.2 Land administration and Land Registration ........................................ 13

2.2.1 Land Administration: processes and systems ............................. 13

2.2.2 Land registration systems ........................................................... 20

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2.3 The Property Registration Authority (PRA) of Ireland ........................ 26

2.3.1 Background ................................................................................. 26

2.3.2 Registry of Deeds ........................................................................ 27

2.3.3 The Land Registry ....................................................................... 28

2.3.4 The legal-administrative record (Folio) ....................................... 29

2.3.5 The spatial record (Registry map) ............................................... 29

2.3.6 PRA digital systems .................................................................... 31

2.4 The INSPIRE model for Cadastral Parcels ........................................ 33

2.4.1 Introduction .................................................................................. 33

2.4.2 INSPIRE Directive ....................................................................... 34

2.4.3 Cadastral Parcels Data Specifications ........................................ 37

2.4.4 The INSPIRE Cadastral Parcel model in Ireland ........................ 42

3 The Land Administration Domain Model (ISO 19152) ....... 45

3.1 Development of LADM ....................................................................... 45

3.2 Principles of LADM ............................................................................. 46

3.3 “Cadastre 2014” .................................................................................. 48

3.4 The need for a standard ..................................................................... 51

3.5 Content of LADM ................................................................................ 52

3.5.1 Overview of LADM ...................................................................... 52

3.5.2 The Party Package ...................................................................... 53

3.5.3 The Administrative Package ........................................................ 55

3.5.4 The Spatial Unit Package ............................................................ 57

3.5.5 The Surveying and Representation Sub-Package ...................... 58

3.5.6 Mixing 2D and 3D representations .............................................. 60

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4 Methodology ......................................................................... 62

4.1 Analysis of requirements .................................................................... 63

4.2 Design of a Country Profile for Ireland derived from LADM ............... 64

4.3 Validation of conformity with LADM .................................................... 69

5 Dublin City Council case studies ........................................ 70

5.1 Introduction ......................................................................................... 70

5.2 Case Study 1: Overlapping Duplex apartments ................................. 71

5.3 Case Study 2: Sean McDermott Street Lower, School Site ............... 76

5.4 Case Study 3: Dublin Port Tunnel ...................................................... 88

6 Initial Design of a LADM-based 3D Land Registry ............ 97

6.1 Introduction ......................................................................................... 97

6.2 The current PRA database schema ................................................... 98

6.3 The IE_Party class ............................................................................. 99

6.4 The IE_Right class ........................................................................... 100

6.5 The IE_BAUnit class and IE_SpatialUnit ......................................... 102

6.6 The IE_BoundaryFace and IE_BoundaryFaceString ....................... 104

7 LADM Conformance testing (model valuation) ................ 106

8 Analysis ............................................................................... 107

8.1 Introduction ....................................................................................... 107

8.2 3D/4D (the third and fourth dimensions) .......................................... 108

8.3 The modelling paradigm: from 2D maps to 3D property objects ...... 115

8.4 Standardisation & interoperability at local, national and regional level ....

116

8.5 Conclusions ...................................................................................... 117

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9 Conclusions and Recommendations ................................ 118

9.1 Introduction ....................................................................................... 118

9.2 Conclusions ...................................................................................... 119

9.3 Recommendations ............................................................................ 120

References ............................................................................. 122

Appendix A – Enlarged figures for the Dublin Port Tunnel Case

Study .....................................................................................A1-A3

Appendix B – Enlarged PRA database schema showing

classes, associations and attributes ................................ B1-B2

Appendix C – Enlarged Country Profile for Ireland ......... C1-C2

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List of Figures

Figure 2.1 Outline of evolution of western land administration system (Ting & Williamson 1999). 11

Figure 2.2 The three key attributes of land (Dale & McLaughlin 1999). 15Figure 2.3 Framework for re-engineering land administration systems

(Ting & Williamson 2001). 19Figure 2.4 Cadastral Conceptual Model Developed by Henssen (1965). 21Figure 2.5 Land registration systems (Enemark 2009). 22Figure 2.6 Land Registration & Cadastral Systems Worldwide

(Williamson et al. 2010). 23Figure 2.7 Sample of memorial from Registry of Deeds (DCC 2013). 28Figure 2.8 Screenshot from Landirect web portal showing locator marker

indicating a multi-storey registration (PRA 2013). 31Figure 2.9 Cadastral Parcel uses in other domains (Laurent 2013) 33Figure 2.10 Common principles of INSPIRE (INSPIRE 2014A). 35Figure 2.11 Data Themes in INSPIRE (INSPIRE 2007). 36Figure 2.12 Process of Data Specification on Cadastral Parcels. 37Figure 2.13 UML class diagram of Cadastral Parcel model (INSPIRE

2014b p.16). 39Figure 2.14 Example of commonage in Ireland (PRA 2014). 40Figure 2.15 Network Services available on GeoPortal for PRA data

(PRA2014). 42Figure 2.16 INSPIRE View Service available on GeoPortal for PRA data

(PRA 2014). 43Figure 2.17 INSPIRE compliant class Cadastral Parcel (Arthur 2013). 44Figure 3.0 The principle of legal independence from “Cadastre

2014” (Kaufmann & Steudler 1998). 49Figure 3.1 The LADM four basis classes (ISO 2012 p. 9). 53Figure 3.2 The content of the Party Package (ISO 2012). 54Figure 3.3 The content of the Administrative Package (ISO 2012). 56Figure 3.4 The content of the Spatial Unit Package (ISO 2012). 57Figure 3.5 The content of the Surveying and Representation Sub-

Package (ISO 2012). 59Figure 3.6 2D, liminal and 3D parcels – Front view (ISO 2012). 61Figure 3.7 2D, liminal and 3D parcels – Top view (ISO 2012). 61Figure 5.1 Aerial view of Duplex apartments (Bing Map 2013). 71Figure 5.2 Apartment No. 13 as shown on www.landdirect.ie (PRA 2013). 72Figure 5.3 Freehold land registered to DCC (PRA 2013). 72Figure 5.4 Section of property property (1) (DCC 2013). 74Figure 5.5 Extract from map for registration submitted to Land Registry. 74Figure 5.6 Ground floor plan of property (1) 75Figure 5.7 First floor plan of property (1) 75Figure 5.8 Modern aerial view of the Gloucester Diamond (Bing Map 76

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2014).Figure 5.9 Example of horizontal accession (Stoter & Van Oosterom

2006 p. 22). 77Figure 5.10 Front and sides of school site (Google Street View 2014). 78Figure 5.11 Dublin City Council ownership details (DCC 2012). 79Figure 5.12 Final Deed map (DCC 2012). 79Figure 5.13 Multiple extensions over three floors, Gloucester Place (Shine

2012). 80Figure 5.14 Particular of section B-B as shown on Deed map (Shine

2012). 82Figure 5.15 Extract of Location Map submitted for registration with PRA

(DCC 2012). 83Figure 5.16 Ground Floor plan submitted for registration with PRA (DCC

2012). 84Figure 5.17 First Floor plan submitted for registration with PRA

(DCC2012). 84Figure 5.18 Second Floor plan submitted for registration with PRA (DCC

2012). 85Figure 5.19 Third Floor plan submitted for registration with PRA (2012). 85Figure 5.20 Fourth Floor plan submitted for registration with PRA (DCC

2012). 86Figure 5.21 Current PRA 2D mapping system showing registered freehold

lands at the school site (PRA 2014). 87Figure 5.22 Map showing location of the Dublin Port Tunnel within the city

context (source http://www.dublintunnel.ie/ 2014). 88Figure 5.23 Vesting map (1) showing extent of substrata (DCC 2009). 91Figure 5.24 Vesting map (2) showing extent of substrata (DCC2009). 91Figure 5.25 Heights Table included in vesting maps (DCC 2009). 93Figure 5.26 Plan showing southern entrance with legend (DCC2009). 94Figure 5.27 Section showing southern entrance with legend (DCC 2009). 94Figure 5.28 Current PRA 2D mapping system showing registered freehold

lands at the school site (PRA 2014). 96Figure 6.1 PRA main classes to be tested marked with a red star. 98Figure 6.2 PRA classes corresponding to LADM basic classes (Acinelli

2014). 99Figure 6.3 Composite primary keys (PKs). 101Figure 6.4 The PLAN and SEEDPOINT classes. 102Figure 6.5 The INSPIRE cadastral parcel derived from LADM. 103Figure 6.6 The PRA PLAN_GEOMETRY class. 104Figure 6.7 Initial Country Profile for Ireland 3D registrations. 105Figure 8.1 3D view of DCC parcel prior disposal. 114Figure 8.2 3D view of property (1). 114Figure 8.3 3D view of new parcel after disposal. 115

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List of Abbreviations

CAD Computer Aided Design

CCDM Core Cadastral Data Model

CD Committee Draft

CFR Compulsory First Registration

CIM Computation Independent Model

CPO Compulsory Purchase Order

CRS Coordinate Reference System

DBMS Database Management System

DC Dublin Corporation

DCC Dublin City Council

DECLG Department of Environment, Community & Local Government

DES Department of Education and Science

DIS Draft International Standard

DMAPS Digital Mapping System

EAS Electronic Access System

EC European Commission

ETRS European Terrestrial Reference System

EU European Union

FAO Food and Agriculture Organization

FDIS Final Draft International Standard

FIG International Federation of Surveyors

GIS Geographic Information System

GNSS Global Navigation Satellite System

GUID Geographic Unique Identifier

ICT Information Communication Technology

INSPIRE EU Directive 2007/2/EC Infrastructure for Spatial Informationin the European Community

IG75 Irish Grid 1975

IR Implementing Rules

IS International Standard

ISDI Irish Spatial Data Infrastructure

xii

ISO International Standard Organization

ITM Irish Transverse Mercator

ITRIS Title Registration Information System

LA Land Administration

LAS Land Administration System

LADM Land Administration Domain Model

LiDAR Light Detection and Ranging

LMO Legally Mandate Organisation

LOTDT St. Lawrence O’Toole Diocesan Trust

LR Land Registry

LIS Land Information Systems

MDA Model Driven Architecture

MSB Multi-Storey Building

NWIP New Work Item Proposal

OGC Open Geospatial Consortium

OMG Object Management Group

OS Open Source

OSi Ordinance Survey Ireland

PIM Platform Independent Model

PRA Property Registration Authority

PSM Platform Specific Model

RoD Registry of Deeds

RRR Rights, Restrictions and Responsibilities

SCSI Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland

SDI Spatial Data Infrastructure

SDIC Spatial Data Interest Community

SIM Spatial Information Management

SMD Survey & Mapping Division

TC/211 Technical Committee on Geographic Information

TNS Transformation Network Services

TWG Thematic Working Group

UML Unified Modeling Language

UN United Nations

UNCED United Nat ions Conference on Environment andDevelopment

xiii

UNECE United Nations Economic Commission for Europe

UN-HABITAT United Nations Human Settlement Programme

UN-GGIM United Nations – Global Geospatial Information Management

VO Valuation Office

WFS Web Feature Service

WG-CPI WG Cadastral Parcel Identifier

WMS Web Map Service

WPLA Working Party on Land Administrations

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1 Introduction

1.1 Motivation and Background

Work related reasons and personal interest are behind the decision to

undertake this research. The Surveying & Mapping Division (SMD) in Dublin

City Council (DCC), where the author of this thesis is employed, is one of the

largest local authority mapping offices in Ireland if not the largest. The SMD

currently manages and maintains a very large amount of spatial data related to

real properties owned by DCC. The Division produces a wide range of 2D legal

maps, including among others Deed maps, maps for land registration purposes,

maps of references in Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) acquisitions, Vesting

maps and maps for the resolution of boundary disputes. Thanks to its

knowledge with regards to the registration of titles, SMD is also directly involved

in every type of property transactions (acquisitions, disposals, CPOs, etc.). The

SMD staff expertise is necessary to protect the City Council interests on

ownership titles. In many occasions, during DCC negotiation with internal and

external solicitors, who represented third parties involved in the property

transaction, DCC have proposed efficient solutions in order to retain or dispose

of parts of titles represented by 3D space either above (airspace) or below

(substrata) the earth surface. The registration of title for the Dublin Port Tunnel,

the biggest infrastructure project of its kind in Ireland, is an important example

of the challenges presented to the City Council's surveyors (Fitzpatrick 2008)

and (Shine 2013). It is believed that the results of this research study will

enhance the Property Registration Authority (PRA) general knowledge on the

issues concerning the implementation of a 3D land registration system in

Ireland which in turn, will contribute to a clearer registration of titles and a more

realistic presentation of the information related to registered lands.

1

1.2 Research objective and research questions

The objective of this thesis is to design a Country Profile based on the

International Standard ISO 19152 Land Administration Domain Model (LADM)

for the 3D registration of titles. It would provide the PRA with a preliminary study

for the introduction of an optional 3D registration system in Ireland able to store

and visualise complex (interlocked or multi-layered) title interests.

Taking into consideration the above mentioned objective, the research

questions for this thesis are expressed as follows:

1. Is the current (2D) representation of legal spaces adequate to spatially

describe and unambiguously identify the extent of complex 3D strata

titles where parts of the airspace and substrata (above and below

ground) may be owned separately from ground parcels?

2. How will the adoption of the recently published ISO 19152 LADM

standard impact on the current registration system and in particular on

the 2D mapping system?

3. Can the 3D visualisation of the registered legal spaces associated to

property units (i.e. extent of ownership rights) help the understanding of

complex title interests?

1.3 Limits of the research

While PRA officials were extremely helpful in facilitating meetings to discuss the

research themes, one of the terms of reference, agreed before the meetings

with the PRA, was that senior members of staff, assisting in the provision of

information for this thesis, would not be available to read, review and discuss

the main content of the ISO 19152 LADM standard document. Unfortunately,

this had an unforeseen effect on the research during the design phase of the

2

Country Profile. In this phase, candidate tables from the PRA data model had to

be matched with classes from the LADM and crucial decisions had to be made

(Chapter 6). Considering their knowledge of the PRA procedures, rules and

DBMS, this was the stage where expert opinion was needed the most.

Consequently, it became more difficult to ask the right questions which caused

delays in the decision making process. Understandably, this research was

external to the organisation and it was not possible to be given access to the

PRA's database. While this study proceeded to investigate the research

questions as stated in Section 1.2, it is necessary to highlight this important

limitation. This issue will be revisited and analysed further during the analysis

and conclusion and recommendations of this report. It is for this reasons that

this research only examines the basic classes of the LADM within the Irish land

registration context such as the Folio, Property, Plan, Ownership, Owner and

some others as discussed later in Chapter 6. A fully functional and scaled

implementation of the ISO 19152 LADM, with the creation of a spatial database

(prototype), is outside the of scope of this research.

Three case studies have been selected and presented in detail in Chapter 5.

They show practical examples of real 3D situations where DCC was involved in

the disposal of, acquisition or exchange of real properties and had the

responsibility to register the relative titles with the PRA. However, this research

does not attempt to be an exhaustive list of possible 3D situations. The

combination of property rights, restrictions and responsibilities affecting a

property in the real world are endless, both, in terms of their spatial extent and

legal titles within a given legal framework. Even examining in full the most

common ones would require time and considerable human and technological

resources together with legal expertise.

To assess the conformity of the PRA system with the LADM a conformance test

is necessary (Chapter 7). Re-engineering of the PRA database will be required,

to some extent, in order to modify existing classes, attributes and associations

or it may be needed to create new ones.

The LADM has only been published in 2012 and a great amount of research is

3

currently being undertaken world wide in various aspects of the standard. The

results of this research do not exclude that other alternatives may be more

suitable.

Although a simple 3D graphic representation of property rights relative to the

first case study is illustrated in Chapter 9, a full and detailed investigation of the

3D visualisations opportunities and issues are outside the scope of this

research.

1.4 Structure of dissertation

Chapter 1 illustrates the motivations and background information relative to this

topic together with the limits of the research and the research objective and

questions;

Chapter 2 contains the literature reviewed during the course of this work;

Chapter 3 is a brief introduction to the ISO 19152 LADM which it includes

development phases, principles and content of LADM;

Chapter 4 illustrates the methodology adopted to carry out this research. The

analysis of the users requirements, the initial design of a Country Profile for

Ireland and a final validation process are the three main phases of this

methodology;

Chapter 5 presents three relevant case studies of title registration carried out

by the SMD in DCC where 3D property situations occurred;

Chapter 6 explores the design process involved in the creation of an initial

Country Profile for Ireland based on LADM;

Chapter 7 presents the results of validation process for assessing the level of

conformity of the Country Profile (application schema) to LADM as specified in

Annex A of the ISO 19152;

Chapter 8 analyses two combined aspects of this research. It presents and

4

discusses the issues emerged from the case studies and demonstrates how the

design of an initial country profile for Ireland, based on LADM, can be used to

address some of these issues.

Chapter 9 presents the conclusions and recommendations.

5

2 Literature Review

2.1 People and land

2.1.1 Introduction

This section introduces, through the review of relevant literature, the

significance of the people-land relationship from a social and economic

perspective giving an overview of the variety of concepts of land. It highlights

the strong need to establish and protect people's rights to access land as

proposed by important global organisations. In particular, it attempts to explore

the changing nature of the people-land relationship through historical

references. Finally, it investigates the importance of land, land-related issues

and policies in support of the development of fast changing urban settlements.

Everyone knows what land is but attempting to define it can be arduous. A

broad definition of land is given by (Dale & McLaughlin 1999, p.15) in which it is

defined as

“the foundation of all human activity and its proper management is

a key to the creation and sustenance of civilized societies”.

UN-HABITAT 2012 p. IX in its publication “Handling Land” states that “secure

land tenure and property rights are fundamental to a wide range of

development issues: housing, livelihoods, human rights, poverty reduction,

economic prosperity and sustainable urban and rural development”. However,

the term land or property ultimately depends on the context in which it is used.

Land may be viewed in many different ways but the meaning attached to it can

either be physical or cognitive (i.e. legal, economic and cultural).

6

2.1.2 Land as a physical entity

Within the land administration context, land as a physical entity is defined by

(Henssen 1995 p.5) as

“an area of the surface of the earth together with the water, soil,

rocks, minerals and hydrocarbons beneath or upon it and the air

above it. It embraces all things which are related to a fixed area or

point of the surface of the earth, including the areas covered by

water, including the sea”.

The physical meaning of land is rooted in the basic relationship between people

and land. The concept is simple and it goes back to the origin of humankind. On

the one hand, land provides the physical space in which all people live and the

necessities to sustain human life such as food, water and shelter. On the other

hand, everyone on earth, regardless of race, belief, location or social position,

needs those necessities and therefore needs access to land. While the need for

vital resources is part of all human beings, their ability to access land differs

greatly from region to region. In many rural and urban areas of both, developed

and less developed countries, access to land can not always be taken for

granted and it is too often denied by unfavorable conditions such as poverty,

social exclusion, natural catastrophes, military conflicts or more simply by poor

and ineffective governance.

2.1.3 Land as a legal entity

In the legal context the term land is usually related to the legal meaning of

property. People generally think of property as the physical land, building or

other structures but it is also an abstract thing. It indicates a bundle of rights (i.e.

ownership) surrounding the physical thing and which one person can enforce

against others (Pearce & Mee 2011). Establishing property rights is therefore a

fundamental requirement of any civilised society. They provide security of

7

tenure and govern the way in which the land may be used and how dealings in

land may be transacted (UNECE 2004).

Property rights do not just relate to an area on the surface of the earth but

extend above (airspace) and below (substrata) it. The Latin expression “cujuc

est solum, ejus est usque ad coelum et usque ad inferos” refers to the extent of

a freehold ownership where it is accepted that the owner owns everything “up

to the heavens and down to hell”. Of course, this is not totally accurate in

modern societies. Exceptions to this rule consist in the many restrictions and

responsibilities that the Irish Land Law provides for the wellbeing and enjoyment

of others.

Property rights are by nature three-dimensional and the Irish Land Law, as

stated in the Land and Conveyancing Reform Act (Oireachtas 2009 p.17)

clearly accepts that land includes both the 3D space above and below the

ground and it also allows divisions to properties to be made “horizontally,

vertically or in any other way”.

2.1.4 Land as an economic entity

The Doing Business 2014 report (World Bank 2013, p.94), recognises “a secure

access to land as a fundamental block for the creation of business opportunities

and therefore for the economic development of a country.”. Land is necessary to

build houses, schools, hospitals, shops and transport networks. Without these

commodities, modern societies and both, formal and informal market

economies, would not be able to prosper or even function properly. It is through

the rules of land markets and the planning policies of a particular region, that an

economic value can then be attached to land. Once land has a market price, it

can be traded and therefore it can generate wealth and economic development.

De Soto (1993 p. 8) in his famous article “The Missing Ingredient” published in

The Economist stresses that “civilised living in market economies is not simply

due to greater prosperity but to the order that formalised property rights bring.” .

8

In fact, in his book “The Mystery of Capital” he argues that easy and universal

access to formal property rights would allow people to generate productive

capital (de Soto 2000). Moreover, in an interview released to GIM International

magazine few years ago, he stated that “Land Registration is the starting point

for people to get out the poverty trap” and an effective way to enable access to

loans (GIM International 2011 p. 5).

Associated with the value of land is the value of legal rights to land. Without

showing proof of ownership and without the security of rights to land it is very

unlikely that a person could obtain loans and mortgages from banks for further

investments. Enemark (2003 p. 2) believes land is increasingly seen as an

asset and security in land rights is “a basic element for generating a societal

economy based on the value of these rights.”.

For governments and local authorities, land legally generates additional

revenue in the form of taxes on residential and commercial properties but also

by the collection of stamp duties when land is traded in the land markets.

2.1.5 Focusing on urban settlements

Although rural and urban areas are equally important to governments, people

living in urban areas, especially in big cities and metropolises, have a more

complex type of relationship with land. Living in high populated cities, in

complex and interlocked buildings, where land is much more fragmented and

the physical space is limited, are just a few of the different aspects that

characterise people-land relationships in urban settlements. Cities around the

globe are changing fast, much faster than in the last two or three decades. More

and more people are leaving rural areas to settle in cities looking for better work

opportunities. Cities are now home to half of humankind and are expected to

accommodate 6 billion people by 2050 (UN 2008). When observing these

projections within the Irish context the UN estimated that the current Irish

population in urban areas amounts to 60% of the total and it will increase to

9

80% by 2050. Increasing population in cities and towns will create new

challenges for governments and local authorities such as an increase in

demand for housing and for the provision of water for example. Securing and

improving access to land and its resources will be fundamental for the

sustainable development of human settlement.

A review of the relevant literature has been undertaken here to highlight the

importance of the people-land relationship in urban settlements. The importance

of this relationship is formally recognised at global level by the UN in the

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UN 1948). For the first time here,

fundamental human rights to be universally protected were set out, including

access to an adequate shelter. Equally important are the numerous treaties and

agreements ratified at international level such as the latest modifications

brought to the Agenda 21 (UNCED 1992) named Rio+20 (UNCED 2012) signed

and adopted by 180 governments at the United Nations Conference on

Environment and Development that took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It

emphasises the significance of land-related problems where a secure access to

land is considered to play a fundamental role towards a sustainable

development. It contains recommendations on how to alleviate poverty, promote

a sustainable human settlement development and promote a sustainable

agriculture and rural development. The UN General Assembly, with the 56/206

resolution (UN 2002), reinforced the United Nations Human Settlements

Programme, UN-HABITAT, with the mandate to promote socially and

environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal of providing

adequate shelter for all. In the European context it is worth noting the recent

strategy for Sustainable Housing and Land Management (UNECE 2013). Its

objectives, for the next six years, are organised under three main themes:

• sustainable housing and real estate markets with a focus on the social,

environmental and economic aspects;

• sustainable urban development and;

• sustainable land administration and management.

10

2.1.6 Land-people relationship is dynamic

Land policies and strategies need to address the current and possible future

problems affecting the people-land relationship. This means that their objectives

might have to be modified over time to reflect more current land related issues.

The people-land relationship is in fact, dynamic in its nature. The way people

think about land and interact with it changes over time and across regions. It

reflects, in most cases, the changes that occur in society. These changes are

usually driven by ideologies, events and cognitive processes and it might take

sometime before they are fully embraced and accepted by society if at all.

Furthermore, global drivers such as sustainable development, globalization,

urbanisation, economic reforms and technology contribute to changes in the

way people relate to land. Enemark (2012) identify four different phases in the

people to land relationship based on the level of development of a country.

These phases may be broadly attributed to the major phases in Western

society’s evolution: feudal, industrial, post-war and information revolutions as

shown in Figure 2.1.

Figure 2.1: Evolution of Western cadastral system developed by (Enemark 2012) after

(Williamson et al., 2010).

Examples of these transformations are evident in all types of cultures and

societies. The island of Ireland has witnessed many of these changes in the

past which are still evident today in the Irish culture. Moody & Martin (2001

p.204) describe how at the time of the great human right activists Daniel

O’Connell, in the rapidly changing society of the first half of the nineteenth

11

century, “the most serious of these problems was the question of the land and

how most farmers had no security of tenure”. Going back two hundred years, in

the seventeenth century, another massive land issue was to affect Irish society

and its people, the Cromwellian settlement, described by Moody, Martin &

Byrne (2009 p.15) as “the most catastrophic land confiscation and social

upheaval in Irish history”. These examples show the effects of imposed changes

on society and the devastating results on the fragile people-land relationship.

Cultural, economic, political and technological changes are also the drivers for

changes in society. Generally, as governments become more aware of land-

related issues they tend to get more organised, sometimes formalised and

sophisticated. The people-land relationship is constantly evolving. It is the ability

of democratic governments to deeply understand the emerging trends that will

shape this very ancient, strong and passionate relationship into a multitude of

often interrelated concepts or domains.

From the early age of civilisation, societies have always felt the need to control,

protect and distribute land in order to sustain their wealth and power. Great

early civilisations such as the Egyptians and Romans also understood very well

the importance of recording land information for taxation purposes and for

publicity in the transfer of land (Larsonn 2000). The earliest record of an Irish

land sale is recorded in the ninth-century Book of Armagh where silver formed

part of the transaction (Mitchell & Ryan 2007). The activities associated with the

recording of land and people have been replicated in different forms and for

different purposes throughout the globe. In the seventeenth-century Ireland “the

ownership and control of property was the central anchor of economic and

political power in Ireland. Property units were powerful territorial frameworks for

regulating the location and character of most human activities” (Smyth 2006

p.377). In the past, in a world of empires and conquests, rulers and

administrators needed to know basic land information such as who owns what,

where and how in order to manage their most important resource, land. Today,

in a more democratic and advanced world the tools have changed, spatial

information technology and management techniques are well developed and

widely available but the principle is still the same.

12

2.2 Land administration and Land Registration

2.2.1 Land Administration: processes and systems

In this section land administration is examined within the broader context of land

management. First, some of the most common definitions of land administration

in the existing literature are explored. The characteristics of the three traditional

functions of land administration are described with particular attention given to

land tenure and its processes. Finally, the importance of managing spatial

information in relation to the design and re-engineering, of digital systems to

facilitate the land administration processes will be highlighted.

The management of land is fundamental to the development of any country and

is defined by (UNECE 1996 p.13) as “the process by which the resources of the

land are put to good effect.”. Governments need to manage land for social,

economic, legal or environmental reasons. Land related issues such as

securing rights to land, controlling land use and supporting land markets are just

a few of the goals of land management. In developed countries land is

managed through land policies, land management strategies and transparent

and democratic legal processes. In many cases these processes are supported,

to various degrees, by Spatial Information Management (SIM) strategies and by

sophisticated Information & Communication Technology (ICT) models and

infrastructures. Other not so developed countries, with less economic, legal and

technical capacity, may have more rudimentary processes and systems in

place. However, all countries understand the importance of managing land and

its resources, and have to deal, in one way or another, with the traditional land

administration functions of land tenure, land value and land use to support

decision making processes.

The literature is rich in the number of definitions of the term land administration

and it is also consistent in highlighting the importance of the processes that are

necessary to deliver an efficient administration of the land. The term land

administration is used, according to (UNECE 1996 p.14), to refer to

13

“the processes of recording and disseminating information about

the ownership, value and use of land and its associated

resources”.

Similarly, (Dale & McLaughlin 1999 p.10) define land administration as

“the processes of regulating land and property development, the

use and conservation of the land, the gathering of revenues from

the land through sales, leasing, and taxation, and the resolving of

conflicts concerning the ownership and use of the land”.

FAO (2002 p.12) defines land administration as

“the way in which the rules of land tenure are applied and made

operational”.

It comprises an extensive range of systems and processes to administer: land

rights, land-use regulation and land valuation and taxation.

These definitions are shared by (Van de Molen 2006 p.2) who expresses the

view that “the concepts of ownership, value, and use have to be interpreted and

applied in a broader sense.”.

The traditional land administration functions, land tenure, land use and land

value (Figure 2.2), are defined by (Dale & McLaughlin 1999 p.10-11)

respectively as juridical, regulatory and fiscal. The authors describe the juridical

function (Land Tenure) as the

“the holding and registration of rights in land” and put great

emphasis on the “processes concerned with the determination or

adjudication of existing land rights, the delimitation of parcels and

the registration of property rights”;

the regulatory function (Land Use) as the policies and processes concerned

with

“land development and land use restrictions imposed through

14

zoning mechanisms and the designation of areas of special

interest, ranging from historic to fragile ecosystems”;

and the fiscal function (Land Value) as the element

“focusing on the economic utility of the land” and the processes

“used to support increased revenue collection and production”.

Figure 2.2: The three key attributes of land (Dale & McLaughlin 1999)

Land administration processes

Land administration activities are supported by three fundamental processes

that are applicable to all the traditional functions. These inter-related tasks are

used to determine, record (register) and disseminate information about the

ownership, value and use of land. The importance of these processes at the

center of land administration is stressed by (Williamson, Enemark, Wallace &

Rajabifard 2010 p.95-96) who state that “Land administration is basically about

processes, not institutions”, and further elaborate that if the processes are

properly organised and integrated, the structure of agencies and institutions that

manage them is much less important. Land administration has traditionally

evolved from the much older cadastral activities where the land tenure or land

value function, with the support of parcels-based maps, was at its centre. The

creation of purpose-oriented systems in which only one land administration

15

function was managed has led countries to distribute the control of the three

functions across separate institutions or agencies often without an integrated

approach. Enemark (2009 p.2) states that “the processes of land valuation and

taxation as well as the actual land use planning processes are often not

considered to be part of land administration activities”. In fact, the government

departments responsible for the three traditional land administration functions

vary from country to country but usually the Minister of Justice is responsible for

maintaining up to date records of ownership of land (land tenure). The land

value element is often under the control of the Minister of Finance while land

use may have a government department responsible for national policies and

regulations with local or regional authorities frequently involved in planning

activities and the enforcement of building regulation. In some countries, local

authorities may also be responsible for collecting commercial taxes and

property taxes.

Developing land policies is one aspect but implementing them may requires a

multidisciplinary study of how people organise land and relate to it. This

represents the main goal of land administration as a discipline. Land

administration requires the understanding of the local and national aspects of

the people to land relationships. Ultimately, it is the governments responsibility

to establish efficient organisations capable of managing complex processes that

are used to create and maintain accurate records of land information.

The research questions in this thesis focus on the land tenure function of the

Irish LA activities and in particular on the land registration process, which is the

registration of property titles with the PRA. This process, through which, textual

and spatial records are collected, maintained and published requires not only a

solid legal national framework and an efficient management of human and

technical resources but also the management of a large amount of spatial

information. In Ireland, this is limited to the 2D spatial extent of various levels of

ownerships rights (freeholds, leaseholds etc.) and burdens registered against

properties such as right of way. Other processes relative to the land tenure

function that will not be discussed in the course oft his research due to their

16

complex nature are:

• t h e adjudication process used to resolve disputes between different

claimants over the same portion of property and;

• the demarcation or delimitation process necessary to establish the extent

of property rights by marking boundaries on the ground.

Land Information Systems

All the LA processes require the support of Land Information Systems (LIS)

which are key elements in the management of spatial information. LIS consist of

a cartographic or mapping element and thematic attributes relative to one or

more of the land administration functions such as the land tenure. LIS need to

provide the user with up to date, correct and reliable information about land

(usually parcels-based) and its attributes in support of decision making

processes within the land administration activities. The International Federation

of Surveyors (FIG 1995) in its “Statement on the cadastre” defines a LIS as

“a tool containing a record of interests in land (i.e. rights,

restrictions and responsibilities). It usually includes a geometric

description of land parcels linked to other records describing the

nature of the interests, ownership or control of those interests,

and often the value of the parcel and its improvements”.

LIS are able to provide meaningful information only if sound SIM strategies are

employed and if authoritative and reliable data is used. From this statement it is

possible to note that data and information are two different things. Data alone it

is not information, it is just raw data collected, digitised and stored in a digital

format. It is important to understand that spatial data only becomes information

after it is processed and analysed by computer systems (e.g. LIS) and used in a

meaningful way to support decision making processes. Information is viewed

by (Longley, Goodchild, Maguire & Rhind 2011 p.12) as “data serving some

17

purpose, or data that have been given some degree of interpretation” either

through processing or merger with other information. Steudler & Rajabifard

(2012 p.8) refer to land surveyor and other spatial information specialists as the

professions that “perform a fundamental role in the flow of spatial information

through society by translating raw data about land into spatial information”.

Therefore, it is evident how SIM goes beyond the management of raw data and

how it became an essential requirement to transform spatial data into

meaningful spatial information.

Considering that the LA functions are often managed by separate agencies or

organisations using different LIS such as in the Irish LA context and bearing in

mind that LIS can also be relevant to other domains such as the environmental

(Section 2.4), infrastructural and socio-economic (Dale & McLaughlin 1999) and

(Larsson 2000) where there is the need to integrate spatial information from

diverse sources, the ability of these systems to share spatial information is a

very significant requirement that can only be addressed by applying sound SIM

strategies. Such strategies would focus on resolving the interoperability issues

between these systems through the use international standards in the field of

geographic information and other geospatial technologies as explained next.

Within the LA context LIS depend on both, human and technical resources and

may support a variety of processes including the collection, storage, updating,

retrieval, analysis and publication of spatial referenced data. Depending on the

technical and financial capacity of a particular country, LIS may be manual or

digital. In the past decade or two many countries have moved from manual to

digital systems, embracing the capabilities and benefits of adopting Geographic

Information Systems (GIS) to manage spatial information. Large scale paper

maps, aerial photography and textual records of different nature have been

digitised as part of lengthy and costly re-engineering and modernisation

processes of cadastre-legal systems. Traditional country wide survey

techniques for spatial data acquisition have been replaced by the use of new

technologies such as GPS (Global Positioning Systems), high resolution

airborne imagery, airborne LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), better and

18

more accurate Coordinate Reference Systems (CRS) and more efficient data

models.

LIS have also evolved due to other significant technological advances in the ICT

area such as the development of sophisticated Spatial Database Management

Systems (SDBMS) which have contributed to the improvement of storage,

processing, access of spatial information. Equally important have been the

developments in web mapping technologies such as web services (WMS, WFS,

etc.) to facilitate the sharing and exchange of spatial information through the

web. The development of international standards for geographic information

such as the ones maintained by the International Standard Organization –

Technical Committee 211 (ISO-TC/211) and the Open Geospatial Consortium

(OGC) have also greatly contributed to the development of LIS.

Figure 2.3: Framework for re-engineering land administration systems (Ting &

Williamson 2001)

19

LA is continually evolving and the processes that may be tailored for today's

needs may not be fit for tomorrow's challenges. Considering global drivers such

as sustainable development, urbanisation and the afore mentioned technology,

governments need to carefully consider and understand these processes in

order to re-design or re-engineer vital LIS (Figure 2.3).

It is within this context that it is important to mention the need for benchmarking

methodologies or frameworks to establish the level of performance based on

measurable indicators (Ting & Williamson 1999), (Ting & Williamson 2001),

(Steudler, Rajabifard & Williamson 2003), (Clancy 2007) and (Bandeira, Sumpsi

& Falconi 2010).

2.2.2 Land registration systems

Cadastre and land registration are at the centre of land administration activities.

Although this thesis focuses on land registration, the author believes that it is

also relevant to present the definition of the term cadastre.

Henssen (1995 p.5) defines land registration as the

“process of official recording of rights in land through deeds or as

title on properties. It means that there is an official record (land

register) of rights on land or of deeds concerning changes in the

legal situation of defined units of land”.

He also defines cadastre as

“a methodically arranged public inventory of data concerning

properties within a certain country or district, based on a survey of

their boundaries. Such properties are systematically identified by

means of some separate designation. The outlines of the property

and the parcel identifier normally are shown on large-scale maps

which, together with registers, may show for each separate

20

property the nature, size, value and legal rights associated with

the parcel”.

When integrated, (Henssen 1995) explains how the two systems operate, often

as interactive systems which complement each other. In his conceptual model,

the function of the cadastre is primarily of providing an inventory of land units or

parcels with a unique identifier as a mean to identify a property. He perceives

this as a conceptual model that represents the people-land relationship, or as

he says, the man-parcel relationship (specific to legal-cadastre). He identifies

land registration as the system that relate a subject (person) to a right and the

cadastre (or spatial component), the system that relate that right to an object

(parcel) as illustrated in Figure 2.4. It is worth noting that the right (or the legal

status) is the link between the two systems. Henssen sees land registration as

answering the questions as to who and how, while the cadastre answering the

questions as to where and how much.

Figure 2.4: Cadastral Conceptual Model developed by Henssen (1995)

21

The Henssen model was used as a starting point for the development of the

conceptual model of the Land Administration Domain Model (Lemmen 2012)

which will be used in this thesis to propose a 3D land registration system for

Ireland (Chapter 3).

Land registration plays a very important role in the development of countries

globally, and it has adapted and responded to changes and situations that

occurred in society in terms of formal and informal rights. Larsonn (2000 p.65)

re-states the words of (Simpson 1976) in the context of the role of land

registration in urban settlements:

“Land registration must be kept in perspective. It is a device which

may be essential to sound land administration, but it is merely part

of the machinery of government. It is not some sort of magical

specific which will automatically produce good land use and

development”.

He concludes by stating

“....In short, land registration is only a means to an end. It is not an

end in itself”.

Figure 2.5: Land registration systems (Enemark 2009)

22

Land registration refers to the type of land records held in official registers. It

generally includes the description of rights to and burdens on land. This type of

land record is the legal record and is historically used in cadastral systems.

Today, when referring to legal records it is acceptable to talk about legal

cadastre or more appropriately about (legal) land registry (Larsonn 2000 p.17).

Land registration has evolved differently around the world depending on the

legal system present in a particular country as shown in Figure 2.5.

System Land Registration Cadastre

Fre

nch

• Deeds System

• Registration of the transaction

• Titles are not State guaranteed

• Notaries, registrars, lawyers & Insurance companies hold central positions

• Ministry of Justice (Responsible body)

• Interest in deed is described in a description of metes and bounds and sometimes a sketch, which is not necessarily the same as in thecadastre

• Land taxation purposes

• Spatial reference or map is used for taxation purposes only

• Cadastral registration is a follow-up process after land registration

• Ministry of Finance or a tax authority

Ge

rma

n

• Title system

• Land book maintained at local district court

• Title based on cadastral identification

• Registered titles guaranteed by the State

• Neither boundaries nor areas State-guaranteed

• Land & property identification

• Fixed boundaries determined by cadastral surveys carried out by licensed surveyors

• Cadastral registration is prior to land registration

• Ministry of Environment

Torr

ens/

En

gli

sh • Title system

• Land records maintained at the land registration office

• Registered titles usually guaranteed as to ownership/title

• Neither boundaries nor areas State-guaranteed

• Fixed boundaries determined by cadastral surveys carried out by licensed surveyors

• English system used general boundaries identified in large scale topographic maps

• Cadastral registration integrated inthe land registration process

Figure 2.6: Land Registration & Cadastral Systems Worldwide (Williamson et al.

2010)

23

It is necessary to distinguish the French, German, Torrens and English systems

(Williamson et al. 2010 p.58-67) and (Larsson 2000 p.29-56) as shown in Figure

2.6. The English system, present in Ireland, is derived from the Torrens system.

All these systems are based on the traditions and political history of a specific

region and in particular on the legal system in use. Land registration systems

may or may not be part of or linked to a cadastre. However, modern legal land

registries have incorporated, throughout their development, a mapping

component in order to support the recording of rights to land such as in the case

of the Land Registry in Ireland (Section 2.3).

One major distinction between land registration systems is whether they are

based on deeds or titles. Within the non-cadastral countries (countries that did

not establish a cadastre for legal purpose), land registries were first established

based on the principle of publicity which implies that the legal registers

containing land records were available for public inspection, making the transfer

of properties and the ownership rights in land more secure and transparent.

Initially, it was the deed or legal document, which was optionally registered, that

represented the transaction (deed registration). The limitation in the deed

registration systems was that the actual transaction was recorded and not the

legal rights. This meant that before the alienation of a property, the owner had to

prove his/her ownership back to a good root of title. Other additional problems

with the deed registration as identified by (Simpson 1976) and (Larsonn 2000)

are the lack of an official survey, the absence of a uniform system for the

identification of properties, the absence of compulsory registrations and the

method/recording of registrations which were arranged by dates and not land

units. The deed registration system was generally sporadic and voluntary. It was

soon realised that it could be improved by introducing compulsory registration

particularly to help government in taxes collection. Subsequently, based on the

principle of speciality, where a person and real property needed to be

unambiguously identified, and the introduction of a State guarantee (the

insurance principle) the title registration system was recognized as much more

24

effective in ensuring the recording of property rights.

Another important distinction is whether boundaries delimiting a property are

fixed (conclusive) or general (non-conclusive) in nature. Conclusive boundaries

were first adopted in the Torrens systems. They can be defined as the precise

line of the legal boundary determined by land surveying and mapping

operations (Williamson et al. 2010). In land registration systems using the

conclusive system the act of registering a property determines the absolute

extent of the property which is also guaranteed by the State. In contrast, in non-

conclusive boundary systems the precise location of the boundary and its

features is not accurately defined (O'Brien & Prendergast 2011).

25

2.3 The Property Registration Authority (PRA) of Ireland

2.3.1 Background

In Ireland, the land administration function of land tenure is administered by the

Property Registration Authority (PRA). The agency was established by the

Minister of Justice and Equality under the provisions of the Registration of

Deeds and Title Act 2006 (Oireachtas 2006) with a mandate to manage and

control the two land registration systems present in Ireland: the Registry of

Deeds and the Land Registry. The two systems are mutually exclusive, and as

the registration of title is increasingly extended, the system of registration of

deeds will be gradually discontinued. The PRA operates within the legal

framework represented by the Irish Land Law. Therefore, the legal basis on

which land ownership in Ireland is rooted is the common law, which was

developed by the common law courts in the Middle Ages. On the matter of

ownership, (Lyall 2010 p.1) notes that “in common law, what is owned is not the

physical property directly but the estates and interests in the land”.

The PRA is responsible for approving and registering all legal transactions

affecting property in Ireland. It provides security of titles under a state guarantee

(conclusive system of titles) and it maintains one of the largest database of

property related information in the country storing 1.9 million individual legal

titles, 2.8 million registered parcels and almost 7 million electronic documents.

The PRA's primary statutory remit is to complete the Irish land registry leading

to a single system of title registration. The registration of titles in Ireland is

compulsory every time a property sale takes place and the Compulsory First

Registration (CFR) program, introduced by the Registration Of Title Act

(Oireachtas 1964), has now been extended by Ministerial Order in 2011, to

include the counties and cities of Dublin and Cork making the registration of

titles compulsory in all 26 counties. This will ultimately benefit consumers by

reducing registration delays and associated costs of registration contributing to

a better e-conveyancing process (Ahern 2011).

26

The PRA’s mission, as stated in its Strategic Plan 2013-2015 (PRA 2013), is

“to promote and safeguard property rights and facilitate property

transactions by maintaining and extending a comprehensive and

reliable system of registration of title in Ireland”.

It is understood that this would facilitate the implementation of Government

policies on land administration and play an essential role in the development of

the ongoing e-registration and e-conveyancing processes.

2.3.2 Registry of Deeds

The Registry of Deeds was introduced in Ireland by the Registration of Deeds

Act in 1707. In this system, the method of proving title required the vendor of a

property “to produce enough evidence, deeds or other instruments, to be able

to form an unbroken chain, extending back to a good root of title” (Pearce &

Mee 2011). The deed system was inconclusive and did not guarantee

ownership. The system recorded the existence of various deeds such as

conveyances where the transaction itself was registered. The most important

document in the Registry of Deeds is a summary of relevant details of that

transaction called the memorial (Figure 2.7). This resulted in the creation of a

register containing an index of names of people (guarantors) who sold their

properties and not a register of ownerships. Furthermore, no map of the

property interest concerned was retained. The registration of properties was on

a voluntary basis, and based on the principle of publicity, the register was open

to the public for inspection. The registration process was very slow and proof of

good back titles involved a large amount of legal research.

27

Figure 2.7: Sample of memorial from Registry of Deeds (DCC 2013).

2.3.3 The Land Registry

The Land Registry was established by the Registration of Title Ireland Bill of

1891. The new land registration system was based on the registration of titles

previously developed in 1858 by Sir Robert Torrens in Southern Australia.

Ireland adopted the English version of the Torrens system. The developments in

Irish legislation that led to the adoption of such a system and the subsequent

modifications are summarised very clearly by (O'Brien & Prendergast 2011).

The system is characterised by the use of a general boundary rule (non-

conclusive boundaries) which is still in existence today. Based on the principle

of publicity the registers are open to the public for inspection. The two records

to prove ownership are the Folio and the Registry Map.

28

2.3.4 The legal-administrative record (Folio)

The legal-administrative side of land registration concerns the recording and

storage of the actual source of the transaction, the deed document. When an

application for registration in the Land Registry, also known as a dealing is

completed, the legal effect of the document lodged is registered on a folio. The

title document is subsequently retained in the Land Registry and is known as

the instrument. The Land Registry instrument is not a public record and it can

only be inspected by the registered owner as specified in Rule 159 of the Land

Registration Rules (PRA 2012a).

Within the Irish legal framework the Land Registry maintains three distinct

registers relating to the ownership of land and appurtenant rights on the land.

These are the freehold, leasehold and hereditaments or other rights on the

property (Pearce & Mee 2011). The legal record for proving ownership is the

folio which consists of three parts. The type of interests (freehold land,

leasehold land), a textual description of the property and any appurtenance

rights serving the property is found in part 1(A) of the folio. Part 1(B) lists any

parts of the property that have been transferred over the years. The type of

ownership or title is described in part (2) with details of the person(s) related to

that ownership. Finally Part (3) shows any burdens that affect the property such

as charges (mortgages), right of way, wayleave. A certified copy of a folio and

map to be used for legal purposes can be requested by any member of the

public through the PRA online portal (www.landirect.ie) which allows users to

access legal and spatial information regarding a particular property.

2.3.5 The spatial record (Registry map)

The spatial record, the parcel (or plan), represents the smallest spatial unit

against which ownership is recorded and it is stored in the registry map. These

records are mapped on large scale Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSi) maps and

their boundaries referenced to physical/topographic features such as ditches,

29

walls and fences. The function of the registry map is to identify properties and

not boundaries. The Land Registry has also a statutory obligation (Oireachtas

1972) to maintain its spatial records referenced on the most current version of

the OSi maps. In 2002, the old Irish Grid 1975 coordinate system (IG75) has

been replaced by OSi with the GPS compatible Irish Transverse Mercator (ITM)

coordinate system. The current OSi large scale maps, 1:1000 for urban areas,

1:2500 for sub-urban areas and rural towns and 1:5000 for rural areas are today

produced digitally in vector format. From a standard implementation perspective

it is important to note that the OSi has recently completed the conversion of all

its spatial datasets from vector format to database compatible. Now each spatial

objects will have a Geographic Unique Identifier (GUID) to which it is possible to

link other types of semantic information (attributes). This new object-oriented

data model named PRIME2 will be available to users from late 2014 and will

have to be taken into consideration for evaluation and possibly adoption by PRA

in the near future.

Another simple but very important consideration is that the current OSi maps

are 2D cartographic representation of the earth surface. This 2D surface can

only be partitioned in the horizontal plane, creating a number of adjacent 2D

polygons (plans). In the real world, especially in heavily built urban areas,

complex situations may occur where the legal space of two or more registered

properties overlap or interlock. A typical example would be a multi-storey

building where individual apartments are sold separately and therefore

registered to different owners. The requirement for the recognition of separate

title interests in relatively small elements of properties such as load bearing

structural elements and service shafts, and also the increasing need for rights of

ways and service wayleaves, has also highlighted the limitation of the traditional

2D mapping system as a means of registering the descriptions of such

interests. Representing these type of situations on a 2D surface is possible but

it is not very practical and often not clear. Any instance of multi-level (flying

freehold) ownership registration in Ireland is dealt with through the use of a

multi-storey registration as published in Appendix 5 of the PRA Mapping

Guidelines (PRA 2012a). It was originally introduced to deal with new apartment

30

buildings but it has been gradually extended to other complex situations where

it was difficult to represent it on the 2D registry map. Such types of registration

are recognisable by a blue square seedpoint or locator marker shown in Figure

2.8. For example, the registration of the legal space occupied by the Dublin Port

Tunnel was achieved by using the multi-storey approach as described in

Section 5.4.

Figure 2.8: Screenshot from Landirect web portal showing seedpoint indicating a multi-

storey registration (PRA 2013)

2.3.6 PRA digital systems

The PRA bases its core business processes mainly on two database

management systems: the Integrated Title Registration Information System

(ITRIS), used to manage the legal and administrative aspects of land

registration and the Digital Mapping System (DMapS), used to manage the

31

spatial element (plans) of the registration. As part of the Digital Mapping Project

2005-2010 (Autodesk 2008) the two systems have been integrated to allow the

successful implementation of the Land Registry Electronic Access Service

(EAS) which provides on-line access to the PRA computerised database of

folios and related parcels. It also provides the staff in the PRA with a digital

environment to process applications electronically. This has resulted in an

increased efficiency and productivity of the PRA legal services, and from the

users point of view, in the possibility of registering titles on-line through the

Landirect portal (www.landirect.ie). It is worth noting that these two systems

play a vital role with regards to the way information is managed by PRA. The

proposed standard-based conceptual model for the management of such

information will consider both systems as further explained in Chapter 6.

32

2.4 The INSPIRE model for Cadastral Parcels

2.4.1 Introduction

In the land administration domain the recording and mapping of land parcels, or

cadastral parcels, are at the heart of any national cadastre or land registry. In

such Land Information System (LIS), cadastral parcels represent the smallest

spatial units against which land ownership, land value or land use information

are recorded. However, the ability to link multiple thematic layers to a

geographic location, makes cadastral parcels an ideal reference or base layer

also for LIS in other domains (Figure 2.9).

Figure 2.9: Cadastral Parcel uses in other domains (Laurent 2013)

From an environmental perspective, for example, the European Union (EU) has

made major progress in recent years in order to establish an Infrastructure for

Spatial Information in the European Community (EC INSPIRE 2007). INSPIRE

aims to facilitate the sharing and use of environmental spatial information in

Europe held by or on behalf of local authorities of the EU Member States. Both

public and private organisations involved in creating and maintaining

33

CadastralParcels

Agricultural Policies (Land Parcel Identifcation System)

Environment (Soil Protection, Water Abstraction, Protected Sites)

Spatial Planning

Infrastructures/Utilities

Public Land Management

Public safety (Flood Management)

Socio-Economic Analysis

environmental LIS are ultimately expected to benefit from the use of this

infrastructure. Within INSPIRE, national cadastral parcels have been

considered as a reference layer to which many other environmental thematic

data sets can be linked to. This confirms how the management of cadastral

parcels are not only fundamental to the formulation of national land policies in

the land administration context but also to environmental policies.

2.4.2 INSPIRE Directive

The INSPIRE Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the

Council was adopted on 14 March 2007 (EC INSPIRE 2007) with the objective

to support governance of Europe and in particular to assist and facilitate

decision-making processes in relation to environmental policies and activities

that have an impact on the environment. International best practices in the

management of spatial information as proposed by the United Nations initiative

on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) and the FIG

Commission 3 on Spatial Information Management, address solutions to

common challenges among the producers and consumers of spatial

information. In a similar way, INSPIRE deals with the lack of availability, quality,

organisation, accessibility and sharing of spatial information. Following these

international best practices, Figure 2.10 shows the five common principles upon

which INSPIRE is based (EC INPIRE 2014a).

INSPIRE is a Framework Directive and its implementation is based on Spatial

Data Infrastructures (SDI) established and maintained by the Member States.

To ensure that the SDI of the Member States are compliant and fit for use within

INSPIRE, the Directive requires the adoption of binding Implementing Rules

(IR). This means that the Member States have to modify existing national SDI

that are not compatible with INSPIRE or create new ones.

34

1Data should be collected only once and kept where it can bemaintained most effectively.

2It should be possible to combine seamless spatial informationfrom different sources across Europe and share it with manyusers and applications.

3It should be possible for information collected at one level/scaleto be shared with all levels/scales; detailed for thoroughinvestigations, general for strategic purposes.

4Geographic information needed for good governance at alllevels should be readily and transparently available.

5Easy to find what geographic information is available, how it canbe used to meet a particular need, and under which conditions itcan be acquired and used.

Figure 2.10: Common principles of INSPIRE (INSPIRE Directive 2007/2/EC)

The adoption of the IR relate to the following specific areas or components of

INSPIRE:

• Metadata;

• Data Specifications;

• Network Services;

• Data and Service Sharing;

• Monitoring and Reporting.

Due to the relevance to this research it is necessary to focus on the Data

Specification component of INSPIRE which concerns the interoperability of

spatial data sets across the European Community. Interoperability in INSPIRE

refers to the ability to integrate spatial information from various sources in such

a manner where the efforts and time in understanding and combining the data

sets are minimised. There are two ways to achieve interoperability and

therefore compatibility with INSPIRE. The first is by harmonising or changing

35

the existing data sets often involving the re-engineering of data structures and

spatial databases schemas. The other is by creating an INSPIRE

Transformation Network Service (TNS) which allow the users to find, browse,

share and download digital spatial data (ECINSPIRE 2009). The Data

Specifications component describes the data sets or themes that need to be

made available by Member States. These are grouped into Annex I, II and III of

the Data Specifications (Figure 2.11). In INSPIRE the Data Themes in Annex I

are considered as reference or core data and provide a common link between

applications and a mechanism for the sharing of knowledge and information

between users in Europe (EC INSPIRE 2008). According to INSPIRE, reference

data must fulfill three functional requirements:

• provide an unambiguous location for a user’s information;

• enable merging of data from various sources and;

• provide a context to allow others to better understand the information that

is being presented.

Annex I 1. Coordinate reference systems 2. Geographical grid systems 3. Geographical names 4. Administrative units 5. Addresses 6. Cadastral parcels 7. Transport networks 8. Hydrography 9. Protected sites

Annex II 1. Elevation 2. Land cover 3. Orthoimagery 4. Geology

Annex III 1. Statistical units 2. Buildings 3. Soil 4. Land use 5. Human health and safety 6. Utility and Government services 7. Environmental monitoring facilities 8. Production and industrial facilities 9. Agricultural and aquaculture facilities 10. Population distribution – demography 1 1 . Area management / restriction /

regulation zones & reporting units 12. Natural risk zones 13. Atmospheric conditions 14. Meteorological geographical features 15. Oceanographic geographical features 16. Sea regions 17. Bio-geographical regions 18. Habitats and biotopes 19. Species distribution 20. Energy resources 21. Mineral resources

Figure 2.11: Data Themes in INSPIRE (EC INSPIRE 2007)

36

2.4.3 Cadastral Parcels Data Specifications

National Cadastral Parcels data sets are included in Annex I. The INSPIRE

Data Specification on Cadastral Parcels version 3.1 (EC INSPIRE 2014b)

provides guidelines for the implementation of the Cadastral Parcels data theme.

Following the input of stakeholders from the Spatial Data Interest Community

(SDIC) and the Legally Mandated Organisation (LMO), the INSPIRE Thematic

Working Group (TWG) for data themes in Annex I has been responsible for the

development of the guidelines for the Cadastral Parcels specification (Figure

2.12). During the preparation of the specification, the TWG has also closely

cooperated not only with international organisation with expertise in the

cadastral domain such as the Permanent Committee on Cadastre (PCC),

EuroGeographics and the FIG (Commission 3 and 7) but also with ISO/TC211

which is responsible for the standardisation of geographic information. The

INSPIRE Directive focuses on the spatial aspects of the national cadastral data

sets and therefore property rights and owners information are out of the

INSPIRE scope. However, through the cooperation with FIG, compatibility

between the INSPIRE Cadastral Parcel model and the ISO 19152 LADM has

been achieved (EC INSPIRE 2014b). LADM is in fact a specialisation of the

INSPIRE Cadastral Parcel model and is able to provide additional spatial object

types such as property rights and ownership (Chapter 3).

Figure 2.12: Process of Data Specification on Cadastral Parcels.

37

INSPIRE TWGPCC

FIGISO/TC211

SDIC LMO

INSPIRE Data Specifcation on Cadastral Parcel

ISO 19152 LADM

The INSPIRE Directive 2007/2/EC refers to Cadastral Parcels as the “areas

defined by cadastral registers or equivalent” (EC INSPIRE 2007 p.11). In

addition, the Data Specification on Cadastral Parcels (EC INSPIRE 2014b)

endorses the definition of parcel published by the Working Party on Land

Administration (WPLA) (UNECE 2004), later adapted by the INSPIRE Working

Group on Cadastral Parcel Identifiers (WG-CPI) which defines a parcel as

“a single area of land or more particularly a volume of space,

under homogeneous real property rights and unique ownership”

(WG-CPI 2006).

Within the Data Specification on Cadastral Parcel “unique ownership” means

that the ownership is held by one or several owners for the whole parcel. For

“homogeneous property rights” is intended rights of ownership, leases and

mortgages that affect the extent of the whole parcel (EC INSPIRE 2014b). It is

important to highlight the fact that INSPIRE does not try to harmonise the

concept of ownership and real property rights associated with parcels (this is

the aim of ISO 19152 LADM as discussed in Chapter 3) but is limited to the

harmonisation of their geometric representation.

The INSPIRE schema for Cadastral Parcels is based of the ISO/TC 211 family

of international standards for GI and it is represented by using the Unified

Modeling Language (UML) notation (Section 4.2). It is composed of four

classes: CadastralParcel, BasicPropertyUnit, CadastralBoundary, and

CadstralZoning (Figure 2.13).

38

Figure 2.13: UML class diagram of Cadastral Parcels model (EC INSPIRE 2014b p.16)

39

Mandatory attributes of class CadastralParcel

CadastralParcel core class

Optional attributes of class CadastralParcel

The class CadastralParcel is the core, or mandatory, class and it has a

unidirectional relationship with the class BasicPropertyUnit. An instance of the

class CadastralParcel can be associated with 0 or more (0..*) instances of the

class BasicPropertyUnit. This means that a parcel can be related to 0 or more

properties. In many western cadastral systems a parcel can be associated with

only one property (0..1) but considering that INSPIRE attempts to address

different national realities in one single model, the multiplicity of this relationship

has been extended to (0..*). For example, in Norway a parcel may belong to

several basic property units (EC INSPIRE 2014b). Similarly, in Ireland, a special

form of tenure called commonage allows a parcel (plan) to be linked with many

properties in separate folios (Figure 2.14).

Figure 2.14: Example of commonage in Ireland (PRA 2014)

The class CadastralParcel has four mandatory attributes that each Member

State must implement and publish. These are: geometry, inspireId, label and

nationalCadastralReference (Figure 2.13). The geometry attribute, based on the

ISO 19107 Spatial Schema standard (ISO 2003), must be a GM_Surface

(recommended option) or a GM_MultiSurface. Member states must also ensure

that a unique and persistent identifier is used for the inspireId attribute. This

type of identifier is said to be “external” because it enables external applications

40

or systems to reference the actual geometry of the parcel to other types of

information. It must be published by the responsible cadastral or land registry by

adding a distinct alpha numeric prefix to all parcel reference numbers stored in

a national spatial DBMS in any particular country. Another mandatory attribute is

label. Usually, it refers to the parcel number as shown on cadastral or land

registry maps. This attribute represents the text that the user of an INSPIRE

compliant cadastral data set would view on a computer through a web service.

Finally, the attribute nationalCadastralReference complete the list of mandatory

attributes for the CadastralParcel class. This attribute is a “thematic” identifier

and it is needed to ensure the link to the national cadastral register. The

nationalCadastralReference is a key attribute and it is generally represented by

the full national code of the cadastral parcel. The structure of the national

cadastral reference for cadastral parcels is different in every Member States

and their harmonisation is outside the scope of INSPIRE. The Data

Specification on Cadastral Parcels recommends that national organisations,

responsible for the management of cadastral parcel information, should pay

particular attention when publishing the data for this attribute. If the national

cadastral reference published for INSPIRE is different from the one used in the

national register it could have a negative impact on future property transactions

needed for infrastructure projects or other public land acquisition (EC INSPIRE

2014b).

The class CadastralParcel also includes optional attributes which need to be

published for INSPIRE only if the data is available or derivable at a reasonable

cost. The attributes areaValue describe the area of the parcel and if available, it

must be published in square meter. Similarly to the geometry attribute, the

referencePoint attribute is based on ISO 19107 (ISO 2003). It must be stored as

a GM_Point and it may be used as an anchor point for displaying the label

attribute. The attributes validFrom and validTo can store temporal information

about the legal-administrative life-cycle of the parcel. Date and time can be

recorded when a parcel is created or extinguished as a consequence of the act

of registering the deed or title document. The last two temporal attributes,

beginLifespanVersion and endLifespanVersion, refer to the geometry

41

representing a parcel (spatial object). Over a period of time, a parcel is first

created, then it may be modified once or multiple times and finally ceased to be

used. Adding temporal attributes to the class CadastralParcel, is an efficient

way not only to digitally store the legal and geometric changes that effected the

parcel but to being able to reconstruct the its history.

2.4.4 The INSPIRE Cadastral Parcel model in Ireland

On 1st August 2010, the INSPIRE Directive was transposed into Irish law

through Statutory Instrument No.382/2010. Since then, Ireland has

implemented “GeoPortal” (www.geoportal.ie), its INSPIRE compliant web portal

which is now operative and maintained by OSi. In 2013, as part of the new e-

Government Strategy 2012-2015 (Department of Public Expenditure and

Reforms 2012), the launch of the web portal marked a very important step

towards the development of the Irish Spatial Data Infrastructure (ISDI) and

therefore the implementation of the INSPIRE Directive. Using the Network

Services available from “GeoPortal” it is possible to discover, view and

download INSPIRE spatial data sets published by various government

departments and other national agencies. Among them, the PRA has published

the INSPIRE compliant Cadastral Parcels by providing the ‘surface of the earth’

land parcels with nationwide unique identifiers. Two types of Network Services

can be used to discover and view the national cadastral parcels data set for

Ireland (Figure 2.15).

Figure 2.15: Network Services available on GeoPortal for PRA data (PRA 2014)

42

The Discovery Service allows the user to search for the data set and to display

the published metadata while the View Service offers the possibility to view the

data set on a web page through the use of a Web Mapping Service (WMS)

(Figure 2.16). A Download Service is not yet available for Cadastral Parcels

data but users can contact the PRA to request an electronic extract from the

Registry Map.

Figure 2.16: INSPIRE View Service available on GeoPortal for PRA data (PRA 2014)

The PRA has delivered the Cadastral Parcel data to the Department of

Environment, Community and Local Government (DECLG) which is responsible

for uploading the data on the Irish “GeoPortal” web site. The PRA has decided

to provide the data to the DECLG on a bi-annual basis. Two distinct data sets

are transformed and delivered each time, freehold and leasehold parcels

respectively. Conterra software solutions (http://www.conterra.de) are used to

carry out the necessary transformation of the existing data sets into given

43

INSPIRE data structures. The PRA has also decided to deliver the Cadastral

Parcels geometries in the Irish Transverse Mercator (ITM) Coordinate

Reference System which is “compatible” with the European Terrestrial

Reference System (ETRS89) required by INSPIRE.

The PRA, in conformity with the INSPIRE Data Specifications on Cadastral

Parcels, has implemented the core class CadastralParcel and all its mandatory

attributes (Figure 2.17). Following is a brief description of how the various

attributes have been mapped from the PRA database structure.

Figure 2.17: INSPIRE compliant class CadastralParcel (Arthur 2013)

The geometry attribute is provided as a vector geometry encoded using the ISO

19136 Geographic Markup Language (ISO 2007) which is the default encoding

for INSPIRE Cadastral Parcels application schemas.

In the PRA Strategic Plan 2013-2015, INSPIRE is viewed as a key external

factor impacting on the PRA operating environment and affecting the main

internal functions at least for the duration of this plan (PRA 2013). Also, it is

worth noting the PRA involvement, as a LMO, in the evaluation and

development of the INSPIRE Data Specification on Cadastral Parcels (EC

INSPIRE 2014b).

44

3 The Land Administration Domain Model (ISO 19152)

3.1 Development of LADM

The Land Administration Domain Model (LADM) was published on 1st December

2012 as an International Standard (IS) by the International Organization for

Standardization (ISO 2012) as ISO 19152.

The design of the LADM took place using an incremental approach. The original

concepts behind LADM were first presented at the 2002 FIG Congress held in

Washington DC, USA by (Van Oosterom & Lemmen 2002). The paper explored

the impact of Geo-Information and Communication Technology (ICT)

developments on cadastral systems, including land registries (legal cadastre),

and it focused on their efficient design (conceptual modeling), development,

testing and maintenance. Following the UNECE Land Administration Guidelines

and considering the dynamic nature of cadastral systems (UNECE 1996), the

authors also highlighted the importance of accurate analysis of the user

requirements prior to any re-engineering processes.

From 2002 to 2008 many papers were presented at various workshops, expert

group meetings and conferences to illustrate the development of LADM. These

are reviewed and organized chronologically in (Lemmen, Uitermark, Van

Oosterom, Zevenbergen & Greenway 2011) and (Lemmen, Uitermark & Van

Oosterom 2012). It is important to remember that for most of this period (until

2006) the LADM was called Core Cadastral Domain Model (CCDM).

In 2008, after six years of preparation and within the initiative of the

International Federation of Surveyors (FIG), an official proposal was submitted

to the Geographic Information Technical Committee (ISO/TC 211) for the

development of an international standard for the Land Administration domain

(ISO/TC211 2008). Within TC 211, LADM related issues were discussed during

several meetings among a project team composed of 21 representatives from

45

17 different countries (Lemmen, et al. 2012). In 2008, following the ISO

regulations and procedures, LADM was first accepted as a New Work Items

Proposal (NWIP). Then in 2009, LADM received positive voting results from the

Committee Draft (CD) and in 2011 was passed as a Draft International Standard

(DIS). At this stage of the development of the standards, LADM had reached a

substantial maturity and stability and it was promoted to a Final Draft

International Standard (FDIS) in June 2012. Finally, in October 2012, it became

an International Standard (IS) and it was published later in the same year.

During the past ten years of development, LADM has evolved through a number

of significant changes and minor modifications (versions 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, etc..).

New classes and associations were created, allowing for new types of people-

land relationships or other particular legal situations. Attributes have also been

added, which introduced new types of information. For clarity reasons,

(Lemmen 2012) summarised the development of the LADM into three main

versions, A, B, and C. Version A is considered the “mature initial version” and it

is discussed in (Lemmen, Van der Molen, Van Oosterom, Ploeger, Quak, Stoter

& Zevenbergen 2003). Further developments were presented in version B

(Lemmen & Van Oosterom 2006) at the 2006 FIG Congress in Munich,

Germany in 2006. This version corresponds to the original version 1.0 and was

the one submitted to ISO/TC211 for the NWIP approval. At this moment the

conceptual model was still called Core Cadastral Domain Model. Finally, version

C is the one presented to the DIS for approval, and apart from small changes it

corresponded to the version presented and discussed by (Lemmen 2012) in his

PhD. Thesis and summarised in the next sections of this Chapter.

3.2 Principles of LADM

Land administration systems may adopt an integrated approach (multi-purposes

cadastral systems) or just serving one isolated function. Some may be

centralised, others decentralised. These may use a conclusive or non-

46

conclusive boundary system, or in case of legal cadastre, may be based on

deed or title systems. However, these are all largely based on the same

principles: these all describe the relationships between people and land either

using a paper-based or digital-based system. Within the land tenure function of

land administration, and therefore concerning legal cadastre and land registries,

the main purpose of LADM is to provide a formal language that can be used to

describe the elements of these systems regardless of the legal framework

present in a particular country.

LADM is a descriptive conceptual model and not a prescriptive one. It does not

propose to replace existing systems but rather to describe them using a

common language definition (ontology). LADM focuses not only on the

description of rights to land but also on the representation of restrictions and

responsibilities (RRR) affecting land (see Section 3.3 on “Cadastre 2014” and

Section 3.5.3 on the Administrative Package of LADM), and the spatial

representations of their associated “legal space”.

LADM also provides an extensible generic model that can be refined or

specialised, and therefore developed to describe many other types of people-

land relationships based on a Model Driven Architecture (MDA) approach which

has been successfully tested by (Hespanha 2012) in the context of LADM. The

MDA was created by the Object Management Group (OMG) (Miller & Mukerji

2003) and it has been used to identify each level of modeling. According to this

vocabulary, the CIM is the Computation Independent Model, the PIM is the

Platform Independent Model and the PSM is the Platform Specific Model. These

models also respectively correspond to the conceptual, logical and physical

data models found in other methods. Yeung & Hall (2007) illustrate how the

MDA provides a “systematic approach for developing multi-users solutions in

current enterprise database environment” and identify the use of standards as a

central component.

Moreover, LADM allows the user to manage and maintain historical data

(lineage) in the database by assigning a time-stamp to the data. This allows the

reconstruction of the database at any time in the past and also the retrieval of

47

the history of a particular property, right or person representing the dynamic

nature of people-land relationships.

3.3 “Cadastre 2014”

“Cadastre 2014” is a visionary document published by FIG Commission 7

working group (Kaufmann & Steudler 1998). The document identifies a number

of occurring changes in the cadastral domain such as the role of governments

and surveyors in society, the evolving people to land relationships, the

increasingly active role of the private sector in the cadastral activities and the

impact of new technologies on cadastral reforms (Williamson 1998). The

development of LADM attempts to address many of these issues. LADM is

predominantly based on this conceptual framework and it is also based on the

triple “Object (parcel) - Right - Subject (man)” model developed by Henssen

(1995) as discussed in Section 2.2.2. The pattern proposed by Henssen is also

used in “Cadastre 2014” which suggest a cadastral domain based on the

following seven design principles as summarised by Lemmen (2012):

• principle of spatial units. The traditional land parcel showing the spatial

extent of the right of ownership (freehold, leasehold, etc.) should be

extended to include all spatial units with some social, legal or economic

importance;

• principle of the documentation of private and public rights,

restrictions and responsibilities. R igh ts , res t r i c t ions and

responsibilities (RRR) with a direct effect on land and which are

established by different legislations will be required to be registered. This

is in addition to the traditional registration of ownership rights;

• principle of legal independence. The principle of legal independence is

a key item in the realisation of Cadastre 2014. According to this principle

it is necessary to explore, understand and identify national legislations

48

which have an impact on land-people relationships. These legislations

may relate to environmental, economic, political, administrative or other

aspects of society. Each one may refer to a particular area of the national

territory which can be represented by a spatial unit (see principle of

spatial units above). These spatial units can then be arranged in different

layers of a LIS according to the laws by which they are defined (Figure

3.0). This concept allows the immediate adoption of the legislation

without the need to rearrange the information stored in a LIS. New legal

topics can simply be added by including a further information level (layer

in LIS). If a law is cancelled, the respective information level can be

removed without reorganising the other levels.

Figure 3.0: The principle of legal independence from “Cadastre 2014” (Kaufmann &

Steudler 1998).

• principle of linking objects by geometry. The results of the

implementation of the principle of legal independence is a layer structure.

49

All spatial units are arranged in independent layers such as land

property, land use, natural resources, etc. Permanent links between

spatial units in different layers are not necessary and can be created as

needed with spatial overlaying techniques.;

• principle of unified Cadastre and Land Registry. Textual information

relative to different topics such as land use, land value and land tenure

(traditional LA domain) can be linked to the same spatial unit. This would

solve the problems caused by separate LIS (cadastre and land registry)

including duplication of efforts, additional costs, inconsistencies and,

hence, inaccuracies in the data, and a danger of confusion resulting in

taking wrong decisions;

• principle of Land Administration Modelling. This is the principle that is

actually implemented in this research. The concept here is that maps do

not need to retain textual information (e.g. registry maps with parcel

number) their only purpose will be the visualisation of information.

Based on these principles, Kaufmann & Steudler (1998) have developed six

visionary statements which attempted to anticipate the future of Cadastres and

Land Registries in twenty years hence. These are:

Statement 1: Cadastre 2014 will show the complete legal situation of land,

including public rights and restrictions;

Statement 2: The separation between ‘maps’ and ‘registers’ will be abolished;

Statement 3: Cadastral mapping will be dead! Long live Modelling;

Statement 4: ‘Paper and Pencil cadastre’ will have gone;

Statement 5: Cadastre 2014 will be highly privatized. Public and private sector

are working closely together;

Statement 6: Cadastre 2014 will be cost recovering.

50

3.4 The need for a standard

Lemmen & Van Oosterom (2013 p.12) explain that LADM is required for

“communication between professionals, for system design, system

development and system implementation purposes and for purposes of data

exchange and quality management of data”.

LADM is able to support two main processes of every land administration

systems. It allows the user to maintain legal and spatial records up to date

through the use of ICT infrastructures, including Spatial Database Management

Systems (SDBMS) and GIS. It also provides a means to disseminate these

records by relying on imported functionality from other ISO/TC211 standards.

According to (Kaufmann & Steudler 1998) in “Cadastre 2014”, modeling land

administration systems is a complex task in many countries but it is also

recognised a basic tool that facilitates appropriate system development and re-

engineering.

Today, the PRA is confronted with a rapid development in technology

(technology push) concerning web-based services, maintenance of very large

geospatial databases, standards implementation such as INSPIRE and

GIS/CAD software for the support of internal business processes. It also faces

the increasing demand for new services (market pull) such as e-conveyancing,

e-registration and e-governance. It is within this fast changing and challenging

environment that conceptual modeling and spatial information management in

general have become imperative for implementing efficient land information

systems.

Such a standard will enable GIS and SDBMS providers and/or open source

communities to develop products and applications for Land Administration

purposes. And in turn this will enable land registry and cadastral organisations

to use the components of the standard to develop, implement and maintain

systems in an even more efficient way.

51

3.5 Content of LADM

3.5.1 Overview of LADM

LADM as a conceptual schema is described using the Unified Modeling

Language (UML). LADM organises information into three packages and one

sub-package as follows:

• Party Package (people and organisations)

• Administrative Package (basic administrative units, rights, restrictions

and responsibilities)

• Spatial Unit Package (parcels and the legal space of building and utility

networks)

• Surveying and Representation Sub-Package (spatial sources and spatial

representations using geometry and topology). It is a sub-package of the

Spatial Unit package.

LADM allows for the description of both, the legal/administrative and technical

(spatial) aspects of a land registration system. As each type of information is

organized into (sub)packages it may be managed and maintained by different

agencies within a country or by separate departments or sections within the

same organisation such as in the case of the PRA.

LADM is based on four basic classes (Figure 3.1) and each one of them is

further illustrated in the following sections:

1. Class LA_Party. Instances of this class are parties.

2. C lass LA_RRR. Instances of subclasses of LA_RRR are rights,

restrictions or responsibilities.

3. Class LA_BAUnit. Instances of this class are basic administrative units.

4. Class LA_SpatialUnit. Instances of this class are spatial units.

52

The description of each package in the next sections is a summary of the

classes and associations present in the model and it may exclude one or more

less important classes or association due to limitations in scope of this thesis.

Figure 3.1: The LADM four basic classes (ISO 2012 p.9)

3.5.2 The Party Package

An instance of class LA_Party is a person or organisation involved in the land

registration process. The definition of ‘party’ implies that a party may be a

natural person, or a group of natural persons, or a non-natural person

(Lemmen, Van Oosterom, Eisenhut & Uitermark 2010). A person may be the

solicitor that prepares and signs a property transaction, a land surveyor involved

in the preparation of the deed map, an administrator or legal adviser in the PRA

that check the conformity of an application for first registration or someone who

has an interest in a property (owner, lesser, etc). An organisation can be a

company, a local authority or the state. It may be also a financial institution or

bank that provides a mortgage to a buyer. Figure 3.2 shows the content of the

Party Package including the associations with the other basic classes and their

multiplicity constraints. A party can be associated with 0 or more [0..*] rights,

restrictions or responsibilities. For example, a person working as a solicitor is an

53

instance of class LA_Party because they are involved in a transaction but he

may not hold any rights over a property [0]. A party may also be the holder of

one or several ownership rights over many properties [*]. LA_Party is also

associated to LA_BAUnit, to make provision for the fact that a basic

administrative unit can be a party (i.e. a basic administrative unit holding an

easement on another basic administrative unit).

The LA_GroupParty class is a specialisation of the LA_Party class which means

that an instance of LA_GroupParty is a type of LA_Party. A ‘group party’ is any

number of parties, forming together a distinct entity. A ‘party member’ is a party

registered and identified as a constituent of a group party. This allows

documentation of information to membership (holding shares in rights).

Figure 3.2: The content of the Party Package (ISO 2012)

54

3.5.3 The Administrative Package

This package concerns the abstract class LA_RRR (with its three concrete

subclasses LA_Right, LA_Restriction, and LA_Responsibility), and class

LA_BAUnit (with ‘basic administrative units’ as instances) as show in Figure 3.3.

An instance of class LA_BAUnit is a basic administrative unit and it can be

associated to 0 or more spatial units [0..*]. In the case of a deed registration

without a map the value is 0. A basic administrative unit has to be associated to

at least one right, restriction or responsibility without which a property can not

exist [1..*]. The class LA_AdministrativeSource allows to link a property to the

legal documentation stored in the database (registration forms, deeds and other

legal documents).

(Lemmen, et al. 2010) give a general definition of the classes of the

administrative package as follows:

• “A right is a formal or informal entitlement to own, to do something, or to

refrain from doing something.” Examples are ownership right, right of

way, tenancy right, possession, grazing right, fishing rights or right of

support. Rights may also be overlapping, or may be in disagreement.

• “A restriction is a formal or informal entitlement to refrain from doing

something”. For example, planning regulations may prohibit building

within 200m. from a treatment plant. Another example of restriction to

right of ownership may be a servitude or a mortgage.

• “A responsibility is a formal or informal obligation to do something”. An

example may be the responsibility to clean a ditch, to keep a road to

access a property in good condition or to maintain a boundary wall

between two properties structurally stable for the support of one of the

properties.

• “ A baunit (an abbreviation for basic administrative unit) is an

administrative entity consisting of zero or more spatial units (parcels)

55

against which (one or more) rights (i.e. an ownership right or a land use

right), responsibilities or restrictions are associated, as included in a land

administration system (LA system).” An example of a ‘baunit’ is a basic

property unit with two spatial units (an apartment and a garage). A ‘basic

administrative unit’ may be a ‘party’ because it may hold a right of

easement over another property. For clarification purposes and

application to the Irish context a basic administrative unit may be

considered as a property which consists of one or more plans.

Figure 3.3: The content of the Administrative Package (ISO 2012)

56

3.5.4 The Spatial Unit Package

An instance of the class LA_SpatialUnit (Figure 3.4) is a spatial unit (parcel or

plan). It stores textual information about a parcel such as a unique identifier, an

address, the area and/or volume, the type of representation (2D, 3D etc..). It

also stores a geometry (reference point or seedpoint) which allows other

external information to be recorded against the parcel. Spatial units may be

refined into two sub-classes: building units (LA_LegalSpaceBuildingUnit) and

utility networks (LA_LegalSpaceNetwork). Spatial units may be grouped into

“spatial unit groups”, for example, a parish, a townland and a county. A spatial

unit group may contain other spatial unit groups so creating a hierarchical

structure.

Figure 3.4: The content of the Spatial Unit Package (ISO 2012)

57

Another important class created to introduce the concept of legal independence

from “Cadastre 2014” is the LA_Level class. The principle of legal

independence is one of the principles upon which Cadastre 2014 is based as

seen in section 3.3 and it specifies that:

• “legal land objects, being subject to the same law and underlying a

unique adjudication procedure, have to be arranged in one individual

data layer”;

• “for every adjudicative process defined by a certain law, a special data

layer for the legal land objects underlying this process has to be

created.” (Kaufmann & Steudler 1998)

A ‘level’ is a collection of spatial units with a geometric or thematic coherence

(Lemmen, et al. 2010). For the implementation of the principle of legal

independence using a thematic approach, the current legislation concerning

Land Law needs to be examined and the different spatial units may be arranged

to ‘information levels’ according to their type: freehold, leasehold, sub-

leasehold.

For a geometric approach, the concepts of parcel and boundary in the LADM

have been extended to include many types spatial representations including 2D,

2D/3D, 3D combined with temporal dimensions (Lemmen, Van Oosterom,

Thompson, Hespanha & Uitermark 2010).

3.5.5 The Surveying and Representation Sub-Package

This sub-package allows the collection and representation of spatial information

related to a Spatial Unit. Its four classes are: LA_Point (point),

LA_BoundaryFaceString ( l ine), LA_BoundaryFace (polygon) and

LA_SpatialSource (Figure 3.5). They can be used to implement many different

and concurrent spatial representations of Spatial Units either based on

58

geometry or topology rules. The LADM supports the increasing use of 3D

representations of spatial units, without putting an additional burden on the

existing 2D representations.

Figure 3.5: The content of the Surveying and Representation Sub-Package (ISO 2012)

59

Points are instances of class LA_Point. A point can be associated to zero or one

[0..1] Spatial Unit. (i.e. the point may be used as the reference point to describe

the position of a spatial unit). A point may be associated to zero or more [0..*]

boundary faces (i.e. a point may be used to define a vertex of the side of a 3D

parcel). A point may be associated to zero or more [0..*] boundary face strings

(i.e. a point can be used to define the start, end or vertex of a boundary). A point

should be associated to zero or more [0..*] spatial sources.

Instances of the class LA_Point are directly associated to the class

LA_SpatialSource (OSi map, digitisation process, survey information, deed

map, etc..). An instance of LA_SpatialSource may be associated to zero or

more [0..*] Spatial Units.

3.5.6 Mixing 2D and 3D representations

The LADM supports many types of spatial representation of spatial units both,

2D and 3D. It also provides for geometric or topological storage capabilities.

Depending on the requirements of a particular country different solutions may

be possible. A solution that allows a Land Registry to retain its 2D parcels

datasets and introduce, at the same time, a 3D registration system without

changing its 2D mapping system is the introduction of the concept of liminal

parcels. This concept is useful for parcels that are between 2D parcels and 3D

volumetric parcels. The concept is that 2D parcels can be interpreted as 3D,

unbounded (open) at the top and bottom (Figures 3.6 and 3.7).

The attribute ‘dimension’ in class LA_SpatialUnit indicates whether the spatial

unit is a 2D, liminal or 3D representation of a spatial unit. Liminal spatial units

are 2D parcels, but are stored as 3D parcels and they are delimited by a

combination of LA_BoundaryFace and LA_BoundaryFaceString objects.

60

Figure 3.6: 2D, liminal and 3D parcels - Front view (ISO 2012)

Figure 3.7: 2D, liminal and 3D parcels - Top view (ISO 2012)

61

4 Methodology

The research questions outlined in Section 1.2 lead to solving a practical

problem related to the registration of 3D property title interests through the

implementation of the existing international standard ISO 19152 LADM. The

applied research method will be used to conduct the proposed scientific study.

The study will be approached in a systematic way to acquire more knowledge

on the research topic.

The research methodology for achieving the research objective consists of

three main phases:

1. extract the general users requirements for a 3D land registration system

based on ISO 19152 LADM trough the illustration and analysis of three

case studies from the SMD in DCC;

2. create an initial design of a Country Profile for Ireland derived from ISO

19152 LADM;

3. validate the derived Country Profile to asses its level of conformity with

the ISO 19152 LADM. The profile will be tested in accordance with the

“Conformance Test” methodology as described in Annex A of the

standard (ISO 2012).

The research methodology consists of a number of information gathering

processes. Information in digital and paper formats were gathered throughout

all the above stages by a variety of means including meetings, emails, phone

calls and web searches as further described in Sections 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3. The

information was collected mainly from senior staff members in the PRA and

colleagues in the SMD in DCC. In order to answer the research questions it was

necessary to build a comprehensive knowledge of both, the current PRA

database schema and the ISO 19152 LADM including their level of conformity

with the INSPIRE Directive (INSPIRE 2007). It is worth noting that Data

Protection and reuse of Public Sector Information (PSI) policies within DCC and

62

the PRA, were carefully considered when such digital information contained

personal data.

4.1 Analysis of requirements

When implementing or re-engineering land administration systems, Lemmen

(2012) stresses the importance of continuously addressing user requirements

on the basis of strong recommendations given by the UNECE Land

Administration Guidelines (UNECE 1996), the FIG Bogor Declaration (FIG

1996) and the FIG Bathurst Declaration (FIG 1999). The UNECE Guidelines

also state that the assessment of user needs should be made not only prior to

the development or re-engineering of a land administration system, but also

throughout its lifetime in order to anticipate future needs (UNECE 1996).

For the purpose of this research, users requirements for the design of a

conceptual model for the registration of 3D property rights in Ireland were

mainly extracted from three DCC case studies as illustrated in Chapter 5. The

case studies were chosen because they highlight the PRA methodology in the

recording of 3D spatial information used to define the 3D extent of property

rights. It appears that the PRA, constrained by its legacy system, can only

record 3D spatial information by using raster copies of 2D maps while it would

be more beneficial to store them in a Spatial Database Management System

(SDBMS) as the FIG joint commission 3 and 7 Working Group on 3D Cadastres

suggest (http://www.gdmc.nl/3DCadastres/). The case studies are:

1. an apparently simple case of overlapping freehold ownerships in Duplex

apartments in a Dublin North residential area (Section 5.2);

2. the more complex case of the Lourdes Parish School at the junction

known as the Gloucester Diamond between Gloucester Place and Sean

MacDermott Street (Section 5.3);

3. the registration of the substratum occupied by the Dublin Port Tunnel

63

(Section 5.4).

Access to textual and digital information such as photos, maps and legal

documents, was facilitated by colleagues in the SMD. This information was

used to chose and build the case studies. Several meetings were held with Mr.

Patrick Shine, former Manager of the Division and Mr. Sean McDermott, senior

Title Researcher in the SMD, in order to discuss and try to understand the 3D

significance of each one of the three case studies. In particular, the usage of

spatial information stored in digital 2D vector maps created for legal purposes

were extensively analysed. All 2D maps used in this research were prepared

using Computer Aided Design (CAD) software Microstation (www.bentley.com)

and issued by land surveyors in the SMD for the registration of DCC property

titles with the PRA.

Other professionals in DCC were consulted including senior solicitors from the

Law Department and personnel from the GIS/CAD Unit in DCC. In addition, in

order to be able to position the topic of this research within the current legal

framework, a considerable amount of time was spent to familiarise with various

pieces of legislation from the Irish Land Law cited throughout this work. For this

particular task, books available from the public library in DCC and the library in

the Dublin Institution of Technology (DIT) were consulted in conjunction with

the Irish Statute Book web site (www.irishstatutebook.ie).

4.2 Design of a Country Profile for Ireland derived from LADM

The design of a LADM-based data model for a 3D land registration system in

Ireland as proposed in Chapter 6, required the definition of a country profile

(application schema). To achieve this it w a s essential to gain first a

comprehensive knowledge of both, the current PRA data model (database

schema) and the ISO 19152 LADM. In addition, it was necessary to investigate

their relationship with the Cadastral Parcels data model from INSPIRE Directive

(INSPIRE 2007) as shown in Section 2.4 and 6.6.

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Unified Modeling Language (UML)

The approach to modeling used in this research is object-oriented which

consists of objects and classes. This approach has been studied, evaluated and

successfully implemented in the field of cadastral modeling by (Mutambo 2003).

He explains that this approach enables the modeling of all real world objects,

which includes processes (e.g. land registration), data (e.g. ownerships, land

parcels, folios), software (e.g. spatial database schema) and people (e.g.

owners, land surveyors, solicitors, PRA staff, public).

The Unified Modeling Language (UML) version 2.0 is the modeling language

chosen to describe the current PRA data model and the proposed Country

Profile for Ireland. UML has been used to describe all the ISO standards for GI

(ISO/TC211), including the LADM, and the INSPIRE Cadastral Parcels data

model. UML uses many graphical notations (e.g. use case, activity and

sequence diagrams) but the only one used in this research is the class diagram

which is a static view of a system (static model). UML has in recent years

become a de facto industry standard for modeling software systems including

Spatial Databases Management Systems (SDBMS). The software used to

create the UML models for the purposes of this research is Enterprise Architect

(www.sparxsystems.com).

Booch, Rumbaugh & Jacobson (1999), the authors of UML, describe it has a

“graphical language for visualising, specifying, constructing and

documenting the artifacts of a software intensive system”.

UML has been used throughout this research to:

1. visualise a system/database as it is or as proposed (current PRA data

model and proposed Country Profile for Ireland);

2. specify the structure or behavior of a system/database (all data models

used or created for this research)

65

3. provide a template that assists in constructing systematic applications

including those with spatial elements (LADM and INSPIRE);

4. document the decisions made (again it applies to all data models used or

created for this research).

Although it was initially created for software development (Bennett, McRobb &

Farmer 2010) it is now used widely for many other applications including data

modeling for spatial information for GIS (Yeung & Hall 2007).

The current PRA data model

Gaining a solid understanding of the PRA data model was a fundamental

prerequisite for this research. This was a very long iterative learning process

and some specific topics had to be discussed and analysed a number of times

before a clear understanding was gathered. Several meetings with senior

personnel from the PRA were held over a year period which ended in April

2014. The purpose of the meetings was to discuss and understand the main

elements of the current PRA data model. The PRA personnel provided and

explained the different elements of the current PRA data model which included

tables, attributes, relationships and a set of multiplicity constraints. The data

model was presented in a graphic format as an Entity-Relationship model

printed on an A4 page. The discussions also covered typical PRA internal

procedures and rules for the maintenance of the current DBMS such as in the

common cases of newly create folios and subdivisions. From these meetings it

also emerged that the PRA did not have any specific immediate requirements

for the introduction of a 3D registration system in Ireland, or at least for the near

future. It was stated that the current system can cope with the complex and

increasing number of cases of multi-layered property title interests in urban

areas and it will continue to adopt the same approach used for the MSB

registrations which was regarded efficient and reliable.

It is important to note that this research focuses on the design of a conceptual

66

model and not the implementation of a prototype system tested with real sample

data.

The LADM data model

Learning the LADM and how best to use it within the Irish land registration

context started in 2012 and is currently part of an ongoing personal learning

process. First, it was necessary to understand the principles upon which LADM

was built and the main class structure of its packages (Chapter 3). Then, using

an incremental approach, it was needed to acquire more details about the

various attributes, associations and constraints of the data model. Since its

publication in 2012, LADM has gained international recognition from national

cadastral agencies, academics in the field of LA and SIM and software

developers. It has been the subject of many studies, researches and

conferences on the modeling of cadastral systems in both, developed and

developing countries. However, the level of interest for the LADM in Ireland is

still very low compared to other countries. The author could not find any

conference papers, publications, articles or other documents showing a detailed

study of LADM within the Irish context. The only exception was for a very high

level conference paper presented by Mr. Seamus Gilroy, Managing Director at

1Spatial Ireland (www.1spatial.com), at a LADM 2013 Workshop in Malaysia

(Gilroy 2013). The paper is briefly discussed in Chapter 8. This meant that the

study of the LADM was limited to the ISO document itself and other resources

on the web showing case studies from other countries with different cadastral

systems and different legislative frameworks.

However, especially at the beginning of this research, e-mails were exchanged

with Mr. Christiaan Lemmen, senior geodetic advisor at Kadaster International

in the Netherlands and author of the PhD Thesis, A Domain Model for Land

Administration (Lemmen 2012). Various topics were discussed including the

dependencies between the classes, some specific classes such as the

LA_Level class and the abstract classes (see Chapter 3 for a detailed

67

explanation of the LADM classes). Mr. Lemmen also explained the two

methodologies suggested by the standard to show the results of the

Conformance Test as per Appendix A of the ISO 19152 LADM (Chapter 7).

Design of a Country Profile

Primarily, LADM provides an extensible generic model for the description of the

main aspects of the Land Administration domain including the land registration

process. LADM is a blueprint that can be refined, or specialised, to describe

specific realities of a particular country including many types and aspects of the

people-land relationships. The design of the PRAI data model based on LADM

requires the definition of a country profile, which is a specialisation of the LADM

domain. A country profile is used as an application schema to assess the level

of conformance with LADM. Designing all the elements of a land registration

system within the limited timeframe offered by this research is outside its scope.

The data model provided by Ms. Keohane (PRA) was very helpful to understand

the PRAI basic tables, relationships and cardinality. It was the starting point for

the design of the LADM-derived country profile. The steps involved in deriving

the country profile for Ireland are outlined as follows:

1. evaluation of the right candidate tables from the PRA data model

corresponding to the basic LADM classes;

2. examination of the attributes of the PRA classes to confirm the presence

of at least the mandatory attributes required by LADM;

3. analysis of the associations definitions including the evaluation of the

multiplicity constraints.

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4.3 Validation of conformity with LADM

The design of the Country Profile for Ireland is tested for the level of conformity

with ISO 19152 LADM following the requirements outlined in Annex A of the

standard (ISO 2012 p.40). The test is carried out per package(s) and three

conformance levels are defined by Annex A as follows:

• level 1 (low level) – A package is level 1 compliant if the classes with

level 1 indicators are passing the conformance test;

• level 2 (medium level) – A package is level 2 compliant if the classes

with level 1 or 2 indicators are passing the conformance test;

• level 3 (high level) - A package is level 3 compliant if the classes with

level 1, 2 or 3 indicators are passing the conformance test.

When testing more then one package, such as in this research, particular

attention is given to the dependencies between packages. This means that

The technical testing procedures required to examine the application schema

(Country Profile) to be tested, including classes, attributes and associations”. To

achieve this two methodologies to prove conformance are suggested:

1. showing the mapping of elements or;

2. showing inheritance structure.

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5 Dublin City Council case studies

5.1 Introduction

This chapter illustrates three case studies where land surveyors from the SMD

were responsible for preparing legal maps for the registration or transfer of DCC

titles (ownership) with the PRA. The selection of the case studies was based on

the presence of a more or less complex 3D property right situation. In each

case the legal title on part(s) of airspace or substratum, above or below a

surface property had to be registered to a different owner. Each case study is

introduced with some background information, then the 3D property situation is

described and examined in detail before passing onto the description of

possible issues encountered in the registration process and their resolutions. To

conclude, attention is given to the subsequent 2D representation of the 3D

property rights as shown on the PRA web portal Landirect.

These types of 3D property situations can occur not only in the most obvious

cases of large and complex apartment blocks but also in other less evident

circumstances. The first, is an apparently simple case of overlapping freehold

ownerships in Duplex apartments in a Dublin North residential area. Then the

more complex case of the Lourdes Parish School at the junction known as the

Gloucester Diamond between Gloucester Place and Sean MacDermott Street.

Finally, the registration of the substratum occupied by the Dublin Port Tunnel,

one of the biggest infrastructure project carried out in Ireland, is presented.

Although other professionals were involved in the process of acquiring or

disposing properties, such as solicitors, valuers, social housing managers and

others, each case is presented from the perspective of the land surveyor. In all

cases, the land surveyor had the responsibility to represent complex 3D

property rights on 2D maps suitable for registration with PRA.

Based on the study of the following 3D property situations illustrated in this

chapter, the shortcomings and limitations due to the legacy of the current PRA

2D mapping system will be analysed and discussed in Chapter 8.

70

5.2 Case Study 1: Overlapping Duplex apartments

Figure 5.1: Aerial view of Duplex apartments (Bing Map 2013)

This case study focuses on a property unit in a group of duplex apartments in

Dublin City. The site and the apartments are owned by DCC and are part of an

affordable housing scheme (Figure 5.1). Under the scheme, a private individual

is, in certain situations, entitled to acquire the full title (freehold) in the apartment

from DCC. In this case study, the apartment that DCC disposed of to a private

individual will be referred to as property (1) with its entrance located on the first

floor (via a set of steps) along Road (A). Another apartment, still owned by DCC

and partially interlocked with the first one is accessible from Road (B) at ground

floor and it is referred in the text as property (2). See Figure 5.2 for details. Title

holder, folios, plans, and other personal details related to the private individual

have been omitted for privacy reasons. The use of the italic words owner, folio,

plan(s) in the text refer to the new owner, folio and plan(s) of property (1).

71

BRoad “A”

Road “B”

Figure 5.2: Properties (1) and (2) as shown on www.landirect.ie (PRA 2013)

Figure 5.3: Freehold land registered to DCC (PRA 2013)

72

Road (A)

Road (B)

(1)

(2)

The apartments are bounded by two roads both at the front, Road (A), and the

back, Road (B). The level on Road (A) is 3.2 m lower then Road (B) forcing the

design of the apartments to be particularly complex with the main entrances on

both sides and partially interlocking with one another (Figure 5.2).

The extent of DCC full title (freehold ownership) is shown in Figure 5.3 and is

mapped with a red outline on the PRA Registry Map and a red seedpoint linked

to a plan. DCC was required to register property (1) in the new owner's name

but faced the problem of representing the extent of the property on the Registry

Map based on OSi 2D mapping background due to the fact that the property,

built on two floors, had the outline of the first floor extending over property (2)

which is still owned by DCC (Figure 5.4). The vertical solid red lines represent

the unbounded 3D legal space of property (1) and property (2). The dashed red

line instead, represents the boundary line between the two properties that was

drawn on the map submitted for registration as shown in Figure 5.5 and

indicated with a yellow arrow.

This was the only solution allowed by the PRA. It would have been incorrect, by

PRA mapping procedures, to show the boundary line where it actually is

because it would have encroached property (2). However, this type of

registration was dealt with using the current Multi-Storey Building (MSB)

approach allowed by the PRA. Using this approach, DCC was able to submit

two floor plans which indicated the horizontal and vertical extent of the property

for each floor (Figure 5.6 and 5.7).

The registration was accepted by PRA and it is now possible to view it on the

Landirect web site. Property (1) was given a new folio number and a blue

square seedpoint was placed in the vicinity of the property (Figure 5.3). If the

user clicks on the seedpoint it discovers that there are two plans included in the

registration, one for the Ground Floor and the other for the First Floor, but no

plan number is disclosed. The folio shows that each floor is registered as a

separate property.

73

Figure 5.4: Section of property (1) and (2) (DCC 2013)

Figure 5.5: Extract from map for registration submitted to PRA (DCC 2013)

74

Road “B”

Road “A”

Property (1)Property (2)

2nd Floor

1st Floor

Ground Floor

1st Floor

Ground Floor

Balcony

Road “A”

Road “B”

Entrance to property (1)

(1)

Figure 5.6: Ground floor plan of property (1) (DCC 2013)

Figure 5.7: First floor plan of property (2) (DCC 2013)

75

Road “A”

Road “B”

Road “B”

Road “A”

5.3 Case Study 2: Sean McDermott Street Lower, School Site

Figure 5.8: Modern aerial view of the Gloucester Diamond (Bing Map 2014)

The Gloucester Diamond, a North Inner City Dublin historic landmark, is a

diamond-shaped intersection at Gloucester Place and Sean MacDermott Street

(Figure 5.8). It has been surveyed and mapped by Thomas Campbell in 1811

even before its appearance on the early Ordnance Survey maps (1829-41).

Dublin Corporation (DC) involvement in this area goes back to the 1930s. In

1941, DC acquired Gloucester Place Upper and Lower as part of a large

Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) which contained 256 references as shown

on the records of the Survey & Mapping Division in DCC (DCC 2014). On this

occasion, landowners were unable to reach an agreement for the disposal of

their properties to DC resulting in a forced sale (DCC-Library 2014). Since then,

DC has been involved in a number of redevelopment programs in the area,

76

some of which have been even more controversial such as the one between

1978 and 1981 where more than five hundred families were moved to other

parts of the city after negotiations broke down between DC and the residents

(DCC-Library 2014).

This case study focuses on the Lourdes School Parish building located on the

East side of the diamond. It was chosen because it highlights a typical case of

3D property situation which is called horizontal accession (Stoter & Van

Oosterom 2006). In such 3D property situation the owner of a building, or part of

it, above or below the surface is not necessarily the owner of the land parcel on

which the construction, or part of it, is projected (Figure 5.9). The concept is

further illustrated in (Lyall 2010 p.21-25).

Figure 5.9: Example of horizontal accession (Stoter & Van Oosterom 2006 p.22)

These types of 3D situations are of particular concern to DCC. In fact,

throughout Dublin City there are a very large number of public and private

buildings that extend (above or below the surface) over public footpaths and

roads owned by DCC. The complexity of this type of 3D registration and its legal

and economic implications are often overlooked by solicitors, architects and

property managers in DCC. In such cases, the expertise provided by land

77

surveyors in the SMD in dealing with these 3D issues has proven to be crucial

in protecting DCC interests on ownership titles.

Figure 5.10: Front and sides of school site (Google Street View 2014)

The site was previously converted into a Park by DCC in 1986. Later, between

2006 and 2011, the Department of Education & Science (DES) built the school

as part of a new redevelopment program in the area. It comprises a seven

classroom pre-school on the ground floor and an eight classroom national

school at first, second, third and fourth floor (Figure 5.10). At the time, an

agreement was reached between DCC, the DES and the St. Lawrence O’Toole

Diocesan Trust (LOTDT) to build the school on DCC owned lands and later to

transfer the titles from DCC to the Diocesan Trust which was responsible for the

running and maintenance of the school. DCC acquired the full title in all the

lands at the school site back in 1941 by means of the above mentioned CPO.

The site included six distinct DCC land parcels, four already registered with the

PRA (freehold) and two in due course to be registered (fee simple) (Figure

5.11). In 2012, after the school was built, the properties were transferred from

DCC to the LOTDT by means of an exchange of lands. The final Deed map

prepared by the Survey & Mapping Division and used for the exchange is

shown in Figure 5.12.

78

Figure 5.11: Dublin City Council ownership details (DCC 2012)

Figure 5.12: Final Deed map (DCC 2012)

79

Land Surveyors from the Survey & Mapping Division in DCC were responsible

not only for preparing the Deed map and carrying out the necessary title

researches but also for preparing the floor plans of the building for first

registration. During preliminary discussions with the Development Department

and senior solicitors from the Law Department for the preparation of the Deed of

exchange, land surveyors from the SMD made the critical observation that the

DES erroneously built the school by extending the Sean MacDermott Street

side out by about 0.2m over the footpath which had to remain in DCC

ownership. The extension, which contained windows, started from the first floor

upwards and extended for a good distance along the side of the building. On

the other side, at Gloucester Place, the design of the building was such that

there were two additional extensions. The first, extended out 0.25m again, over

the footpath. The other stretched further out by 0.30m from the previous one

(Figure 5.13).

Figure 5.13: Multiple extensions over three floors, Gloucester Place (Shine 2012)

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(A) Line of back of footpath, edge of public road in charge by DCC(B) Encroachment on airspace over public footpath (0.25m)(C) Further encroachment on airspace over the public footpath (0.30m)

C

B

A

Based on the advice of the SMD, DCC solicitors acknowledged the fact that the

extensions on both sides of the building occupied part of its property's airspace

over the public footpath and also the need to reflect that in the Deed of

exchange. In addition, DCC required to take the public road and footpath in

charge for maintenance purposes and the retention of the freehold ownership

over the footpath was therefore imperative. Furthermore, solicitors were

concerned not only with liability issues which are not to be underestimated

considering the high number of possible occurrences city-wide but also their

economic implications. Finally, it was decided that the recessed entrance of the

school (airspace outside) would be included in the exchange and it would

become the responsibility of the LOTDT to maintain.

The final map attached to the Deed of exchange included a location map

showing the extent of the lands being exchanged (red and blue areas), a more

detailed plan showing the site boundaries and the building projections on the

ground, five floor plans showing the extent of the property for each floor outlined

in red, two cross sections (AA' and BB') and finally a particular of section BB'

showing the 3D space occupied by the extensions (Figure 5.14). This last map

item is probably the most important one because it shows how the DCC

airspace has been added to the property to be transferred. The LOTDT was

going to be registered as the freehold owner of the building to the left while the

footpath, the remaining airspace above and all of the substratum below was to

be retained by DCC. The yellow areas in the cross section in Figure 5.14

represent portions of DCC airspace to be disposed of as well as the airspace

occupied by the extensions. It is very significant to note that the application for

registration was previously rejected by the PRA because the horizontal divisions

of DCC airspace did not coincide with the existing floor levels. In fact the yellow

areas were not originally included in the Deed map and the red line defining the

two titles followed the physical extent of the extensions.

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Figure 5.14: Particular of section B-B as shown on Deed map (Shine 2012)

82

DCC

St. Lawrence O’Toole

Diocesan Trust

Footpath at Gloucester Place

Following the PRA Mapping Procedures for First Registration and in particular

Appendix 5a which deals with the Multi-Storey Buildings mapping system,

competent land surveyors in the SMD prepared the necessary maps suitable for

registration with the PRA. A location map was prepared on the most updated

Ordnance Survey map at the time at a scale of 1:1000. It showed the 2D

curtilage of the site in red and the footprint of the building (Figure 5.15). In

addition, five floor plans were also prepared, one for each level (floor) at a scale

of 1:250. The extent of the legal title at each floor was marked on the plans with

a thin red line (Figures 5.16, 5.17, 5.18, 5.19 and 5.20). The extensions

overhanging the public footpaths are shown on the first, second, third and fourth

floor plans and highlighted here with blue brackets for clarity reasons. In line

with the PRA requirements the floor and ceiling heights (referenced to OSi

datum) at each level were also provided together with suitable ITM coordinates

marked on the drawings.

Figure 5.15: Extract of Location Map submitted for registration with PRA (DCC 2012)

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Figure 5.16: Ground Floor plan submitted for registration with PRA (DCC 2012)

Figure 5.17: First Floor plan submitted for registration with PRA (DCC 2012)

84

Figure 5.18: Second Floor plan submitted for registration with PRA (DCC 2012)

Figure 5.19: Third Floor plan submitted for registration with PRA (DCC 2012)

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Figure 5.20: Fourth Floor plan submitted for registration with PRA (DCC 2012)

Once the registration was approved by the PRA in 2012 the mapping process

started. Figure 5.21 offers a recent snapshot of the PRA Registry Map which

shows all the freehold plans still in DCC ownership as they were prior to the

registration. The only new element of the map is a blue seedpoint representing

the MSB registration for the school building. When queried, the seedpoint only

shows the list of floor levels but without information regarding the new folio or

plans. It is also important to notice the presence of a pending application dated

back to 2013 which is marked as relative to the mapping of the new legal

situation. To this date the pending application has not been investigated by the

author. This case study highlights the fact the PRA still does not see these types

of situations as a truly 3D thing. PRA isn’t concerned with the truly vertical

extent of the titles but it still thinks of complex 3D situations as series of 2D

plans one on top of each other. An analysis of the limitations of the current 2D

mapping system for this particular case study will be presented in Chapter 8.

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Figure 5.21: Current PRA 2D mapping system showing registered freehold lands at the

school site (PRA 2014)

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5.4 Case Study 3: Dublin Port Tunnel

Figure 5.22: Map showing location of the Dublin Port Tunnel within the city context

(source http://www.dublintunnel.ie/ 2014)

Following the economic upturn of the early 90s, traffic congestion in Dublin City

center increased at an unprecedented rate, especially on urban roads linking

the Port area with the M50 motorway on the outskirt of the city. In 1998, as part

of a Dublin Transportation initiative the Dublin Port Tunnel Scheme was

approved with the aim to remove heavy goods vehicles from the city centre.

Commissioned by Dublin City Council (DCC), the Dublin Port Tunnel is the

largest ever roads transportation project in Ireland. It proposed to bore a 4.5 km

long tunnel under the residential areas of Fairview, Marino and Whiteall located

in the North side of Dublin (Figure 5.22). The project consisted of two tunnels,

one for each driving direction. The twin tunnels run almost parallel to one

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another with small differences in the horizontal and vertical alignment. Due to

these divergences and the need to include a buffer zone around the tunnels for

safety reasons, it was decided to simplify the 3D geometry of the substrata to

acquire. This geometry can be described as having a rectangular cross-

sectional shape with a depth of 20m and a width ranging from 22m to 76m and

where the top and bottom surfaces do not have a constant gradient. The

proposal also consisted in the construction of a 1.1 km of surface access roads

for a total length of the project of 5.6 km. Started in 2001, the construction of the

tunnel was completed in 2006 after many delays and controversies.

This case study was chosen not only for the level of complexity of the 3D

property situation but also and more importantly because of its uniqueness.

Never before the PRA had to deal with the registration of a freehold title in a

portion of substrata detached from a title on the surface directly above where

the owner of the property on the surface (private owner) was different from the

owner of the property in the substrata (DCC). This case study illustrates,

probably, the most complex case of title registration in Ireland to date from both,

a legal and technical perspective.

Before describing the technical issues of this complex 3D property situation it is

important to outline the legal challenges and the modifications to the existing

Irish legislation without which the registration of the Dublin Port Tunnel would

not have been possible. Fitzpatrick (2008) illustrates the legislative

amendments that allowed the CPO process of the Dublin Port Tunnel property

to happen. She explains that prior to the construction of the tunnel a very large

and complex Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) process was commenced in

order to acquire the necessary freehold interest in the required substrata.

However, according to the Registration of Title Act (Oireachtas 1964), DCC was

required to register its title in the lands occupied by the tunnel (substrata).

However, the Roads Act (Oireachtas 1983) and the Transport (Dublin Light Rail)

Act (1996) did not provide DCC with the authority to compulsory acquire the

portions of substrata beneath the surface for the construction of a road tunnel.

In 1998, this led the Irish Government to introduce a new piece of legislation,

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the Roads (Amendments) Act (Oireachtas 1998),

“to provide, inter alia, for the compulsory acquisition of substrata

of land for the purpose of those acts, and make provision for the

declaration of certain proposed public roads as motorways, and to

provide for connected matters”.

90

Figure 5.23: Vesting map (1) showing extent of substrata (DCC 2009)

Figure 5.24: Vesting map (2) showing extent of substrata (DCC 2009)

91

Once the CPO process was completed DCC was able to issue a Vesting Order

(legal document) for the acquisition of all the portions of substrata

corresponding to the properties identified at the surface. The Survey & Mapping

Division (SMD) was responsible for the preparation of the final Vesting maps

which were used to graphically define the 3D extent of the substrata to be

acquired. The land surveyor in charge of preparing these 2D maps (Figures

5.23 and 5.24) required the ability to understand and visualise the 3D legal

situation, to present it in a graphic form, and to assist the legal team in the

decision making process leading to the property transaction. The Vesting maps

were then attached to the legal document (Vesting Order), sealed and lodged

with the PRA for the registration of the new title. The legal value of these types

of maps become even more apparent when considering their primary use in the

determination of property boundaries in legal disputes.

These 2D maps were produced by using the Computer Aided Design (CAD)

software Microstation and delivered in paper format for legal use. For the

preparation of such important maps, land surveyors from the SMD decided to

use heights related to OSi Malin Head Datum to horizontally subdivide the

layers of property below the surface (Fitzpatrick 2008). Each of the final nine

vesting maps included the following graphical elements that when read and

interpreted together best describe the 3D legal space (or volume) of the

substrata:

• a simple location plan

• a plan at a scale of 1:1000 showing the horizontal extent of the 3D legal

space for each CPO plot and the reference number associated with it

(Figure 5.26 – for clarity reasons see enlarged copy A5.26 in Appendix

A);

• a longitudinal section at an undefined scale showing the vertical extent of

the 3D legal space, its relation to each of the CPO plots on the surface

and the relative heights values;

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• an optional extract of the longitudinal section at a smaller scale in order

to highlight additional details (Figure 5.27 – for clarity reasons see

enlarged copy A5.27 in Appendix A);

• two legends, one for the plan, the other for the sections, showing the

colour coded systems used to categorise properties and boundaries with

various legal status (Figures 5.26 and 5.27 – for clarity reasons see

enlarged copies A5.26 and A5.27 in Appendix A).

It was also agreed to add a table summarising the relationships between the

CPO plots (2D) on the plan, their legal status and the relative heights

information (3D) in the section to facilitate the reading and interpretation of the

map as much as possible. The table, located on the right side of each vesting

maps, shows the following heights and depths values (Figure 5.25):

• the top of the substratum to be acquired (2);

• the bottom of the substratum to be acquired (3);

• the corresponding Ground Level on the surface (4);

• the depth from the Ground Level to the top of the substratum (5).

Figure 5.25: Heights Table included in vesting maps (DCC 2009)

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Figure 5.26: Plan showing southern entrance with legend (DCC 2009)

Figure 5.27: Section showing southern entrance with legend (DCC 2009)

94

In the article "Tunnel Vision" in the Surveyor Journal magazine published by the

Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI), Shine (2013) highlighted two

technical issues related to 3D aspects of the registration of DCC title:

• The first issue related to the depth of the substrata above the crown of

the tunnel which had to be reduced as the tunnel approached the surface

at the southern end (Figure 5.27 – for clarity reasons see enlarged copy

A5.27 in Appendix A). This was necessary to ensure that the 3D extent of

the tunnel property did not intersect any private property directly located

on the surface above. This issue would have affected several private

residential properties in Fairview.

• The other issue for DCC was to ensure that other DCC titles on surface

properties, directly located above the tunnel, were kept separate from the

DCC title on the tunnel property in the event of a later disposal of that

interest. After a successful negotiation process DCC and the PRA agreed

to register the title in DCC name and to consolidate all portions of

substrata into a single folio (DN188399F), excluding any other DCC

properties directly above (e.g. DN94654F).

While the vesting maps were to become part of the legal document lodged with

the PRA, it was still required to submit compliant maps for first registration to

secure DCC titles and update the PRA Registry map. Nine maps for registration

were prepared and submitted to the PRA. Following PRA mapping guidelines,

the Irish Transverse Mercator (ITM) Coordinate Reference System was used to

plot the horizontal extent of the tunnel property on top of the OSi mapping

background at a scale of 1:1000. Heights were reduced to Malin Head OSi

Datum but were not included in the registration maps. However, the person

using the maps was advised to refer to the Schedule part of the Vesting Order

and the more detailed Vesting maps.

DCC title on the tunnel property was finally registered and mapped on the

Registry map using the Multi-Storey Building (MSB) registration method by

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adding a blue seedpoint near by the southern entrance of the tunnel. From a

recent screenshot from the Landirect web portal it is possible to distinguish the

location of the tunnel structure (bores) which is part of the OSi background

mapping (Figure 5.28) and it does not represent the horizontal extent of the

ownership right of the tunnel substrata. All parts of substrata initially vested by

DCC are now consolidated into property no.1 of Folio DN188399F. Recently,

property no.2, omitted by the PRA during the registration process, was added to

this folio and it comprises three plans: C8P4G, C8P4H and C8P4J. The plans

can be identified in the Vesting map as “Areas to be vested” and coloured pink

as shown in Figure 5.26 (for clarity reasons see enlarged copy A5.26 in

Appendix A). This property has been registered without any vertical restrictions

and it is not located directly above the tunnel substratum. Other folios, already

registered to DCC (e.g. folio DN94654F) and located directly above the tunnel

substratum were kept registered as separate folios. All information disclosed to

illustrate the case study is publicly available on the Landirect web portal.

Figure 5.28: Current PRA 2D mapping showing registered lands at the tunnel southern

entrance (PRA 2014)

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6 Initial Design of a LADM-based 3D Land Registry

6.1 Introduction

The implementation of the PRA data model based on LADM requires the

definition of an initial Country Profile, which is a specialisation of the LADM

domain. A country profile is used as an application schema to assess the level

of conformance with LADM. The LADM specific test method requires “...to

examine the application schema (country profile) to be tested, including

classes, attributes and associations” (ISO 2012 p.40).

The LADM consists of three packages and one sub-package, and for each of

them a conformance test is specified in the Abstract Test Suite in Annex A of

ISO 19152. Three conformance levels are specified per (sub)package: level 1

(low level), level 2 (medium level), and level 3 (high level). The conformance

test is done per (sub)package.

When two or more packages are tested the dependencies between the

packages will be taken into consideration.

According to the Abstract Test Suite the following two test methodologies can be

employed to document the level of conformance of the country profile:

1. show inheritance structure between the LADM and the tested model

(elements), or;

2. show mapping of elements between the LADM and the tested model.

The names of the classes of the PRA model will be modified by introducing the

prefix IE_ as in accordance to ISO 3166 Country Codes international standard.

ISO 3166 is one of international standards adopted by INSPIRE outside the

Geographic Information Technical Committee 211.

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6.2 The current PRA database schema

The PRA current database schema is presented in Figure 6.1 (for clarity

reasons see enlarged copy B6.1 in Appendix B) and shows all the classes as

discussed during the meetings held with PRA officials. Due to time limitation,

the complexity of the LADM and the knowledge required of the PRA schema,

the conformance test examines all the four LADM basic classes, namely:

LA_PARTY, LA_RRR with its specialised LA_Right class, LA_BAUnit and

LA_SpatialUnit. In addition, all classes of the Surveying and Representation

sub-package will also be examined in order to test the implementation of a 3D

registration system based on the mixing of 2D and 3D spatial elements using

the concept of liminal parcels (Section 3.5.6).

Figure 6.1: PRA main classes to be tested marked with a red star (PRA 2012)

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The first step consists of evaluating and choosing the right candidate classes

from the PRA schema that correspond to the basic LADM classes as shown in

the Figure 6.2. Then, an examination of the attributes of the PRA classes is

necessary to confirm the presence of at least the mandatory attributes required

by LADM. Finally, an analysis of the associations definitions is carried out,

including the evaluation of the multiplicity constraints.

LADM package LADM classes PRA classes New PRA classes

Party Package LA_Party OWNER IE_Party

Administrative

Package

LA_RightOWNER

OWNERSHIP IE_Right

LA_BAUnit PROPERTY IE_BAUnit

Spatial Unit

PackageLA_SpatialUnit PLAN IE_SpatialUnit

Figure 6.2: PRA classes corresponding to LADM basic classes (Acinelli 2013)

6.3 The IE_Party class

An instance of the PRA OWNER class is an individual who has a right to own a

specific property (freehold or leasehold ownership) related to a particular folio.

The same individual may appear several more times in the class if he/she owns

other properties in other folios. The way the owner’s names are stored at

present does not allow the PRA to search for a particular person. The PRA

stated that it does not need to do so. It is possible to search for a specific

99

person only if other information is known such as the folio, county, address,

tenure.

The LADM required that an instance of the class LA_Party be unique, therefore

this class may be made compliant, for example, if the PRA decide to use other

personal information about each individual stored in other classes that has not

been disclosed for the purpose of this thesis. However, compliancy can be

partially achieved by creating a new class IE_Party compliant with LADM and

also by temporarily retaining the existing class IE_Party_Old until the PRA

decide to allocate resources for re-engineering the OWNER class. In doing so,

the PRA would be in a position to start accepting any new applications in case

of 3D registration.

The structure of the OWNER table is such that its association to the class

OWNERSHIP (candidate to became IE_Right) allows one owner to be

associated to zero or one right of ownership [0..1] (Figure 6.3) which is in

contrast to the LADM which requires that a single person be associated to zero

or many [0..*] rights of ownership (Figure 3.2). This issue will be considered

when examining the OWNERSHIP class in the next section.

6.4 The IE_Right class

The class LA_Right being a specialisation of the class LA_RRR (superclass)

inherits all its attributes. After carefully studying the PRA model it was decided

that the best candidate for this class would be the OWNERSHIP class. An

instance of the OWNERSHIP class is an ownership as a whole. This means that

an ownership can be associated to one or many individuals [1..*] while in LADM

if two people own the same property, there are two separate instances in the

class LA_Right and each one of them is associated to zero or no more than one

person in the LA_Party [0..1]. From the LADM perspective it is actually the

OWNER class that stores all the instances of ownership. For example, if

considering a property owned by three owners there will be three separate

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instances in the OWNER class. It is important to note here that OWNER and

OWNERSHIP classes are clearly interpreted as blocks of information that are

used to populate the legal register as seen on a copy of the folio. It is evident

that the PRA needed, at the time of the design of the database, to replicate the

content of the folio. In other words the association between the OWNER and

ONWERSHIP classes was seen from the folio perspective of the old system

rather than the right-man as proposed by Henssen (1995). Another important

consideration is that the design of the PRA database is currently based on

composite primary keys. The OWNER, OWNERSHIP, PROPERTY and FOLIO

classes are all linked by three or four primary keys (Figure 6.3) which make

each instance unique. The decision to use composite primary key was probably

made for security and/or database integrity reasons rather than performance.

By introducing a self-generated unique identifier (surrogate key) for the above

classes and also retaining the composite key, it is possible to map all instances

of the OWNER class to the OWNERSHIP class. Now, the OWNERSHIP class

can inherit the LA_Right and the LA_RRR attributes and populate the newly

created IE_Right class. The new IE_Right class can then be associated to the

new IE_Party using the right cardinality required by the LADM (Section 3.5.3).

Figure 6.3: Composite primary keys (PKs) (PRA 2012)

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6.5 The IE_BAUnit class and IE_SpatialUnit

An instance in the class LA_BAUnit is a property unit which corresponds to the

basic administrative unit of ownership that are recorded in the land registers. It

is defined by unique ownership and homogeneous real property rights, and may

consist of one or more adjacent or geographically separate parcels (plans) just

like the case study illustrated in Section 4.2. The PRA class that corresponds to

LA_BAUnit is the class PROPERTY and it will be named IE_BAUnit.

The corresponding class of LA_SpatialUnit is the class PLAN in the PRA

schema. Considering that many of the attributes necessary to implement

LA_SpatialUnit are in the SEEDPOINT class and that there is a one to one

[1..1] (Figure 6.4) relationship between PLAN and SEEDPOINT the classes can

be merged into one called IE_SpatialUnit.

Figure 6.4: The PLAN and SEEDPOINT classes (PRA 2012)

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Another very important consideration is that IE_BAUnit and IE_SpatialUnit

classes are already compliant with the INSPIRE Cadastral Parcels Data

Specifications (INSPIRE 2014b) classes: “BasicPropertyUnit” and

“CadastralParcel”. As illustrated in Section 2.4.4, the Irish cadastral dataset has

been recently delivered to DECLG for uploading on the Irish GeoPortal

(www.geoportal.ie). LADM and INSPIRE have been developed at the same time

and the LADM classes LA_BAUnit and LA_SpatialUnit have been made

compliant with the classes “BasicPropertyUnit” and “CadastralParcel”. INSPIRE

main purpose is a generic information locators for environmental LIS and had to

take into consideration the development of other standards such as LADM.

LADM is a specialisation of the Cadastral Parcel for it deals with rights,

restrictions and responsibilities attached to cadastral parcel. This means that to

prove conformity of IE_BAUnit and IE_SpatialUnit with LADM the inheritance

method can be used. Figure 6.5 shows the INSPIRE cadastral parcel model

based on LADM.

Figure 6.5: The INSPIRE cadastral parcel derived from LADM (INSPIRE 2007)

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A close look at the classes IE_BAUnit and IE_SpatialUnit shows that the

association between them has the same many to many definition as the

association between LA_BAUnit and LA_SpatialUnit. This is important because

it would allow the two PRA classes to inherit additional LADM attributes.

6.6 The IE_BoundaryFace and IE_BoundaryFaceString

The corresponding PRA class for the LADM class LA_BoundaryFace in the

Surveying and Representation sub-package is PLAN_GEOMETRY (Figure 6.6)

which will be named to IE_BoundaryFace. Again showing inheritance structure

between the two classes will be sufficient to prove conformity with LADM. The

IE_BoundaryFaceString class needs to be created as there is not other classes

in the PRA schema that stores lines as geometries.

Figure 6.6: The PRA PLAN_GEOMETRY class (PRA 2012)

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Figure 6.7: Initial Country Profile for Ireland for 3D registrations (Acinelli 2013)

105

7 LADM Conformance testing (model valuation)

A country profile has been designed (Figure 6.7 – see enlarged copy C6.7 in

Appendix C) to introduce the 3D registration of property titles in Ireland. The

four basic classes of the LADM, LA_Party, LA_RRR with its subclass LA_Right,

LA_BAUnit and LA_SpatialUnit have been developed. For an application

schema to be compliant with LADM at Level 1, the four basic classes and the

two abstract classes LA_VersionedObject (temporal dimension) and LA_Source

including its sub-class LA_AdministrativeSource have to be implemented (ISO

2012 p.41). These two last (sub)classes have not been shown on the schema

for clarity reasons but it is assumed that they have been implemented. In

addition all the mandatory attributes and associations have also been tested.

Therefore, the proposed country profile is Level 1 conformant with LADM. The

fact that the two abstract classes have not been shown does not compromise

the results of the level of conformance.

In order to introduce the mixed 2D, liminal and 3D representation, classes

LA_Point, LA_BoundaryFaceString and LA_BoundaryFace have also been

implemented. However, these correspond to the conformance level 2 and 3 but

this does not mean that the country profile is level 2 or 3 conformant. The

reason for this is that there are other classes in the LADM that are level 2 or 3

and these have not been considered. Although these classes have been

implemented, the country profile for Ireland cannot claim to be level 2 or 3

conformant to LADM.

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8 Analysis

8.1 Introduction

This chapter analyses the main features of the current land registration system

in Ireland and it focuses on the existing 2D mapping system. It does so, through

the examination of three case studies in which, the expertise of surveyors from

the SMD in DCC, played a crucial role. This research shows how the

registration of property titles is currently achieved by the PRA when dealing with

complex 3D property situations (e.g. where the 3D legal extent of the titles

overlap or interlock). Elements of the proposed Country Profile for Ireland based

on LADM are also analysed with the aim to demonstrate how they can provide

efficient and sustainable solutions to the current 2D mapping issues emerging

from the case studies. The analysis that follows attempts to answer the

research questions (Section 1.2) by discussing these issues, not only from a

technical perspective but also taking into consideration legal and organisational

aspects of the Irish land registration process.

LADM is predominantly based on the principles of the FIG document “Cadastre

2014” as illustrated in Section 3.3. During the last two decades, the international

community in the LA domain has increasingly accepted “Cadastre 2014” as a

visionary document. It strongly influenced land registration systems and

processes world-wide. However, today the world is changing faster due to

globalisation, urbanisation and advances in technology. Modern societies need

to change with it if they want to fulfill their future needs. It is within this context

that national cadastral agencies should periodically analyse future user

requirements in order to provide appropriate services for tomorrow's needs.

Bennett, Kalantary and Rajabifard (2011) from University of Melbourne,

Australia, have identified six design elements relating to the role and nature of

future cadasters. These were presented at the FIG 2010 Congress in Sydney

and published in GIM International magazine in July 2010. The analysis

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contained in this chapter shows how three of these six design elements are

considered throughout the design of the proposed Country Profile for Ireland.

The three elements are as follows: 3D/4D; modelling paradigm (from 2D maps

to 3D property objects) and standardisation & interoperability at local, regional

and global level.

8.2 3D/4D (the third and fourth dimensions)

Analysis of legal aspects

Historically land has always been subdivided vertically using 2D boundaries.

Over time, with the formation of legal cadastral systems or land registry, this led

to the 2D representation of the extent of properties on maps (land parcels). In

practice, from a legal point of view, the right of a person to own a property is not

limited to the ownership of the surface but it includes the space above and

below the ground. If the right of ownership only relates to the surface, the use of

the property would not be possible. This indicates that although land parcels

have always been represented in 2D, in reality, someone with a right to own a

property, is entitled to a space/volume in 3D.

In Ireland, the registration of legal titles consists of the recording of information

concerning the property, the ownership (title) and the owner(s). Generally, the

legal space owned by an individual is geometrically described by a 2D polygon

(parcel) on the Registry Map.

The implementation of a 3D land registration system based on LADM would

require the support of a national legal framework. The Dublin Port Tunnel case

study demonstrated how land registration systems need to consider possible

modifications of the current legislation in order to allow the 3D registration of

complex 3D property situations related to infrastructure projects. Lyall (2010

p.21) in his book “Land Law in Ireland” opens the chapter on land with a

statement emphasising that the common law in Ireland has accepted the reality

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that land and the rights associated with it are three-dimensional. With the

introduction of the Land and Conveyancing Act (Oireachtas 2009), the Irish

government has made a clear effort to establish a legal base in support of the

3D nature of property rights. The case studies have confirmed that the current

legal framework in Ireland allows overlapping properties to be owned separately

from the property on the surface and therefore it provides a solid but not

detailed legal base for the 3D registration of property titles in Ireland.

Analysis of technical aspects

Representation of complex 3D property situations on 2D maps is difficult.

Rajabifard, Kalantary & Williamson (2012) argue that “2D maps and plan

drawings restrict the potential of multi-level developments, increase the cost of

developments and limit inclusion of the new multi-unit developments in

traditional land information and land registry systems”. In 2010, the completion

of the Digital Mapping System (DMapS) has been of great benefit but it is

essentially a sophisticated electronic version of the traditional 2D system and

does not always meet the users demands of registering or understanding multi-

layered interests.

Recent international trends suggest that land registration systems or legal

cadastre around the world are currently implementing or assessing their needs

for the introduction of a 3D system based on LADM such as The Netherlands

(Stoter, Ploeger & Van Oosterom 2013), Turkey (Doner & Biyik 2013), Indonesia

(Budisusanto, Aditya & Muryamto 2013), Malaysia (Choon & Seng 2013),

Bahrain (Ammar & Neeraj 2013), Republic of Korea (Jeong, Jang, Lee, Hong,

Van Oosterom, de Zeeuw, Stoter, Lemmen & Zevenbergen 2012), Russian

Federation (Vandysheva, Sapelnikov, Van Oosterom, De Vries, Spiering,

Wouters, Hoogeveen & Penkov 2012), Poland (Bydlosz 2012), Queensland

Australia (Karki, Thompson, Mcdougall, Cumerford & Van Oosterom 2011), and

others.

109

This section attempts to answer the first research question with regards to the

capability of the current 2D system to be able to describe and unambiguously

identify the 3D extent of registered property titles. The case studies illustrated in

Chapter 5 have highlighted a number of technical issues with the current 2D

mapping system in relation to its capabilities of storing, querying and

representing spatial information where 3D property situations occurs. These

developments (case studies) each demonstrate the need for radically new

thinking on how property title interests should be defined and recorded for

conveyances and registration.

Considering the fact that property rights are three-dimensional, the first issue

concerns the ability of the current system to update the 3D geometric extent of

a parcel (a) from which a portion of airspace or substrata has been transferred

to parcel (b). While the current PRA DBMS is enabled to store textual

information about the land transferred, it does not appear to record the resulting

geometric information for parcel (a) or (b). In turn, this results in the inability of

the current 2D mapping system to display any changes in the 3D geometry of

parcel (a). In the specific case of the Lourdes Parish School, the titles were not

mapped yet on the Registry Map when last checked on the 23.09.2014.

However, considering the limitation of 2D mapping technology, it is expected

that the portions of DCC airspace occupied by the extensions over the public

footpaths and transferred to LOTDS will not be reflected on the updated 2D

Registry Map. This appears to be one of the main problems of 2D registrations.

When there are two adjoining parcels and part of one is incorporated into the

other one at some level above or below the ground, the changes to the 3D

geometric extent of the affected parcel are not recorded. Consequently, if the

3D extent of parcels (a) and (b) is not stored in the current PRA SDBMS, it can

not be spatially queried. Moreover, in such cases, the current SDBMS does not

allow setting geometrical constraint to make sure that 3D property rights of the

same type do not overlap as in the case of the current 2D mapping system.

The PRA treats all complex cases of 3D property titles with the MSB registration

methods. A seed-point (blue square) is placed on the map to indicate a special

110

or complex situation where overlapping or interlocking legal spaces occur. In

such instances, an inspection of the spatial record (2D parcel and 2D floor

plans) together with the legal record (Folio) should enable professionals to gain

an understanding of the type and extent of multi-layered legal rights, restrictions

and responsibilities involved in a registration. However, due the limitation of 2D

mapping technology the knowledge gained by examining the parcels and floor

plans, which are a 2D representation of a three-dimensional and more complex

real situation, often needs to be supplemented by the understanding of the

factual situation (site visit, photos or even a survey). This limitation is evident in

all three case studies presented in this research. An analysis of these cases

show that the information stored in the registration does not allow the user to

fully understand the extent of freehold ownership. For a land registration

system, clarity and accuracy of the information relative to a property, should be

a priority. The information stored in the registration should allow the user to

understand the legal status and spatial extent of a property title without the

need to inspect the property. Unfortunately this is not the case with the more

complex MSB registrations that DCC had to deal with in the recent past. The

current 2D mapping system may create uncertainty and ambiguity at times. In

all case studies and in particular in Dublin Port Tunnel case, it would be very

difficult, if not impossible, to determine what is owned and where unless more

time and costs are allocated to surveying operations and map reading and

interpretation activities (Deed Maps or Vesting Maps).

Considering, the increasing user demand for better and faster information

through web and mobile technologies, and the need to superimpose a vast

array of rights and restrictions in large urban areas, it is imperative the

introduction of a 3D land registration system in Ireland. Technological

constraints mean current solutions are not ideal and while advances in

technology should see the advent of 3D/4D in the near future, incorporating this

into Legal and Administrative procedures may well prove to be no easy task.

111

Analysis of operational aspects

Modelling and visualisation of the third (height) and fourth (time) dimensions is

necessary for managing the rising number of multi-layered property interests.

Administrative difficulties caused by misinformation and lack of understanding of

property interests are significantly lessened due to the availability of the third

and fourth dimensions, also leading to a reduction in planning and development

times. Efforts made to overcome legal and various other problems in

conjunction with continued technical progress will see a change from 2D

cadasters to 3D and 4D.

PRA is not currently engaged in the recording of depths and heights in 3D. PRA

thinks in terms of floor levels. It is clear that solicitors and property managers

could not make the decisions involved without the input and advice of

geomatics surveyors. Many of the professionals involved in property

transactions, such as barristers, solicitors, architects, developers and others,

lack, in some way, the ability to see how the 3D space associated with property

rights (ownership) relate to 3D objects (buildings) and to other 3D rights,

restrictions or responsibilities. On the contrary, due to their specific

qualifications, land surveyors are able not only to see this overlapping and

interlocking of 3D rights and 3D objects but are also able to accurately capture,

digitally store and graphically present them through the use of 3D coordinates

(x, y, z).

The case studies show that understanding a 3D property situation and

representing it on 2D maps can be complex and time consuming. The level of

difficulty varies from simple, and almost obvious case of the duplex apartments

to the more complex situation of the Dublin Port Tunnel. It could take land

surveyors days or weeks, to assess what the 3D extent of a property actually is.

The work of the land surveyors in DCC shows that 3D situations are often

overlooked or not taken into account by solicitors and other professionals when

acquiring or disposing of a property. Generally it is due to their limited ability to

visualise the 3D extent of the legal space. Therefore, the surveyor involvement

112

in property transactions from the early stages, is considered imperative for the

detection of possible future technical problems with registration of property

titles.

Example of 3D visualisation (Duplex apartments)

Although a full 3D visualisation is outside the scope of this research, the author

felt necessary to graphically represent how the newly created liminal parcels

(2D/3D) may look on a visualisation of the PRA 3D Registry Map. To explain the

results of this visualisation, the duplex apartment case study is taken into

consideration. In this case two interlocking property titles are represented,

property (1) in light blue was disposed by DCC to owner (A) and property (2) in

red retained by DCC. Figure 8.1 shows the original 3D extent of DCC freehold

prior to the disposal of property (1) and it is represented by the vertically

unbounded 2D parcel coloured in red. Once the disposal of the apartment is

carried out, the 3D extent of the new title is registered with the PRA and

property (2) as shown coloured in light blue in Figure 8.2 is then visualised on

the 3D Registry Map with a combination of 2D lines and 2D polygons in a 3D

space, de facto creating a liminal parcel. Finally, Figure 8.3 shows the results of

the subdivision and it represents DCC property (2) coloured in red excluding the

legal volume occupied by property (1).

113

Figure 8.1: 3D view of DCC property (2) prior disposal (Acinelli 2013)

Figure 8.2: 3D view of property (1) registered to owner (A) – (Acinelli 2013)

114

Figure 8.3: 3D view of new property (2) after the disposal of property (1) – (Acinelli

2013)

8.3 The modelling paradigm: from 2D maps to 3D

property objects

Due the increase in new property rights, restrictions and responsibilities

Bennett, Kalantari and Rajabifard (2011) envision a shift in future cadastral

systems, from land parcels to property objects. Land parcels will remain a

useful tool in people-land organisation, but a lot of emerging interests will need

to be represented with very different spatial footprint. Cadastral systems are

going through a change in paradigm and it is of the utmost importance that the

surveying profession embraces this. For the PRA officials and surveyors,

replacing the 2D map paradigm with a 3D one is going to be a main priority in

the near future but also a difficult task. Despite the complex issues which

surround the proposed 3D land registration, its potential benefits are huge.

The only 3D property object included in the design of the Country Profile for

Ireland is the class IE_Right with its abstract class IE_RRR. However, if

legislation requires the future addition of restrictions or/and responsibilities will

115

have a minimal impact on the PRA systems.

OSi, recognising the importance of the modelling paradigm, has recently

launched its new product, PRIME2. PRIME2 is a data model and it argues to be

able to connect the physical world to the digital world. It is based on

international standards and it has leveraged the level of maturity of the

ISO/TC211 family of standards. It is envisaged that PRIME2 will impact not only

on the way the current PRA 2D mapping system represent the 3D extent of

property titles, but also on the manner in which the 3D information will be

stored, visualised and shared. OSi claims that PRIME2 will be able to store

complex 3D spatial information. The incoming merger of the PRA, OSi and

Valuation Office (VO) as discussed in the recent report to the Irish Government

(Department of Justice & Equality 2012) will create the opportunity for the PRA

to evaluate future user requirements for the implementation of a 3D land

registration system in Ireland.

8.4 Standardisation & interoperability at local, national

and regional level

Technical standardisation will better facilitate interoperability between LIS. The

use of ICT tools will see the emergence of cadasters or parts of them linked

both locally, nationally and regionally. The INSPIRE Directive at european level

and the introduction of the new OSi PRIME2 data model at national level

demonstrate how important the modelling paradigm is for achieving

interoperability. Uniform understanding of land registration systems in particular

is a key element in success. The “Cadastre 2014” definition with independent

layers of information and accurate data models is essential to achieve common

understanding.

It is interesting to note that because of the extensibility of the LADM, other

public and private organisations within the same country or jurisdiction, such as

116

a Local Authority or a Property Management company involved to various

extents in the land registration processes, can benefit from designing their own

profiles. These profiles will be specialisations of the Country Profile for Ireland

and will be able to maintain a high level of interoperability.

The last consideration for this chapter concerns INSPRE, LADM and the

Country Profile for Ireland. Section 2.4 showed how the PRA published its

compliant INSPIRE Cadastral Parcels data sets. Considering that the INSPIRE

data model has been developed in collaboration with LADM and taking into

account that the two models are made compatible by design choices. It is

possible to state that the class LA_SpatialUnit (LADM), the class

CadastralParcel (INSPIRE) and the proposed IE_SpatialUnit (Country Profile)

are all interoperable. This suggests that, by adopting the LADM international

standard, the PRA would gain significant short and long term benefits in the

management of its spatial datasets.

8.5 Conclusions

The introduction of a 3D land registration system in Ireland based on the ISO

19152 LADM would present not only the opportunity to store and visualise

complex legal situations but also the possibility to introduce a common definition

of terms used in land registration. This could be exploited by the public (local

authorities) and private sectors to share textual and spatial information about

people-land relationships. The conclusions of this research and some

recommendations for future studies, actions or considerations are presented in

the next chapter.

117

9 Conclusions and Recommendations

9.1 Introduction

Over the last three decades, in all areas of life, 3D representations have

become the norm through advances in technologies for the collection, storage,

processing and distribution of spatial information. It has become increasingly

important, at all levels, that users and producers of spatial data develop and

apply efficient SIM strategies for the production and management of current and

reliable 3D spatial information able to meet the expectations of a modern

society.

Today, the impact of urbanisation, globalisation and technology on Irish society

is rapidly changing its dynamics and needs. The Irish government has the

responsibility to reflect these changes on the national agencies and

organisations currently in control of the traditional LA functions, land tenure,

land value and land use. This research focuses on the land tenure function and

in particular on the SIM issues concerning the conceptual design (modelling) of

the main features of a 3D land registration system for the PRA. The proposed

design is based on the recently published international standard ISO 19152

Land Administration Domain Model (ISO 2012). It addresses the need to

radically change the way property titles are registered in Ireland and it proposes

a solution that will enable the PRA to meet future user requirements within the

next five to ten years. It would also provide the PRA with a preliminary study to

be used as a starting point for further researches.

The PRA should move into the twenty-first century with an efficient 3D system

capable of managing and representing increasingly complex 3D property

situations. Here one model of how this could be developed is presented.

118

9.2 Conclusions

Based on the study of the current PRA 2D mapping system and the proposed

design of a 3D land registration system in Ireland based on international

standards, this research attempts to answer the research questions with the

following conclusions:

Research question 1: Is the current (2D) representation of legal spaces

adequate to spatially describe and unambiguously identify the extent of

complex 3D strata titles where parts of the airspace and substrata (above and

below ground) may be owned separately from ground parcels?

• PRA storage model of 3D spatial data as raster images of 2D plans and

sections is not sustainable. The LADM “Surveying and Representation

sub-package” with its classes IE_BoundaryFace (2D polygons in 3D

space) and IE_BoundaryFaceString (lines in 3D space) allow storage of

3D coordinates.

• Considering the fact that property rights are three-dimensional, current

PRA system does not allow to query 3D extent of property rights and

does not permit to set topological constraint to make sure property rights

do not overlap as for the 2D land parcels.

• The implementation of a 3D coordinate system as a geospatial tool for

the definition of property title interests for conveyances and registration

of title is now imperative.

• PRA representations of 3D property situations on 2D Registry Map are

neither clear or complete. LADM liminal surfaces can address this

problem in a flexible and sustainable way.

• Current legislation in Ireland allows for the registration of 3D property

rights (Lyall 2010 p.21-25). LADM would fit with legal framework and

more importantly LA_LEVEL class would allow for the implementation of

the Cadastre 2014 principle of legal independence.

119

Research question 2: How will the adoption of the recently published ISO

19152 standard impact on the current registration system and in particular on

the 2D mapping system?

• The class LA_SpatialUnit (LADM), the class CadastralParcel (INSPIRE)

and the proposed IE_SpatialUnit (Country Profile) are all compatible.

• The design of the Country Profile for Ireland was such that its

implementation would have a limited impact on the current system.

Research question 3: Can the 3D visualisation of the registered legal spaces

associated to property units (i.e. extent of ownership rights) help the

understanding of complex title interests?

• The case studies have shown that solicitors and other professional

involved in the land registration process lack awareness of 3D situations.

Only surveyors clearly see the complexities of 3D property situations.

• Current time spent by surveyors in DCC understanding complex 3D

property situations has a delay effect on the property transaction itself

and could potentially slow down e-conveyance and e-registration

process. 3D extent of property titles better described by preparing and

submitting GML files with level of details 2 (LOD2) to be attached to

Deeds.

9.3 Recommendations

1. There is the need to increase awareness among solicitors and other

professionals about 3D property situations by organising CPD event and

workshops.

2. It is recommended to research possible problems of LADM in 3D non-

conclusive land registration systems such as in Ireland.

120

3. Limitations of research suggest that future similar studies should seek

greater level of collaboration with the PRA

4. Greater and closer collaboration between surveyors, solicitors and other

professionals involved in the property transaction.

5. Merger of OSi, PRA and VO is coming. This is an opportunity for the

PRA. Knowledge gained by OSi during PRIME2 project can benefit PRA.

6. It is also recommended to further research the most suitable method for

storing spatial information in the LADM based Country Profile using the

classes LA_Point, LA_BoundaryFaceString and LA_BoundaryFace.

Geometric and topological approaches are both allowed by the Survey &

Representation Sub-Package.

121

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Appendix A – Enlarged figures for the Dublin Port

Tunnel Case Study

136A1

Figure A5.26: Plan showing southern entrance with legend (DCC 2009)

137A2

Figure A5.27: Section showing southern entrance with legend (DCC 2009)

138A3

Appendix B – Enlarged PRA database schema showing

classes, associations and attributes

139B1

Figure B6.1: Enlarged PRA database schema showing classes, associations and attributes (PRA 2012)

140B2

Appendix C – Enlarged Country Profile for Ireland

141C1

Figure C6.7: Initial Country Profile for Ireland for 3D registrations (Acinelli 2013)

142C2