MASTER 

OF SCIENCES THESIS 
   

 
Preparation of Coordinate Based Cadastral Map in 
Rural Ethiopia: Case Study Bite­ Ejersa Lafo KA, 
 

  Oromia Region  
   
 
   
 
   

   

Addis Ababa University 
Earth Science Department 
  
  

                School of Graduate studies Master Thesis

 
Preparation of Coordinate Based Cadastral Map in Rural 
Ethiopia: Case Study Bite­ Ejersa Lafo KA, Oromia Region 
 

                               

                                                               

By: AMANUEL TESFAY 

THESIS SUBMITTED TO ADDIS ABABA UNIVERSITY, SCIENCE FACULTY, EARTH 
SCIENCE DEPARTMENT IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTSFOR THE 
DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE IN REMOTE SENSING AND GIS 

Advisors 

Ato Esayiyas Sahalu 

Dr. Dangnachew Legesse 

 
Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 

Preparation of Coordinate Based Cadastral Map in Rural Ethiopia:

Case Study BiteEjersa Lafo KA, Oromia Region

By
Amanuel Tesfay
Department of Earth Sciences
GIS and Remote Sensing Program

APPROVED BY EXAMINING BOARD: SIGNATURE

Balemwal Atnafu (Ph.D.) ______________________________
Chairman, Department Graduate Committee
Dagnachew Legesse (Ph.D.) ______________________________
Advisor, Associate Dean For Graduate Studies and Research
ATO Esayiyas Sahlu ______________________________
Advisor
K.V Suryabhagavan(Ph.D) ____________________________
Examiner

January, 2009

 
Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 

First of all I would like to thank the   Almighty Trinity who helped me to succeed this MSc. 
work with his power and grace. He was with me in ups and downs  and helped me to get 
this success and I give the Glory to him. 
 
I  am  very  much  indebted  to  thank  respectfully  my  advisor  and  coordinator  of  GIS  and 
Remote Sensing Unit, Dr. Dagnachew Legesse, for his precious ideas, support and tolerance 
throughout the course of my studies program, and this thesis work. As well for his guidance 
and enthusiasm, that made this Thesis work possible.  
 
I  genuinely  thank  my  co‐advisor,  Ato  Essayiyas  Sahalu  for  his  inspiration  of  creative 
concepts  and  substantial  guidance  in  completing  this  dissertation  research.  His  financial 
support,  material  (i.e.  High  resolution  satellite  Imagery)  and  fruitful  discussions  are  also 
acknowledged.  
 
I  am  grateful  to  Dr.  Yohannes  G/michael  for  his  persistent  support,  help  and  efforts 
throughout the course of my studies and for his heartily advise to be an industrious person 
during some personal difficulties.  
I thank my colleagues and friends Tezera, Bamlaku, Ashenafi , Solomon,Hadush,Samuel.H, 
Negassi and Gebreselassie for their advice during my Msc. program studies.  
 
Special  thanks  to  my  lovely  mother  Kebedech  G/Egizahaber  for  her  endless  support  and 
encouragement.  Besides,  my  thanks  goes  to  my  uncle  Haile  Gebru,  My  sisters 
Rgat,Azemera,AsQaul, Zafu and Helen ,and My brother Mezegebe, Fetaheneges Tesfay and 
SamsonHagos. 
 
Finally,  I  would  like  to  thank  my  Organization  Ministry  of  national  defense  especially 
Operational Department; GIS and Topography Unit. 
Amanuel Tesfay

I
 
Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 

Abstract 
 
Cadastral systems have a long tradition. The Cadastre is a parcel-based system, i.e. information is
geographically referenced to unique, well-defined units of land. These units are defined by the formal or
informal boundaries marking the extent of lands held for exclusive use by individuals and specific groups
of individuals (e.g. families, corporations, and communal groups).Besides, Cadastral Systems have been
acknowledged to be a core component of land administration systems, yet they have been facing a
number of challenges ranging from technological pressure to user requirement changes. This due to the
different stages of development, different countries have different capacities for the development of
cadastral systems. In particular, human, technological and financial resources will determine the most
appropriate form of cadastral system to meet the needs of individual countries. Nevertheless, a full-
fledged cadastral system in developing countries like Ethiopia is in its’ inception stage. Hence, this has
been hamper the efficient utilization of natural resources i.e., the land use and land administration of the
country as a whole and the rural Ethiopia in particular. This is due to the infancy of the cadastral
surveying in the country.

The cadastral surveying techniques in Ethiopia are using traditional measuring devices (e.g., chains,
rods, tape, or strings). Hence, the plots are described according to their positional relationship to those
features and as to their position relative to neighboring plots (e.g., whose property is on the north, south,
east, and west sides of the plot being registered).For this reason in the three certification period in
Ethiopia none of the regions prepared a (cadastral) map, not even a sketch and/or they simply
measurement based cadastral surveying techniques.Thus,the integration of GPS and High resolution
satellite images with GIS in producing coordinate based cadastral map could accelerate the cadastral
map coverage in Ethiopia .This is also tested its’ procedure in the study area Bite- Ejersa Lefo Kebele
Administration.
Moreover, the research also tries to review the countries experiences on the current development and
administrational framework of cadastral system which is already reported by the cadastral institutions
under united nation. Likewise, an attempt has undertaken to see the Ethiopian existing capacity towards
cadastral surveying techniques, and the current circumstances of cadastral map coverage in the country.

Finally, cadastral map also trying to see from the angle of NSDI (National Spatial Data Infrastructure).
That is cadastral map as an input to spatial data infrastructure.

Keywords: Cadastral system, coordinate based cadastral map, GPS, High resolution satellite images,
GIS, NSDI

II
 
Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 
 

Acronyms                                                                                                                     
CEFB Cadastral Electronic Field Book

CSA Central Statistical Agency

CSI Coordinated Cadastral System

COGO Coordinated Geometry

DGPS Differential Global Positioning System

DNR Department of Natural Resource

EMA Ethiopian Mapping Authority

FIG International Federation of Surveyors

GIS Geography Information System

GPS Global Positioning System

IT Information Technology

KA Kebele Administration

KPAs Kebele Peasant Associations

LIS Land Information System

NGDI National Geospatial Data Infrastructure

NSDI National Spatial Data Infrastructure

PDA Personnel Digital Assistant

SIDA Swedish International Development Agency

USAID United State Agency for International Development

UTM Universal Travers Mercator

WGS World Geodetic System

II
 
Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 
Table of Contents 
Contents 
Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..I 

Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..II 

Acronyms………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….III 

Table of Contents……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….IV 

List of Tables…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...VII 

List of Figures……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….... VIII 

List of Appendices……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...IX 

CHAPTER ONE……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….1 
INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….1 
1.1 General overview……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….1 
1.2 Prior research, knowledge gaps, and study justification……………………………………………………….3 
1.3 Aim and Objectives of the Research…………………………………………………………………………………….5 
1.4 Scope of the research………………………………………………………………………………………………………….5 
1.5 Relevance of the Research…………………………………………………………………………………………………..5 
1.6 Structure of the Thesis………………………………………………………………………………………………………..6 
CHAPTER TWO………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………7 
2. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK AND LITERATURE REVIEW……………………………………………………7 
2.1 Land Administration System……………………………………………………………………………………………….7 
2.1.1 Land Information Management System…………………………………………………………………………9 
2.2 Cadastral system………………………………………………………………………………………………………………10 
2.2.1 Cadastre and Land Registration…………………………………………………………………………………..10 
2.2.2 Classification of Cadastral System……………………………………………………………………………….11 
2.2.3 Measuring the Success of Cadastral Systems………………………………………………………………..12 
2.2.4 Issues in Cadastral Systems………………………………………………………………………………………...12 
2.2.5 Cadastral processes……………………………………………………………………………………………………17 
2.2.6 Future cadastres………………………………………………………………………………………………………..18 
2.3 Satellite Imagery and Cadastral Surveying………………………………………………………………………..20 
2.3.1 Main Characteristics of Quick bird Satellite Imagery……………………………………………………21 

IV
 
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I. Geometric (spatial) resolution………………………………………………………………………………………….21 
II. Radiometric resolution…………………………………………………………………………………………………...21 
III. Spectral range……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….22 
2.4 Global Positioning System………………………………………………………………………………………………..24 
2.4.1Use of GPS in Surveying……………………………………………………………………………………………….24 
2.4.2Types of GPS Surveying……………………………………………………………………………………………….25 
2.4.3 Positioning Property Corners with GPS……………………………………………………………………….26 
CHAPTER THREE…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….27 
3. GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE STUDY AREA...................................................................................27 
3. 1 Physical and Socio‐Economic setting of the Area……………………………………………………………….27 
3.1. 1Geographic Scope of the Study Area…………………………………………………………………………….27 
3.2. Geology, Topography and Drainage………………………………………………………………………………….29 
3.3. Climate and Vegetation…………………………………………………………………………………………………….30 
3.4. Population and Settlement……………………………………………………………………………………………….32 
3.5. Economic Activities…………………………………………………………………………………………………………32 
3.5.1 Plot size and fragmentation in Bite‐Ejersalefo……………………………………………………………..33 
CHAPTER FOUR……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….35 
4. DATA COLLECTION, MATERIALS AND METHODOLGY………………………………………………………..35 
4.1 Data Collection…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………35 
4.1.1 Physical Observation………………………………………………………………………………………………….35 
4.2 Materials and Data sources……………………………………………………………………………………………….36 
4.2.1 Data sources………………………………………………………………………………………………………………36 
4.2.2 Materials and soft wares…………………………………………………………………………………………….39 
4.3 Research Methodology……………………………………………………………………………………………………..40 
CHAPTER FIVE………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..41 
5. Countries Experience on cadastral surveying system……………………………………………………..41 
5. 1 Experience of cadastral system and surveying………………………………………………………………….41 
5.1.1 Organizational framework…………………………………………………………………………………………42 
5.1.2 Cadastral Template or Model……………………………………………………………………………………...46 
5.1.3 Countries Experience on Cadastral surveying Methodologies………………………………………48 
5.2 The Experience of African countries in cadastral System……………………………………………………49 
5.2.1 Demands on Cadastre…………………………………………………………………………………………………49 
5. 4 Ethiopia Land Policy and Administration Assessment……………………………………………………….53 

IV
 
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5.4.1 Existing Surveying Capacity in Ethiopia………………………………………………………………………54 
5.4.2 The situation of cadastral surveying techniques in Ethiopia…………………………………………56 
5.5 Summery……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..59 
CHAPTER SIX…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...62 
6. Integration of GPS, Satellite imagery with GIS in preparing coordinate based cadastral map in the 
study area…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………62 
6.1 Testing the parcel coordinates of GPS and Quick bird imagery…………………………………………...65 
6.1.1 Quick Bird Imagery Data…………………………………………………………………………………………….65 
6.1.2 Handheld GPS Data…………………………………………………………………………………………………….67 
6.2.3 Combination of (x, y) point coordinates of Handheld GPS and Quick bird……………………..71 
6.3 Testing the area of parcels:‐GPS and Quick bird Imagery……………………………………………………72 
6.4 The boundary of the Parcels Vs Cadastral surveying methods…………………………………………….77 
CHAPTER SEVEN……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...80 
7. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS…………………………………………………………………………...80 
7.1Conclusions………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………80 
7.2 Recommendations……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….82 
References………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………84 
List of Appendices……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………89 

IV
 
Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 
List of Table                                                                                                                    Page 

Table 3.1 Population size of the study area by KPA based on Sex………………………………....32

Table 3.2 Agricultural products and plot size they cover in

Bite-Ejersalefo (2003/2004, 2006/2007)…………………………………………………………….33

Table 4.1: Metadata of the Quick bird satellite image; Source: the researcher…………………....37

Table 5.1 Comparison of land administration systems …………………………………………….44

Table 5.2: Status of Topographic Mapping worldwide……………………………………………..45

Table 5.3 Comparison of cost of rural cadastral surveying technologies………………………….57

Table 6.1 Coordinate of seven point corners……………………………………………………….67

Table 6.2 coordinates of five point corners………………………………………………………...70

Table 6.3: coordinates of 10 selected points of three methods…………………………………....71

Table 6. 4: Area of some selected parcels (in sq.meter)…………………………………………...74

VII
 
Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 
List of Figures                                                                                                             Page 

Figure2.1: Cadastral Concept………………………………………………………………….......13

Figure 2.2 Cadastre as a LIS Supporting a land Administration system…………………………16

Figure 3.1 Bite-Ejersalefo KA Boundary Map……………………………………………………27

Figure 3.2 Relative Location of Bite-Ejersalefo KA with its’ surrounding Kebeles ………........28

Figure 3.3. Slope and contour map of the study area…………………………………………….30

Figure 3.4. Climatic graph showing rainfall and temperature values…………………………….31

Figure 3.5 plot size by wealth category; Source: Adopted from Mehrete Belay,2007)…………34

Figure 4.1 Top sheets (1:25000) of Welenkomi Area with the Bite Ejersa Lafo on the right…..36

Figure 4.2: Graphical representation of Data sources used in this research…………………….36

Figure 4.3 Portion of the Quickbird of the study Area (i.e raw data)……………………………38

Figure 4.4 Portion of the Google Earth of the study Area (i.e raw data)………………………...38

Figure 4.5 Flow Chart of the Research Methodology…………………………………………….40

Figure 5.1Map of cadastral template participating nations……………………………………….46

Figure 5.2 registered and surveyed some countries of the world…………………………......47

Figure5.3: The colored area represents the four regions Project area of cadastral

map in Ethiopia……………………………………………………………………………………..56

Figure 6.1 : selected parcels of the study area…………………………………………………….63

Figure 6.2: Overlaying Sample parcels with Slope map of the study area……………………….64

Figure 6.3: parcels with their respective area in hectare………………………………………......65

Figure 6.4: Map of the selected parcel digitized from Quick bird Imagery………………………66

Figure 6.5 the distribution of collected GPS points………………………………………………..68

Figure 6.6: Map of the selected parcel……………………………………………………………..69 

Figure 6.7 Difference Chart………………………………………………………………………..72  

Figure 6.8: The Graph of some selected size of parcels in meter sq. of the study area…………73

Figure 6.9: Differences in Area of parcels extracted from GPS and Quickbird…………………75

Figure 6.10: Map of selected Quick bird and GPS parcels overlaid……………………………...76

Figure 6.11Various parcels boundary of the study area…………………………………………..78

VIII

 
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LIST OF APPENDICES                                                                                                  Page 
 

Appendix 1: Field Data GPS Points………………………………………………………………….89

Appendix 2: Digitized parcel from Google Earth……………………………………………………91

Appendix 3 (X, Y) combination Graph of coordinates……………………………………………..92

Appendix 4 Short explanation the Garmin handheld GPS Map76 CS used in this Research……..93

Appendix 5: The connection between MN DNRGarmin5.4, GPS with ArcMAP………………….94

Appendix 6: Field Photo……………………………………………………………………………...95

Appendix 7: The six statements of cadastre 2014…………………………………………………..96

Appendix 8: Schema of the Dutch cadastral system………………………………………………..99

Appendix 9: Example of a Cadastral Map………………………………………………………….100
Appendix 10 Circular Error of Probability………………………………………………………….101

 
 

IX
 
Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 
 

CHAPTER ONE 

INTRODUCTION 
1.1 General overview 

Cadastral systems have a long tradition. Egypt has had such an institution since about 3000 BC.
The Romans, particularly under Emperor Diocletianus in the 3rd century AD, introduced land
inventories in occupied territories. Also in China a taxation system was developed for land.
Spain introduced its first cadastre for taxation purposes in 1714. The colonialists in the late 19th
and early 20th century introduced systematic inventories on land in the colonies to enforce their
power. The purpose of the cadastres has changed over time. Initially, taxation was the main
purpose, later on juridical cadastral systems for land use control were established; and after
private land ownership became more common, the systems were providing security and
reliability and became a basis for land markets (De Soto, 2000).

The Cadastre is a parcel-based system, i.e. information is geographically referenced to unique,

well-defined units of land. These units are defined by the formal or informal boundaries marking
the extent of lands held for exclusive use by individuals and specific groups of individuals (e.g.
families, corporations, and communal groups). Each parcel is given a unique code or parcel
identifier. Examples of these codes include addresses, co-ordinates, or lot numbers shown on a
survey plan or map. (Williamson et al, 2001).

The term coordinate based cadastral map refers exclusively to the cadastre being based on
boundary coordinates. The crucial issue here is that the geographical extent of every registered
parcel is described or defined numerically by national coordinates stored in a data base and
visualized on a digital cadastral map.

 
Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 

Likewise, graphical indices of these parcels, known as cadastral maps, show the relative location
of all parcels in a given region. Cadastral maps commonly range from scales of 1:10,000 to
1:500. Large scale diagrams or maps showing more precise parcel dimensions and features (e.g.
buildings, irrigation units, etc.) can be compiled for each parcel based on ground surveys or
remote sensing and aerial photography. Information in the textual or attribute files of the
Cadastre, such as land value, ownership, or use, can be accessed by the unique parcel codes
shown on the cadastral map, thus creating a complete Cadastre.

Cadastral Maps are the backbone of LIS which have to be updated by undertaking regular
surveying operations to capture the ground realities with regards to fragmentation of parcels or
consolidation of boundaries. The word Cadastre is from the Latin language which refers to the
registry of lands. Cadastral Surveying is a discipline which deals with large scale surveying of
parcels of land and preparation of Cadastres, to serve as public register of the lands for fiscal
purposes in addition to establishing the ownership rights. Implementation of LIS therefore is not
a simple matter as it involves legal, political and technical issues. Therefore, the needs to resolve
these three most important issues are significant (Enemark et al, 2005).

Moreover, Cadastral systems are the foundation and an integral component of parcel-based land
information systems (LIS) that contain a record of interests in land. These systems are a central
component of the land administration and land management systems in a state or jurisdiction”
(Williamson, 1986). Yet land information systems are a relatively recent application of cadastral
systems. Cadastral systems date back a long way and have evolved over thousands of years.

Hence, Cadastral systems should be seen as a core component of more comprehensive land
administration systems or infrastructures concerned with the processes of determining, recording
and disseminating information about tenure value and use of land when implementing land
policies. Appropriate land administration systems then provide the basis for sound land
management towards economic, social and environmental sustainability.

 
Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 

1.2 Prior research, knowledge gaps, and study justification 

It is estimated than while 60 percent of the Earth is mapped at a scale of at least 1:50, 000, a far
smaller percentage is available in 1:2,500 – 1:10,000 scale that is suitable for land ownership. In
some areas, however digital parcel data are not readily available or offer poor accuracy of
cadastral map (Corlazzoli et al, 2004). Among those regions Ethiopia is one of the different
countries in the world which lacks adequate map coverage.

Preparation of coordinated cadastral map has been under way in many parts of the world in
recent years. This is solely based on various types and models of GPS (DGPS & RTK) in most
developed countries, but in developing countries typically based on traditional methods of
cadastral surveying. But, the integration of GPS with other Geo-technologies like remote sensing
and GIS can produce a resourceful cadastral map for any country and business groups. These all
in most cases not the situations of cadastral surveying methodologies for decades. However, by
integrating GPS and satellite imagery with GIS especially in developing countries like Ethiopia
can accelerate the preparation and production of cadastral map of the whole country.

In view of this reality, in Ethiopia under the existing circumstances modern cadastral surveying
methods are rarely utilized in relation with other part of the developing world like Kenya,
Uganda, and Tanzania etc. Even though some efforts have been made by Governmental, and
Non-Governmental organizations (USAID and SIDA) in some Regions of the Ethiopia such as
Oromia, Amhara, and SNNP & Tigray in the preparation of cadastral map. These have been
merely dependent on traditional surveying methodologies with poor or almost non integration
with GIS and Remote sensing that is tiresome and time consuming.

Hence, in none of the regions a (cadastral) map is being prepared, not even a sketch. But, some
plots are demarcated in the terrain, although not always with very durable materials. With
traditional methods the size of the plot is determined (either using ropes or relying on knowledge
of the number of ‘timads’ of a plot). In addition the plot is described by naming the neighbors on
the N, E, S and W. some pilots with cadastral mapping have been undertaken mainly in the

 
Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 
regions, including a donor (SIDA) and USAID assisted project with use of GPS and GIS-
supported mapping functionalities.

Nevertheless, according to (Mwenda, 2001) Kenya enjoys the advantage of HHGPS technology
like any other countries in the world such as El Salvador, Indonesia, Morocco, Botswana,
Namibia, Jordan and in a number of countries in Eastern Europe for cadastral surveying.
Likewise, tests for use of GPS in Real Time Kinematic Systems (RTK) surveys in Belize and
Albania have demonstrated that the use of GPS in cadastral surveys has considerable cost
savings.

Hence, there is no doubt about the potential application of handheld GPS technology but by
integrating with GIS and high-resolution satellite imagery in cadastral surveying in rural Ethiopia
specifically in “Bite-Ejersalafo” Kebele Administration (KA) could prepare a resourceful
cadastral map .

As a final point, the study will address the problems which can have an obstacle in the field of
cadastral surveying on this particular area in relation to the approaches used, and with its socio-
economic aspect of land administration. For the realization of this, field data collection using the
specified methods has undertaken. The first method is to collect data from study area using hand
held GPS , while second also to extract sample parcel data from high resolution satellite
images(i.e. Quickbird) and Google Earth . Lastly, the research will also try to make a
recommendation, and demonstrate the merits & demerits of the techniques in the project area.

 
 

 
Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 
 

1.3 Aim and Objectives of the Research 
The principal aim of the research is to demonstrate the integration of GPS and Satellite imagery
in preparing rural cadastral mapping and to assess some countries Experiences.

The objectives of the Research are

To demonstrate the procedures of coordinate based cadastral map by integrating GPS and
Satellite imagery with GIS in the study area.
To assess the current cadastral surveying methodologies in Ethiopia in comparison with
other countries experiences.

1.4 Scope of the research 
This research deals with two main subjects ; the experiences of countries on cadastral surveying
system focusing on the technical and Administrative frame work and the integration of GIS, GPS
and Remote sensing in the preparation of coordinate based cadastral map. The research activities
to show the current level of cadastral map coverage in Ethiopia. Besides, to reveal the
preparation of cadastral map using the three techniques at case study level. This thesis work is
not intended to result in a fully functional cadastral mapping, but to assess the stage of cadastral
surveying development at present and to recommend accordingly.

1.5 Relevance of the Research 

The research will essentially examine the methods in an effect to prepare resourceful Cadastral
map for the study area. This is based on handheld GPS, Quickbird satellite image and Google
Earth. On the other hand, investigating the experiences of other countries concerning cadastral
surveying techniques. Hence, the research will provide information which is useful as a baseline
data and guide for managing and administrating the available land resource to the decision
makers. As well this could be an input for the establishment of (NSDI) National Spatial Data
Infrastructure for the whole country. As a result, the research will also serve as an input to the
forthcoming researchers, government bodies, NGOs and other concerned groups who have
interest to pursue in related aspects of the research.

 
Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 
1.6 Structure of the Thesis 

This thesis has eight broad Chapters. The first part includes detailed discussion of the
background and the general over view of land administration system and cadastral system in the
eye of the cadastral concept and its historical trends. In addition some important parts are
included in this chapter such as, prior research, knowledge gap and study justification; Aims and
objectives of the research; scope of the research, relevance of the research; limitation of the
research are put with in this subdivision. To this end, Chapter 2 has incorporated the conceptual
frame work of land administration system and cadastral system that discusses the dynamic nature
of the humankind–land relationship and indicates some of the key current drivers of change that
lead to the development of more complex rights, restrictions and responsibilities. Besides, issues
of cadastral system i.e. cadastre and land registration, and land information management system.
Consequently, in this chapter also included the potential of high resolution satellite imagery and
Global positioning system in the cadastral mapping. Chapter 3 deals with the general description
of the study area specifically includes geology, topography and drainage; climate and vegetation;
population and settlement; economic activities of the area. Chapter 4 discusses with the data
collection, materials and research methodology that emphasis and clarifies the following
chapters. Chapter 5 deals with generally the countries experiences on cadastral surveying that
accompanied particularly with some case studies. Besides, over all view of African cadastral
experiences and current condition of cadastral surveying in Ethiopia. The purpose of these
chapters is to overview relevant literature on these topics. Thus a range of secondary and where
available, some primary sources are used. The interdisciplinary nature of this work has required
research into a range of literature.Finally, present the summarization of countries experiences on
cadastral surveying and mapping. Chapter 6 further focuses on the integration of GPS and
satellite imagery with GIS in preparing cadastral map, and parts incorporated here are testing the
parcel coordinates of GPS and satellite imagery; Combination of (x, y) point coordinates of
Handheld GPS and Quickbird ; Testing the area of parcels:-GPS and Quickbird Imagery; The
boundary of the Parcels Vs Cadastral surveying methods. Chapter 7 concludes the thesis and
coming with beneficial recommendation.

 
Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 
CHAPTER TWO 

2. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK AND LITERATURE REVIEW 
2.1 Land Administration System 
According to the UN Guidelines (1996) Land Administration concerns the processes of
recording and disseminating information about the ownership, value and use of land and its
associated resources. There are three important elements to manage land, the first is to count
with information about land; second to have clear policies on how land should be managed; and
third is to motivate the participation of everyone with an interest on stake in the land to provide
with source information.

Ting and Williamson (1999) relate Land Administration with current global drivers, such as
sustainable development, globalization, economic reform and information technology
revolution. Lately, Williamson (2000) has related another driver that is urbanisation, which
represents actions to solve the fast change of the formal and informal tenure in cities.

Sustainable development means development that effectively incorporates economic, social,

political, conservation and resource management factors in decision-making for development.
The challenge of balancing these competing factors in sophisticated decision making requires
access to accurate and relevant information in a readily interactive form.

In delivering this objective, information technology, spatial data infrastructures, and land
information business systems will play an important role. In this sense Cadastres may also be
used in a multi-purpose role to provide a wide range of land related information.

Sustainable development is also linked to globalization. Globalisation means the process of

societies to become more interconnected from a social, economic and political perspective. This
process includes events in one part of the world that have more potential to impact on peoples
and societies in other parts of the world. This trend widens the perspectives from the local to the
global level.

 
Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 
The globalisation of markets has in turn influenced micro-economic reform. This represents the
initiatives of change from the institutional and governmental side. This includes initiatives such
as privatisation, decentralisation, downsizing, cost recovery, quality assurance, public/private
partnership, and other policies to ensure service delivery and cost effectiveness. According to
Kaufmann (1998) these initiatives have changed the focus from the pure technological issues to
include also managerial components of building and maintaining national spatial data
infrastructures.

The information technology revolution with the technological development such as digital
cadastral databases and the WWW are vital tools for land administration and planning both now
and into the future. In Ting and Williamson (1999), it is mentioned that the advances on
technology had influenced the management of land through the large spatial database
management, GPS technologies and high-resolution satellite imagery, GIS technologies, and
communication technologies such as the WWW.

The global drivers described above influence the form of land administration infrastructures
which support and facilitate the way societies interact with land. These drivers influence the
development of the different land administration policies and models adopted by state and
national governments, which in turn influence and provide the systems on which local
government and city administrations rely. These models and concepts can only be developed
with a clear understanding of current land administration issues and trends. By its very nature
land administration focuses on land tenure and cadastral (land parcel related) issues. The land
administration perspective includes understanding the changing humankind to land relationship,
cadastral issues such as national cadastral systems in countries which are a federation of states,
and land tenure issues such as native title.

At the same time local government or city administrations must fully recognise these land
administration trends and the impact they have on their own spatial information strategies.

 
Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 
Besides, Land administration systems all over the world are reviewing their functional
structures and undergoing major legislative and administrative changes. They are doing this in
response to different internal and external drivers. In the developed countries, the major drivers
for reform are advances in geo-information technology (GIT) and the associated demands from
customers for improved service delivery. Reforms include electronic land administration e.g.
electronic lodgment and processing of cadastral and registration documents, digital
management of records and electronic distribution of products and services through the
internet. In the developing countries, the main drivers for reform are the need for regularization
of non-formal land rights. Reforms here mainly include innovative legislative and
administrative adjustments to accommodate and accelerate the registration of individual and
group rights in customary land and informal settlements.

2.1.1 Land Information Management System  
A Land Information system is a combination of human and technical resources together with a
set of organizing procedures that produces information in support of some managerial
requirement (Dale & McLaughlin, 1999). A land information system gives support to land
management by providing information about the land, the resources upon it and the
improvements made to it for the purpose of land administration while implementing land
management.

A Land Information Management System [LIMS] in the context of Land Administration Systems
consists of a number of broad dimensions, firstly an institutional element, which includes a
corporate structure in terms of policies, legal framework etc. Secondly, it consists of a set of
organizing procedures, which structure the relationship among the functional components and
thirdly, a technological dimension that includes hardware and software. Fourthly, it includes a
platform or a resource-base, on which data are stored and from which meaningful land
information can be produced, analyzed and disseminated. Finally, it includes an explicit, or
implicit, policy towards users, transparency, information dissemination etc.

 
Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 
Generally, the process of land administration needs complete, accurate and reliable
information about the ownership, use and value of existing land and its resources. Cadastres
play the ‘ book-keeping’’ role for this information within the wider land administration and land
management systems. The cadastre is considered to be the core of a land administration system
(Steudler, 2004; Wiliamson, 2001a).

2.2 Cadastral system 

2.2.1 Cadastre and Land Registration  

The cadastral systems comprise a land registration system and a cadastral survey and/or mapping
system as key components. The cadastral survey comprises processes such as the control of
geodetic data, parcel demarcation and surveying, cadastral mapping, cadastral mutation and map
updating. As Zevenbergen and Bogaerts (2001) mentioned, Land registration is the process by
which the documentation affecting interests in land are recorded in a public register. This is the
official legal registration of properties and legal rights.

The International Federation of Surveyors (FIG, 1995) defines a cadastre as a “parcel based and
up-to-date land information system containing a record of interests in land (e.g. 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. It may be established for fiscal
purposes (valuation and taxation), legal purposes (conveyancing), to assist in the management of
land and land-use control (planning and administration), and enables sustainable development
and environmental improvement”.

However, the concept of Cadastre is difficult to identify. It may be designed in many different
ways, depending on the origin, history and cultural development of the region or country.
Basically, a cadastre as such is just a record that identifies the individual land parcels/properties.
The purpose of this identification may be taxation (as was the reason for establishing the

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Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 
European cadastres) or it may be security of land rights (as was the case when establishing the
Torrens systems in the new world such as Australia). Today, most cadastral registers around the
world are linked to both the land value/taxation area and the area of securing legal rights in land.

Therefore, it makes sense to talk about Cadastral Systems or Cadastral Infrastructures rather than
just Cadastre. These systems or infrastructures include the interaction between the identification
of land parcels, the registration of land rights, the valuation and taxation of land and property,
and the control of present and possible future use of land (Enemark et al, 2005).

According to Tuladhar (1998) the term Cadastre includes different types of purposes such as
Juridical: a register of ownership of the proprietary land parcel; Fiscal: a register of properties
recording their value to support taxation; Land use: a register of land use; and when a cadastre
serves as a supplier of up-to-date and reliable land information at an affordable cost, it is then
termed as Multipurpose Cadastre. The objective of the multipurpose cadastre is to provide a
service through which the dynamics of the land parcel may be studied and also meet the demands
of the evolution of LAS which means the needs of the users.

2.2.2 Classification of Cadastral System 

They can be grouped under three general heads.

1. Tax Cadastre

2. Real Cadastre

3. Legal Cadastre

I. The Tax Cadastre:

It is a system of survey where information is collected for land taxation. The tax may be assessed
based on area of land, type of land, value of land and produce of the land. The physical survey
may be represented by sketch. Usually, accuracy of the survey is low since main objective is tax
collection. The determination of rightful ownership is not done since main objective is tax

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Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 
collection. As long as someone agrees to pay taxes, it does not matter to the government who the
rightful owners are.

II. Real Cadastre:

In contrast, the real property Cadastre is executed mainly for the physical mapping of land
holding boundaries and locating real other properties for land inventory. Real property includes
not only land, but also buildings, trees etc., which are permanently fixed to it. Minerals below the
surface are also integral part.

However, in the legal courts of many countries, private ownership of mineral deposits does not
necessarily follow from the ownership of the land.

III. Legal Cadastre:

Survey which furnishes information for the Registration of the land. Determination of legal
ownership and Registration of legal transactions is called as legal cadastre. The requirements of
physical survey of land boundaries preceding registration may not be necessary since registration
can be based on old documents. Thus, in general, the legal cadastre is a complement to both
property cadastre and tax cadastre.

Hence, the most efficient approach is to take all three objectives together and integrate the three
types of cadastres in one system. This, in essence is Land Information System or LIS.

2.2.3 Measuring the Success of Cadastral Systems 
According to Dr Jim Riddell, FAO. The success of the cadastre can be measured by:

1. Clarity
2. Security
3. Timeliness
4. Fairness
5. Cost - initial, updating and access

2.2.4 Issues in Cadastral Systems 
Efficient systems to officially record rights in land comprise two basic sets of information:

™ registers comprised largely of textual or alphanumeric data that record

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Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 
rights in land; and
™ maps or a spatial framework that define the boundaries and extent of land parcels
over which these rights apply.
These two basic sets of information constitute the concept of the cadastre, which is illustrated in
the figure below. Under the cadastral concept there is a close, explicit linkage between the
textual and spatial data. With this link in place, various search/access mechanisms can be
developed to search information on rights in land. These searches can be from keys in the
alphanumeric data or from queries in the spatial framework and reports can be produced in either
or both domains. The spatial framework can also be a useful tool in validating the textual data,
identifying, for example, parcels where numerical data is not available. An essential prerequisite
for an efficient cadastral system is therefore ensuring that the two datasets are maintained and
up-to-date. No set of rights should exist without a spatial parcel to assign them to, and all spatial
parcels should be linked to a set of rights. This is a simple concept, but can be very difficult to
implement in practice. In many countries there is a weak or non-existent spatial framework and
this is a major cause of uncertainty in rights in land.

Figure2.1: Cadastral Concept (adopted from Williamson, 2002)

Hence, it is important to consider the social context of land boundaries in assessing the technical
requirements for surveying and mapping. Where there is a simple, community-accepted system

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Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 
of defining parcel boundaries or where there is a low social cost in getting agreement on
boundaries there is reduced justification for accurate but costly surveys and comprehensive
mapping systems. This is the situation in many countries for instance; Thailand where the prime
emphasis in re-establishing boundaries is agreement by the parties rather than re-instatement
from information recorded in the land records. Most surveys in Thailand are undertaken to lower
accuracy, but lower cost, graphical standards. In other countries, such as Tunisia, there is a
higher social cost in reaching agreement on boundaries. When agreement is reached on
boundaries in Tunisia, accurate and costly surveys are undertaken and the coordinates
determined from these surveys are used to re-instate boundaries. In England a general boundary
system operates with strong community acceptance. The general boundaries are charted on large-
scale topographic maps produced by a national authority. Registry maps and file plans are
produced from these maps. Land owners have the option of requesting accurate surveys to fix
their boundaries, but few such requests are made.

According to Ting and Williamson 2000, the cadastral map record is a prime layer in supporting
the development of national Spatial Data Infrastructure. In many countries cadastral maps
compiled to graphical standards that support the index aspect as stated above provide the
foundation for SDI. Many users in various countries express a need for higher accuracy. These
users include utility authorities that want to chart their assets on the cadastral spatial framework
and typical express the need for ‘spade width’ accuracy, something that approaches survey-
accuracy in the cadastral framework. Few if any developed countries have been able to
implement such a system, even with significant recent improvements in technology and a range
of innovative approaches to phase the introduction of improved accuracy.

™ Generally, there are two broad aspects to the spatial framework that might support a land-
registration system. The first is a topological or indexing the identification of land parcels
recorded in the register, including support for the sub-division or consolidation of land
parcels;

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Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 
™ identification of parties with an interest in a particular land parcel for a range of purposes
including the identification of adjoining owners for service of notice;
™ the validation and verification of registered land, including the identification of duplicate or
missing records and the identification of possible problems with overlapping parcels; and
™ A spatial framework for data queries and access to the data in the register.

The second is a metric or calculation aspect that supports a second set of applications,
including:

• the accurate re-instatement of parcel boundaries;

• strong evidence to support the resolution of disputes over boundaries;
• the calculation of accurate parcel areas, offsets, etc; and
• The accurate determination of updated parcel dimensions where land parcels are sub-divided
or consolidated.

Many systems restrict the spatial framework to the first aspect. This is the case in England. In
other countries there are accurate individual survey plans that record the information that
supports the second aspect, and this information is used to compile a series of cadastral index
maps that support the topography and indexing of the first aspect. There is a significant increase
in the cost of implementing and maintaining a system that calculates parcel boundaries. This is
the situation in Australia and Thailand. In other counties, the registry maps precisely define
parcel boundaries and go some way to addressing the second aspect (although most still record
more accurate survey information for at least some properties on the register). This is the
situation in much of continental Europe.

Lastly, cadastral survey is a land measurement activity whose purpose is to describe new or
changed boundaries of land parcels and includes recovery and restoration of lost boundaries. The
description may be textual, numerical, graphical or a combination of these. The surveys provide
basic information about geometric description (including spatial location, size and shape) of land
parcels. Such information is prerequisite to successful land registration in any country. And, land
15

 
Preparatioon of Coordinatte Based Rurall Cadastral Maap December 3
31, 2008 
 
parcel is the basic un
nit in the caddastral systeem. Each parrcel is givenn a unique paarcel numbeer and
address, which
w togeth
her with parcel dimensioons are show
wn on a cadastral map.

Accordinng to what iss being discuussed abovee, the cadastrre is a part of

o a land infformation syystem
and jointt with other land management systems as taxatiion, land usee and enviroonmental aree held
in a Landd Informatio
on Managem
ment System
m [LIMS]. Inn Figure 2.4 is shown hoow these sysstems
are relateed to each other and toogether withh the creatioon of open and transpaarent instituttions,
organizattions, resourrce managem
ment, technoology and adequate
a plattforms are held
h in a country
land adm
ministration system.
s

Figure 2.2 Cadastre ass a LIS Suppoorting a land Administratio

A on system;

Source: Adopted
A from Cadastre 20014 Report

In this coontext, land administratiion institutioons are “thee rules of th

he game” in a society. These
T
include the
t laws an
nd regulationns necessarry for creatiing propertyy rights, annd the assocciated
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 Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 
restrictions and requirements imposed by the state or the community (Williamson, 2000). The
organizations are at operational level, the bodies involved with the information transactions. Like
van der Molen mentioned (2000) “…It is not worth it to have an organization if there are not
clear, transparent and simple institutions”.

The land administration infrastructures may be described as the organizations, standards,

processes, information and dissemination systems and technologies required to support the
allocation, transfer, dealing and use of land. Information technology will play an increasingly
important role both in constructing the necessary infrastructure and in providing effective citizen
access to information.

In many developing countries, the land and the cadastral registration are separated processes,
even though the cadastre is still under the phase of establishment. In an ideal situation, the main
task of the cadastre is the setting down on the basis of the existing or expected legal situation of
parcels, which are represented on a large-scale map with a parcel identifier. This identifier is
used in the land property register to indicate the legal object and relationship with the owner
(subject).

2.2.5 Cadastral processes  
Cadastral processes constitute the activities necessary for access to land and land delivery.
Access to land refers to the opportunities that are available for one to acquire any form
of land rights. Land delivery refers to the channels that are used to supply land for
various uses and the technical and legal procedures that are necessary to support the process.

The processes involved in cadastre may vary in nature and/or procedure between land
administration systems. However, four common cadastral procedures are recognisable in many
parts of the world:
) Adjudication – This is the authoritative ascertainment of existing rights in land.
Adjudication is usually the first component of the land delivery process before first registration.
Adjudication does not alter existing rights nor create new rights. It can be carried out either as a
systematic (compulsory, area by area) or a sporadic (voluntary, on demand) process.

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 Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 

) Demarcation – This is the marking of boundary limits of each unit on the ground. Physical
objects (monuments) may be placed on the ground to clearly indicate the boundaries.
Boundary definitions should meet the requirement of providing evidence of the location of
recognized land units. The nature of boundaries that is adopted determines method of
demarcation. Boundaries are categorised into two: fixed/precise boundaries (accurately
surveyed boundaries that can be reliably re-established from previous survey records in cases
of dispute) and general/approximate boundaries (boundaries that are determined by relaxed
survey methods or no survey at all and that depend on ground evidence in cases of dispute).

) Surveying – This is the actual ground measurement of cadastral land units. Cadastral surveying
is normally conducted under statutory regulations. The regulations stipulate the methods and
standards of accuracy for different kinds of survey. The requirements for demarcation determine
the conduct and accuracy of survey.

) Mapping – This is the geometric description of cadastral land units. The basic
requirement of cadastral mapping is to provide a sufficient specification of the location of a land
unit (or object). An index (i.e. a spatial framework) that is based on the earth’s surface is
necessary for this purpose. Aerial photographs provide suitable indices for cadastral
mapping in many countries because land units can be identified by reference to terrestrial
features using simple photo interpretation methods. Land object definitions without any
reference to the earth’s surface can use other means to meet the demands of providing
evidence of the location of land objects. Any sort of geo-reference that is recognized by a
community will meet the demands of specifying a land object.

2.2.6 Future cadastres   
According to the definition of Cadastre 2014, Cadastre is a methodically arranged public
inventory of data concerning legal land objects within a certain country or district, based on a
survey of their boundaries. The outlines or boundaries of the property and the parcel identifier
are normally shown on large-scale maps, which, together with registers, may show for each
separate property, the nature, size, value and legal rights associated with the parcel.

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Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 

The FIG is facilitating further developments of the cadastral concept. Two developments that
stand out are:
1. Cadastre 2014
2. Core cadastral domain data model

Cadastre 2014 is a conceptual vision for cadastral systems of the future. It is the result of a study
that was undertaken by a working group of FIG Commission -7 between 1994 and 1998
(Kaufmann and Steudler, 1998). The objective of the study was to develop a conceptual
framework of cadastral systems in 20 years time from 1994. Cadastre 2014 consists of six
statements that embody this conceptual framework based on current trends in cadastre:
1. Cadastre 2014 will show the complete legal situation of land, including public rights
and restrictions
2. Cadastre 2014 will abolish the separation between maps and registers – technically
(perhaps institutionally as well)
3. In Cadastre 2014, cadastral mapping will be dead; long live modeling – modern
technology provides vast opportunities
4. In Cadastre 2014, “paper and pencil” cadastre will have gone - digital technology will be
necessary for improved performance and service delivery

5. Cadastre 2014 will be highly privatized; public and private sectors will work closely together
- the private sector will help to improve efficiency, flexibility and innovative solutions
while the public sector can concentrate on supervision and control
6. Cadastre 2014 will be cost recovering – the considerable investments in cadastre need
to be justified

The statements of Cadastre 2014 have drawn critical comments from various sources. Some of
the comments that have questioned the validity of the statements include:
Cadastre 2014 focuses too much attention on technical issues at the expense of institutional and
administrative aspects (Wiliamson and Ting, 2001) .Secondly, the wide differences between
the cadastral systems of developed and developing countries will expectedly lead to equally

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Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 
different perceptions of Cadastre 2014 (Molen, 2003b)

A modern cadastre by definition is a parcel based land information system containing records of
interests in land and is closely aligned with the operation of land markets (FIG, 1999). The
modern cadastre is an integral component in establishing the fiscal and legal management of land
and land use for the purpose of sustainable development. In contrast with the past, cadastral
reform has concentrated on certainty and security of land tenure (Williamson, 1997).

Accordingly, as Kaufman and Steudler (1998) defined a Multi-Purpose Cadastre as

"methodically arranged public inventory of data concerning all legal land objects in a certain
country or district, based on a survey of their boundaries". The Multi- Purpose Cadastre is an
extension of the modern cadastre to include other land information registers. These registers
might include databases with planning, valuation and other information. By including these
registers, a Multi-Purpose Cadastre is expected to serve more than its original purpose of
primarily serving the land market.

In recent times, the cadastre has gone through improvements such as digitisation, automation,
database integration and many more technological changes in order to better serve the public.
One of the more significant improvements in the last few years was the adaptation of the WWW
as the medium of integration and presentation of the cadastre.

2.3 Satellite Imagery and Cadastral Surveying 
The data acquisition via satellites apparently depends on the resolution of the satellite as
compared to the desired scale range. Landsat TM data with 15 m panchromatic and 30 m
multispectral resolution are at best suitable for the 1:200 000 global scale range, while Spot 5
with 2.5 m panchromatic and 5 m multispectral resolution is suitable for the national 1:50 000
scale. Ikonos 2 (1 m panchromatic and 4 m multispectral resolution) and Quickbird (0.6 m
panchromatic resolution and 2 m multispectral resolution) images are suitable for the local and
Cadastral mapping 1:10 000 scale.

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Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 
2.3.1 Main Characteristics of Quickbird Satellite Imagery 

The Quickbird satellite is currently the world’s highest resolution commercial satellite, supplying
panchromatic and multispectral imagery with 61-72cm and 2.44-2.88m resolutions respectively.
The Quickbird satellite was launched on 18 October 2001 and has quickly become a popular
choice for large-scale mapping. The Quickbird sensor has an across track coverage of 16.5-19km
per swathe and has a high revisit rate of between 2-3.5 days however will only capture one
swathe per overpass, unlike the IKONOS satellite.

In most aspects, the Quickbird satellite and imagery captured is similar to the IKONOS satellite.
The satellite usually only captures imagery when tasked over a particular area and thus is not
switched on all the time. Once captured, all imagery is placed in the Quickbird archive which is
publicly accessible on the Internet, and discounts usually apply to archive imagery. The
Quickbird satellite captures multispectral imagery in the same four bands as the IKONOS
satellite and the purchaser can nominate a multisided polygon around their particular AOI and
only pay for the imagery that they require. The same polygon restrictions as IKONOS apply.
However, the minimum size of an AOI when purchasing Quickbird imagery is 25 sqkm and for
new captures, 64 sqkm.

The Quickbird satellite also captures 11bit imagery, with 2048 shades of colour and the system
corrected imagery supplied projected into a standard geographic datum and projection with
similar spatial accuracies. Similar processing as that performed on IKONOS imagery, can be
performed on Quickbird imagery to increase the spatial accuracy of the final product and supply
the imagery reformatted to meet clients specifications (Quickbird Product Guide, 2005).

I. Geometric (spatial) resolution

Because of the large scale of the map an image, obtained by Quickbird is selected, which for the
time being is with highest resolution – 61 cm in nadir for panchromatic image.

II. Radiometric resolution

Data obtained by Quickbird, have 11-bit dynamic range, which improves visualisation and
makes them appropriate for use in urban territories, and rural cadastre.

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Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 
III. Spectral range

According to the spectral range, the delivered images are grouped as follows:

Panchromatic – with range of 450-900 nm.

Multispectral – four channels with different spectral range:
- Blue (450-520 nm).

- Green (520-600 nm).

- Red (630-690 nm).

- Near-Infrared (760-900 nm).

Main products of QuickBird

QuickBird offers satellite images in three basic products depending on the level of processing of
the rough image: Basic, Standard and Orthorectified.

I .Basic Imagery:- appears to be the product with least additional processing. Just corrections
for elimination of the radiometric and sensor distortion are made, and no other geometric
corrections. It is delivered with additional files with information for efemerides, sensor position,
etc. These data are needed for setting up of a rigorous sensor model. Basic Imagery is considered
as most appropriate for further photogrammetric processing. Minimum order is a full scene 270-
300 km2.

II. Standard Imagery: - is an image, which is corrected with respect to the radiometric, sensor,
and platform-induced distortions and the topographic distortion, using the GTOPO30 digital
elevation model. The image is georeferenced and is made in a pre-set cartographic projection. It
is possible to order parts of the scene (minimum area of 25 km2). A variety of this product is
Ortho Ready Standard Imagery. It is appropriate for orthorectifying when using a ready digital
elevation model.

III. Orthorectified Imagery: - is a product, corrected for radiometric, sensor and topographic
distortion. Usually for its orthorectification, digital elevation model and geodetic points are used,

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Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 
provided by the user. It is georeferenced and transformed into pre-defined cartographic
projection.

Currently, diverse needs of land information and technological advancements have necessitated
changes in land administration systems, which is placing great pressure on the way the
organization do their business. The digital analysis of remotely sensed data has become an
important component of a wide range of land studies. In addition, the compatibility of this for
digital image processing and analysis offer many advantages. However, due to the low resolution
of the former generation of satellite imagery, the use of satellite data in the surveying field has
been limited. This has gradually changed with the introduction of high-resolution satellite
imagery amongst other geo-information technologies.

In addition, the push for multi-purpose cadastres has been made possible by the availability of
technologies to capture spatial data. The advancement in technologies such as the Global
Positioning System (GPS), satellite imaging and total stations have all made the capture of
digital spatial data a relatively quick and easy process. So there is now a vast amount of spatial
data in digital form, stored by several organisations at various locations across the globe [Phillips
et al., 1998].

As Ondulo J.D. et al, 2006 stated in his report, high resolution imagery is proving useful for
cadastral surveys. Consequently, traditional cadastre and land registration systems have
undergoing major changes worldwide. Investigative work and production projects have shown
that a spatial resolution of 2m or better would be required to support most cadastral application.
This threshold of spatial resolution has now been realized with the launch of systems offering the
potential of up to < 4m multi-spectral spatial resolutions, and panchromatic quickbird sat-image
with < 1m.

In recent years we can observe rapidly increasing interest in the practical application of very
high-resolution satellite imaging. This technology provides a rich source of up-to-date, large

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Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 
scale, geospatial Earth-observation data. Such images have already confirmed their usability in
many mapping oriented application areas. The parameters (image resolution, repeat cycle, etc.)
of VHR sensors combined with metric image properties have strong potential for Control with
Remote Sensing. Such images can be used for determination of the area and land use of declared
agricultural parcels. To be applicable for this purpose the images have to meet first certain
requirements defined in relevant guidelines for example by European Commission in 2004. One
of the important criteria is the orthoimage geometric accuracy at least 2.5m as RMSE (Root
Mean Square Error) measured on a set of independent check points.

Moreover, these new technologies have certainly dictated changes in the development of spatial
information management systems. For data capture some examples of the new technologies
include satellite positioning systems such as the Global Positioning System (GPS), and remote
sensing technologies and especially the new high resolution satellite imagery. The data base
technologies that affect the storage of very large data sets have had a major impact on the spatial
information revolution and especially on managing large spatial databases and data warehousing.
This in turn enhances the advantage of producing a complete large scale cadastral map and land
information system.

2.4 Global Positioning System 

2.4.1Use of GPS in Surveying 
GPS (Global Positioning System) is a worldwide, all weather, 24-hours navigation and timing
system. The position derived form the constellation of 24 operational satellites is of very high
accuracy on a reference frame called WGS-84. The accuracy of the derived positions varies with
the type of instrument used for collecting data, method used in the surveying, post-processing
done and the method of post-processing. The accuracy varies from few mm to several meters.
With the removal of S/A (Selective Availability), available prior to May 2000, the accuracy of
GPS receivers has increased greatly, in autonomous mode. This has prompted the users and GPS
receiver manufacturers to come up with low cost solutions for GPS surveying. The users have
started using GPS for low cost mapping and manufacturers have started innovating and coming

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Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 
up with miniature GPSs. With the availability of coast guard beacons, all over the coast, the
differential corrections are available to the users, all over the world, for free. This has eliminated
the need of another GPS receiver for better accuracy. Also real time differential corrections are
available, at a nominal price, world over, through satellites. These factors have increased the uses
of GPS in almost all walks of life.

This space-based technique is widely being used these days in association with other mapping
technologies. These are devices, which tries to overcome the disadvantages, GPS and other
surveying techniques have. GPS may not work in highly dense area or with more than 20-30%
canopy. However, there are GPS available, which works even in more than 30% canopy. The
advantages with the laser range finders and data loggers are that they are hardware and operating
system independent. Any hand-held computers can be used for collecting and storing data from
these devices. However, at present, they have not made their presence felt due to cost factor, but
with time, they will be available at a fraction of cost to its present cost, and it will probably be
widely used for mapping for GIS projects.

Another innovation is the integration of GPSs with mobile devices, like PDAs (Personal Digital
Assistants), Cell phones etc. More and more people have started using GPS for locating
themselves in real time and transmitting their location for LBS (location based services). There
have also been advancements in the field of integration of GPS with other surveying devices, like
TS (Total Station), LRF (Laser Range Finder) and Camera. The developments in the field of data
collecting devices and miniaturization of GPS receivers has led to the use of GPS and data
loggers for common mapping practices for collection of spatial and attribute data for GIS.

2.4.2Types of GPS Surveying 
The GPS, from its inception, has been a surveying and locating instrument. It has found
application in different fields, and even in surveying, for different kind of surveying. A few of
the applications of GPS in the field of surveying are described in the forthcoming paragraphs.

Geodetic surveying: Dual frequency GPS receivers, in differential mode, have been in use for
quite a long time towards geodetic surveying for construction, highway surveying, mine
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Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 
surveying, crustal deformation studies, to name a few. This type of surveying requires sub-cm
level accuracy, and in some cases, even of the order of mm level accuracies.

GIS Mapping: Single frequency code measurement GPSs and availability of carrier phase
measurement facility on these single frequency GPS receivers has led to the entry of GPS for
spatial data collection for the GIS projects. These have eliminated the use of costly GPS
receivers and data processing software.

Mobile Mapping: The miniaturization of GPS receivers and computing devices has evolved the
technique of mobile mapping. In this technique, any mobile computing device, like palm-top,
PDAs and laptops, running a mobile GIS software, is connected to a mobile GPS like Pretec card
GPS with or without external antenna.

2.4.3 Positioning Property Corners with GPS 
The property corners of many surveyed and platted parcels are usually marked with iron pipes or
nails. If coordinates of these markers are somehow obtained and input into GIS software, it
would only be necessary to connect the dots in order to get a very accurate parcel map. The
resulting accuracy could surpass even that of COGO. Today, with the rapid development of the
Global Positioning System (GPS), it has become relatively easy to get coordinates for the
property corners. In order to obtain coordinates, two different strategies could be used: static
positioning or kinematic positioning.

Hence, the choice of the strategy depends on the needs and available resources. Static method
provides better accuracy (down to one centimeter) but it is more time consuming, as it requires
longer standing time at each point in order to get an accurate reading. The kinematic method is
less accurate (accuracy +1 to 10 feet) but, on the other hand, it is less time consuming. Satellite
readings are obtained almost immediately as you walk from one pipe to another (Corlazzoli et al,
2004).
 

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Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 
CHAPTER THREE 

3. GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE STUDY AREA 
3. 1 Physical and Socio­Economic setting of the Area 

        3.1. 1Geographic Scope of the Study Area 
The study area, Bite-Ejersalefo KA, is found in Dendi Wereda, west Shoa zone of the Oromiya
Region. It lies on the Addis Ababa -Ambo road about 70kms around the ihudgebeya rural town
to the west of Addis Ababa. Prior 1975, the Wolonkomi area was made up of five local
geographic units named as Dega Egu, Rare, Debisa, Kitchu and Ketema Akababi (Mesfine et al,
1971).

Figure 3.1 Bite-Ejersalefo KA Boundary Map

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Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 
After 1975, it was restructured in to seven kebelle administrative units named as Dega Egu, Gare
Kora, Cheleleka Bobe, Kelana Imburtu, Serwana Debisa, Koriso Odu Guba, and Bite Ejersa
Lefo(Binyam,2005).

According to Dendi Wereda Agriculture and Rural Development office, it is currently

restructured under two rural town centers for the purpose of service provision. Thus, Kebelle
Peasant Administrations(KPAS) named as Cheleleka Bobe, Kelana Imburtu, Jemjem Legabatu,
Fincha Gudeti, Gare Kora and Dega Egu organized within the Wolonkomi center , while Bite
Ejersa Lefo, Serwana Debisa and Koriso Odu Guba under Ihud Gebeya. The whole wolonkomi
locality covers an area of slightly greater than 156km2, and most of its part falls within the
Awash River basin.

Besides, the study area bounded by ten Kebele Administrations such as; chalalaka Bo,Gare Kora,
Kalla Imbort,Kimoye,Korrisa Odda,LanKisa,Liti Guliti,Liti Mado and Sarrawa Debi.

Figure 3.2 Relative Location of Bite-Ejersalefo KA with its’ surrounding Kebeles

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Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 
3.2. Geology, Topography and Drainage 
The Wolonkomi area (i.e. Bite-Ejersa Lefo KA) is part of the central highlands of Ethiopia and it
is similar to these regions in its physical and geological background. Its general landform is the
result of the trappean lava series and it is closer to the unstable part of the country (Mesfine, et
al, 1971).

The general elevation of the area ranges from 2080m above sea level at the course of River
Awash, at the southern tip of Cheleka bob(Field survey Oct. 2006), to about 3000m above sea
level at the Dega Egu mountains (Samuel, 2004). The northern part of the region is made up of
the Dega Egu Mountains where a number of small streams emerge and drain to different
directions. The central part of the region is an undulating landform and make up the upper
plateau of Wolonkomi. The southernmost part of the area has no prominent heights or
depressions and forms the lower plateau of the region (Mesfine et al, 1971).

The highest part of Wolonkomi forms a water divide between Awash and Abbay rivers and
drained by three smaller streams that flow from the northwest to the southeast direction.
Likewise, Bite Ejersa Lefo KA boundary almost shaped from two small local rivers i.e. huluko &
shone river in the east and west respectively.

Besides the Bite Ejersa Lefo KA boundary almost shaped from two small local rivers i.e. huluko
& shone river in the east and west respectively.

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Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 

Figure 3.3. Slope and contour map of the study area

Source :Digitized from 1:25,000 topographic map

3.3. Climate and Vegetation  

Temperature in Wolonkomi area varies from north to south following the altitudinal sequence of
the region. The northern mountains of Dega-Egu experience a relatively colder temperature as
compared to the lower plateau areas. Based on climatic data at Addis- Alem 9003’ N, 38024’E,
at an elevation of 2340 meter above sea level temperature ranges from 15.50c in November to
19.90c in May and the mean annual temperature is 16.50c. The average total annual rainfall
equals 1100mm with summer maximum. The area generally lies within the Dega and weina
Dega traditional climatic zones and included in the wet summer rainfall region ((Binyam, 2005;
Samuel, 2004; Mesfine et al, 1971).

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Preparatioon of Coordinatte Based Rurall Cadastral Maap December 3
31, 2008 
 

Figure 3.44. Climatic grraph showing rainfall and temperature

t v
values.

Source: National
N Meteorological Seervice Agencyy (cited in Sam
muel, 2004)

Accordinng to the discussion withh the local elders before fifty years the
t upper sloopes of the study
s
area werre covered with
w indigennous forestss and the loower plateauu was coveered with woody
w
grasslandd vegetation
n (Mehrete Belay,
B 2007). Nowadayys, the originnal forests are
a removedd and
convertedd to cultivatted land andd in some areas
a replaceed by shrubbs/bushes annd by Eucalyyptus
plantationn. During th
he field workk, in May, 20008, the reseearcher has observed thee remnant buushes
of Weiraa (Olea africcans), Tid (Juniperous
( procera), Ziigba (Podoccurpus gracilliar) and thhorny
bushes suuch as Kegaa (Rosa abyyssinica), andd Agam (Caarrisa edulies) on the sloopes of the Kora
ridge, as well as acaacia bushes and trees on the lowerr plateau areeas along the banks of Ejere
river.

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Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 
 

 3.4. Population and Settlement  
Before 35 years, the total population of Ejersalefoa was about 1761. But as shown on (table 3.1)
below, the population for the two newly structured KPAS under Bite-Ejersalefo was 2860 in
1984, 4010 in 2005, and 4500 in 2006.The number for 1971 seem lower than the 1984 and so on.
This is because natural population increase that was happened in most part of rural .Besides these
two KPAs are now organized under service center of Ihud Gebeya .

Table 3.1 Population size of the study area by KPA based on Sex.

KPA 1971 1984 2005 2006

male female total male female total male female total
Bite-
Ejersalefo 1761 1410 1450 2860 1383 1231 2614 2278 2110 4388
Source: Central Statistical Authority (CSA,2007)

In the study area, the settlement pattern is made up of clustered villages scattered all over the
area. Most of the houses are grass covered with some corrugated iron sheet roofs. Besides this,
two linguistic groups, Oromos and Amharas ,and the majority religious groups Christians live in
the area with the dominant being orthodox.

3.5. Economic Activities  
Although no detailed data is found for all economic activities, agriculture is the main occupation
of the people in the study area. As observed from discussions with the elders and KPA officials,
mixed farming (animal rearing and crop cultivation) is widely practiced in Bite-Ejersalefo. The
main crops cultivated in the area include cereals, pulses, spices and oil seeds. Among cereals,
teff (Eragrostis abbysinica) is the most important crop widely grown in the area for both market
and household uses. It is the leading crop grown in the area in terms of area coverage and
volume of production. In 2006/2007 crop year, teff covered 61.54% of the total cropland and
50.08% of the total crop yield in the study area. The area covered by teff crop has increased from
56.27% in year 2003/2004 to 61.54% in 2006/2007 crop year. The second most important crop in
area coverage and in volume of production next to teff is wheat. It covered 15.38% of the crop

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Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 
field and accounts for more than 22% of the total volume of yield produced in year
2006/2007(see table 3.2 below).

Table 3.2 Agricultural products and plot size they cover in Bite-Ejersalefo (2003/2004, 2006/2007)

Crop 2003/2004 2006/2007

type area area yield fertilizer
ha % ha % Kuntal % kuntal %
Teff 700 56.27 800 61.54 8000 50.08 1000 79.97
Wheat 200 16.08 200 15.38 3600 22.53 200 15.99
Lentils 100 8.04 10 0.77 60 0.38 10 0.80
Maize 30 2.41 20 1.54 300 1.88 25 2.00
Guaya 65 5.23 100 7.69 1600 10.02
Spices 10 .80 20 1.54 250 1.56 10 0.80
Others 139 11.17 150 11.54 2170 13.58 5.5 0.44
Total 1244 100 1300 100 15980 100 1250.5 100
Source: Adopted from Mehrete Belay,2007)

3.5.1 Plot size and fragmentation in Bite­Ejersalefo 
 

The size of the farm plot is one of the most important physical attributes that can determine the
amount of crop yield received per household to support the livelihood of the family. It is the
question of whether the size of the farm plot is adequate or not to produce sufficient food for the
family. Thus, the size of the plot and the mode of access to it can decide the livelihood and
wealth level of the family. This is because land is the basic source of all kinds of wealth.

According to Mehrete the sample survey study indicates that the farm size in the study area
ranges from less than 0.5 ha. to over 4.5 ha. 10% of the households (in which all belong to the
poor farm group) own < 1.0 ha. of land and the plot size of 31.67% of the households ranges
from 1.1 to 2.0 ha., while 23.33% of the other households plot ranges from 4.1 to 5.0 ha.
Generally, 41. 67% of the surveyed households own a plot size of < 2.1 ha. 46.07% of the
surveyed female households also own less than 2.1 ha. of farm land. The survey statistics also
shows that the entire medium farm group owns a plot size of greater than 1.0 ha. and that of the
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Preparatioon of Coordinatte Based Rurall Cadastral Maap December 3
31, 2008 
 
rich grouup own a plo
ot size of grreater than 2.0 ha. This implies
i that land size vaaries with wealth
w
category of farmers (see
( fig. beloow). This may
m also indiicate that thee well to do farm househholds
have the potential to produce moore crop yieldd than the pooor farm houuseholds.

Figure 3.3
3 plot size by
b wealth cateegory; Sourcee: Adopted froom Mehrete Belay,2007)
B

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Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 

CHAPTER FOUR 

4. DATA COLLECTION, MATERIALS AND METHODOLGY 
4.1 Data Collection 
The information presented herein has been collected through the use of both primary and
secondary data sources. Secondary information was obtained and analyzed from different data
sources such as; books, journals, Internets and data from the Bite Ejersa-Lefo kebele
Administration etc.

Besides, on the basis of these the researcher coming with:-

 Establish the existing knowledge base with respect to the research issue at hand
, i.e. countries experiences on cadastral surveying and mapping.
 Socioeconomic and physical data of the KA and
 Detailed and broad literature review

Whereas, the primary data collected during the field work was using handheld GPS as well as
parcel data extracting from Quickbird satellite image and Google Earth.

As already stated above the primary data collection were undertook using two procedures:-

‘ From HHGPS point coordinates collected from the sample parcel data.
‘ Extracting point coordinates from the sample parcels of panchromatic Quickbird satellite
image and Google Earth.

4.1.1 Physical Observation 
Direct observation constituted a major data collection tool both at the reconnaissance stage and
during actual survey. To facilitate rapid interpretation of observed features, observations and data
collection were aided by printed satellite images and topographic map of the study area at the
scale 1:25000. (See in the figure 4.1)

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Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 

Figure 4.1 Top sheets (1:25000) of Welenkomi Area with the Bite Ejersa Lafo on the right

4.2 Materials and Data sources 

4.2.1 Data sources 

Types of Data sources: 

Field surveying  Statistical data 
Scanned Data  Imagery 

Socio‐economic  Quickbird Imagery
Topographic  ‐Handheld GPS
data of Bite‐
map 1:25000  & Google Earth 
Ejersalefo

Figure 4.2: Graphical representation of Data sources used in this research; source: the researcher

Besides, the coordinate system used throughout this thesis UTM WGS 84.Hence, all the
produced maps were based on the mentioned coordinate system.

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Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 
I. Metadata

Quickbird characteristic

Main requirements to be satisfied in order to use QuickBird data as a source of information for
parcel identification applications can be identified as follows:

High geometrical resolution (for large scale projects)

Multispectral capabilities
Radiometric sensitivity
Good positioning accuracy
Revisit capabilities
Large image size
Imaging data Quickbird

Date of acquisition 4 may 2005

Time of acquisition 9:35
Off nadir angle [º] 5°
Type of data PAN
Type of product standard Imagery
Radiometric resolution 16 bit
Field resolution [m] 0.61 m
Scene size [km] 16 x 16 km
Cloud cover 2%
Dimension 6876 x 8568 x 4 [BSQ]
Size [Unsigned Int] 536,463,360 bytes.
File Type PCI

Table 4.1: Metadata of the Quickbird satellite image; Source: the researcher

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Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 

Figure 4.3 Portion of the Quickbird of the study Area (i.e raw data)

   

Figure 4.4 Portion of the Google Earth of the study Area (i.e raw data)

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Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 
4.2.2 Materials and soft wares 
 

The soft ware’s used in this research in order to analysis the given data were:

I. Soft wares

ARCGIS 9.2

ERDAS IMAGINE 9.1

ENVI 4.3:- this soft ware was used in order to read the uncommon file format(i.ePCI)
which was difficult to open in both ARCGIS 9.1 and ERDAS IMAGINE 8.6.Besides,for
visualization and identification various features from the available satellite image.

Various GPS soft ware’s (example, MN DNR Garmin 5.4)

II. Materials

™ Handheld GPS(i.e eTrex Garmin and GPSMAP76CS)

™ Digital camera etc

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Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 
4.3 Research Methodology 

Quickbird Imagery      Google Earth     Handheld GPS 

1. Geo‐referencing & Rectification  1. Collection of parcel corner point   
coordinates 
2. Digitizing the Parcel 
2. Generating polygon from the point 
3. Extracting point coordinates from the parcel  coordinates 
corners 

  Data verification & checking
Ethiopian Experience of 
Other Countries 
cadastral mapping 
Experience of cadastral 
techniques 
mapping techniques 

Integration of the techniques
 

Recommendation on the Techniques 

Figure 4.3 Flow Chart of the Research Methodology

Figure 4.5 Research Methodology

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Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 
CHAPTER FIVE 

5. Countries Experience on cadastral surveying system  

5. 1 Experience of cadastral system and surveying 
The objective of this chapter is to assess the general situation of land Administration and
cadastral system of the world based on the experiences of some selected case studies that are
already stated and provided by various organizational reports. Many of these initiatives have
previously been carried out by the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG), the UN
Economic Commission for Europe (UN-ECE), cadastral template project etc.

In view of that, it is impossible to assess the whole world cadastral surveying system within this
thesis work, but it is possible to come with the experiences of some selected countries. The
selection method is based on the countries experiences in relation to Ethiopian background focus
of interest for instance; topography, institutional and organizational framework.

According to Bogaerts (1999), the most critical success factors for cadastral systems are
legislation, organization, financing, data and its quality, technologies used and human resources.
Among these, organisation and management are most critical in the context of the Phase
Countries. Along these lines, there are two documents available as guidelines for land
administration. First, the UN-ECE (1996) provides a series of guidelines covering the broad
understanding of land issues and the role of land administration, while the UNCHS (2001)
elaborates guidelines for the improvement of land registration and land information systems in
developing countries (with special reference to countries in Eastern, Central and Southern
Africa). The study shows that these guidelines do not focus in detail on the system development
process issues (users’ needs, data and process models, system architecture, etc.). The
implications of evolving Geo-ICT in the implementing organizations are too many. Hardware
and software are changing quickly, and are costly to purchase and maintain. Communication
networks and human resources are both limited. But requirements are changing owing to changes
in governmental policies.

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Therefore, the organizations in the developing countries are unable to cope with the changing
requirements of users and the evolving nature of Geo-ICT technologies in data collecting,
processing, maintaining, storing and disseminating land information. The organizations are
unable to absorb these new technologies into their functions or business processes owing to a
lack of financial and organizational capacity. Secondly, there are no mechanisms embedded in
the organizations to understand and monitor the changing requirements of users and stakeholders
regarding cadastral surveying system.

 5.1.1 Organizational framework  
Currently the World Bank is supporting at least 13 implemented cadastral land titling and
registration projects with a total loan value of about US$550 million. This represents about 1%
of total World Bank lending on an annual basis, which is significant. This compares with the
decade of the 1980s and the 1990s when about US$150 million was lent for just three projects.
The current projects are in Algeria, Argentina, Bolivia, El Salvador, Indonesia, Lao PDR,
Lebanon, Nicaragua, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Russia, Venezuela, and Thailand.
Furthermore, at least ten more projects are under preparation including those in Armenia,
Georgia, Guatemala, Honduras, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Peru, Romania, Ukraine, and Viet Nam.

This World Bank experience is presented as representative of some of the current world wide
activity in land titling and registration, in a search for lessons and best practice. Also it is
considered somewhat representative of similar support by other multi-laterals and certain bi-
laterals agencies. The Asian Development Bank is currently supporting studies or projects in
Viet Nam, Bangladesh, and in one province in China. The European Union is supplying
technical assistance in at least Romania, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Poland, and Russia. The Inter-
American Development Bank is active in many Central and South American countries, while bi-
laterals such as USAID are providing technical assistance including to Russia, Ukraine, Albania,
Armenia, and Kazakhstan. Also AusAID is currently supporting projects including in Thailand,
Indonesia, Laos PDR, Viet Nam, and Huinan, China.

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Similarly in Ethiopia the organizational setup of land Administration in general and cadastral
surveying specifically is undertake in both Governmental and Non-Governmental sectors like
any other countries of the world. To mention Ministry of Rural and Agricultural Development in
collaboration with USAID coming up with ELATP (i.e. Ethiopian Land Administration and
Land Tenure), and SIDA the Swedish organization.

However, the organizational framework regarding cadastral surveying system in Ethiopia is not
established yet. This to mean as far as the knowledge of the researcher until now there is no a
sole structured sub-organizational sector of cadastral surveying office. Even though, according to
the Ethiopian constitution Land related matters is the affair of Ministry of Rural and Agricultural
Development; compare to other countries institutional system of cadastral surveying it is found
to be at its infant stage.

From such projects come diverse worldwide experience and lessons, several of which this
research tries to assess the general circumstances of some countries experiences in comparison
with the Ethiopian institutional and technical issues of land administration and cadastral system,
the information technology dimension .

Hence, the design of land administration systems is very critical to its performance and
sustainability. Land administration systems should be flexible enough to meet the evolutionary
developments in society. The design should allow for gradual migration from simple to
more complex systems instead of immediately focusing on the highest achievable
cadastral accuracy and individualization of title (Molen, 2002a; Molen and Lemmen,
2004).

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Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 
Table 5.1 Comparison of land administration systems

Continents Legal framework Administrative Organizational and

framework Infrastructural
framework

Western Europe, North Policy review on Centralised system Efficiency in service

America, Australia, New information laws e.g. architectures delivery e.g. electronic
Zealand access to information, Functional restructuring access to products and
costing and pricing of and reviews services
services/products Service improvements Trends towards
Problems with e.g. customer focus integrated land
registration of public and Cost recovery information
native land rights 100% cadastral infrastructures
coverage

Central and Eastern Problems with management Improved land information Incomplete land registers and
Europe of minority tenure rights systems cadastral coverage

Latin America Neo-liberal land policy Ineffective Struggling with

decentralisation of land implementation of land
administration redistribution reforms
Varying cadastral
coverage (e.g. 5% in
rural Guatemala; 50% in
Ecuador)

Africa Legal pluralism Lack of financial, Inefficient (lengthy and

Widespread communal human, technical costly) service delivery
and informal tenure resources/capacity with manual systems
systems Inefficient land Poor land information
Conflicting and administration systems infrastructures
overlapping land laws Minimal cadastral
Innovative land reforms coverage (1% average)

Asia and Middle East Islamic land law in Arab Ineffective Problems with land
countries decentralisation of land classification (private/public
Varying legal administration (with the land) and establishment of
frameworks e.g. exception of Thailand) boundaries in forest and
nationalisation in China; Varying cadastral national park areas
dual tenure system in coverage (e.g. 10% in
Thailand; no land Cambodia, 64% in rural
registration in Vietnam Turkey

Source: Tabulated from www.worldwidecadastral.org

The table shows especially in the continent Africa the cadastral map coverage averagely almost
less than 1 % .This indicates that the limitation of large scale map in Africa has been a great
challenge for the development of spatial data infrastructure.

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Likewise, the decision to embark on a certain type of land administration system and the
level of complexity and accuracy should be determined by the purpose the system has to
serve. Land administration systems may be designed to focus on one or more objectives
e.g. it may focus on maximization of revenue through land taxation or on stimulation of land
market operations. The minimum requirements to be met by the system should be clear. The
system should also reflect the needs and aspirations of the people for whom it is designed. Burns,
Grant et al (2003) and Molen (2003b) provide comparative analyses of different types of
land administration systems around the world. Their analyses are summarized in Table 5.1
above.

Geospatial Data

Topographic and Thematic Mapping had its early roots in exploration and in military strategic
and tactical planning. It has been recognized in the last century that they are an indispensable
part of national and global planning strategies forming the base data for a spatial data
infrastructure. The United Nations Secretariat has monitored the progress in mapping
throughout the UN Regional Cartographic Conferences. The last summary published in 1993
reflects the situation for the different scale ranges for the continents of the globe, shown in Table
5.2 below:
Table 5.2: Status of Topographic Mapping worldwide

Continent Africa Asia Australia & Europe former North South World
USSR America America
Oceania
Scale
range
1:200 000 89.1 100 100 % 90.9 % 100 % 99.2 % 84.4 % 90.2
% % %
1:100 000 21.7 66.4 54.4 % 87.5 % 100 % 37.3 % 57.9 % 58.9
% % %
1: 50 000 41.1 84 24.3 % 96.2 % 100 % 77.7 % 33 % 56.1
% % %
1:25 000 2.9 % 15.2 18.3 % 86.9 % 100 % 45.1 % 7% 33.3
% %

Source: Tabulated from (Molen and Lemmen, 2004)

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5.1.2 Cadastral Template or Model 
The cadastral template is a standardised generic proforma that enables the discovery of
information, including matters concerned with member countries’ land policy, laws and
regulations, land tenure, land administration and cadastre, institutional arrangements, SDIs,
technology as well as human resources and capacity.

As a result, in terms of the registration and cadastral surveying of land, the nations faring the
worst are Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan and Namibia (see fig.5.1 below). Only 10% of rural and
18% of urban parcels are legally registered and surveyed in Cambodia, which is largely due to a
rebuilding phase (post Khmer Rouge) that the country is currently undertaking. Japan is another
country with low levels of registration (18% urban, 46% rural) and the reason for this is unclear.
Japan has the highest total number of land surveyors out of all the nations in the study, but data
pertaining to the percentage of time they spend on cadastral matters was not given.

Figure 5.1Map of cadastral template participating nations.

Source: www. cadastral template .com

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The large number of surveyors may indicate an attempt to rectify the lack of legally registered
and surveyed parcels; this theory is supported by the systematic approach they are taking to the
establishment of cadastral records. Indonesia has a total of 20% of rural and 40% of urban
parcels registered and surveyed. The reason for the low percentage of rural parcels surveyed and
registered is predominantly due to the occupation of land by illegal settlers and lack of cadastral
infrastructural matters.

Figure 5.2 registered and surveyed some countries of the world

Source: cadastral template report 2007,www. cadastral template .com

The nations with total coverage of their cadastral records (100% legally registered and surveyed)
include Belgium, Brunei, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, South Korea, the
Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland.

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5.1.3 Countries Experience on Cadastral surveying Methodologies 

Few cadastral projects have used satellite imagery to delimit parcel boundaries. Argentina and
Nicaragua have experimented SPOT 4 on fiscal and physical cadastral plans but could not
achieve accurate boundary maps because of the poor resolution of the image, (Axes, 2004). The
launch of SPOT 5 improved the geometric performance of its previous models and has brought a
significant support to cartography.

In Guatemala, SPOT 5 imagery has been evaluated with data from total stations – GPS
measurements and orthoimage identification for different types of parcels. Good results were
obtained for large and medium extensions; although it presented its limits for identify accurately
small parcels, peri-urban and urban estates. The accuracy of identification depended directly to
the size and shape of the property, the topography of the area, the type of fences and vegetation
coverage present on the study area as well as the scale of the orthoimage used in the
identification process (Corlazzoli, 2004). The Guatemalan research recommended the use of
SPOT 5 orthoimage as an input that can be considered in countries regarding cadastre with less
strict precision.

Mamoru et al (2002) considered the possibility of IKONOS imagery for making topo cadastral
maps. The results suggested that IKONOS imagery has advantageous characteristics of
interpretation for making and updating middle scale topographical maps such as 1:25000,
compared with analogue aerial photo. The horizontal accuracy of IKONOS ortho-imagery varies
between 1.0-1.2m in flat areas and is worse in mountain areas. QuickBird satellite imagery has
the highest resolution, among the satellite imaging systems that are commercially available. This
will definitely be the possible immediate option in resolving Kenya’s PID problem.

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QuickBird has panchromatic and multispectral sensors with resolutions of 61- 72cm and 2.44-
2.88m, respectively, depending upon the off-nadir viewing angle (0- 25 degrees), the geometrical
resolution can be easily compared with the one resulting from an average scale aerial flight (Cay
et al., 2003). The sensor covers 16.5-19km in the across-track direction. In addition, the along-
track and across-track capabilities provide stereo geometry and a revisit frequency of 1-3½ days.
The data is available in different formats, including the raw data format (Basic Imagery), which
preserves the satellite geometry and is preferred by the photogrammetry and mapping
community to achieve high accuracy geometric correction and geospatial products,
(DigitalGlobe, 2002)

Cay et al., (2003) has enlisted the following to be some of the major strengths of QuickBird
image as a source of information for cadastral survey: High geometrical resolution (for large
scale projects), Multispectral capabilities, radiometric sensitivity, Good positional accuracy,
Revisit capabilities and large image size.

5.2 The Experience of African countries in cadastral System  

5.2.1 Demands on Cadastre 
African countries in general have large areas of land, which are sparsely populated. The
economic output from these lands is generally very low. Only specific types of land use can
generate income that can motivate the investment in a cadastral system. One aim of a cadastre is
to provide security of tenure. The customary tenure system in African countries, which usually
comprises most land, provides adequate security of tenure for the members of the community.
Transfer of land between members of the community can usually also be handled with enough
security within the traditional systems. There is therefore no need and consequently no demand
from land users of systematic establishment of cadastral systems in these large areas. Any
attempt in that direction will consequently fail.

The traditional system is however unable to provide appropriate security of tenure in areas where
it no longer exists, or are being misused or for other reasons are falling apart. One such misuse

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occurs when traditional leaders start to look upon themselves as owners (instead of custodians on
behalf of the community) of the land and see opportunities to own money on land transactions
and speculations. Other disturbances of the customary tenure occur with migration of people,
mixing of people of different origin, diseases and calamities, investment by foreigners, and the
urbanization. In all these situations, which are more and more frequent, there is a demand for
some kind of more elaborated cadastral system in order to provide the security of tenure that the
customary tenure fail to provide. But the system must be appropriate, which means that they
must be designed in such a way that they are affordable and accessible for the users. African
countries need economic development and thus need investments. One of the most important
sectors for investments in African countries is agriculture and other types of efficient land use.
Capital needs to be brought in from abroad. This will not happen without a cadastral system,
which can provide security of tenure for these investments. The investor needs security for his
investment. He also needs to finance his investments through financial institutes, which in turn
will demand security for the credit provided.

Also indigenous people who likes to develop; entrepreneurs need access to security of tenure and
for mortgages in order to be able to attract capital. Obviously, there is an urgent need for
development of cadastral systems in African countries to promote economic development.

Demands on social justice will also create demands on the establishment of cadastral systems.
Women’s rights to land and property are usually protected by modern legislation and
constitutions in African countries, while practice in case of divorce or decease of the husband
usually is governed by traditional law. Traditional law does usually not protect women’s rights in
the same way as modern legislation. Cadastral systems will improve the possibilities for women
to protect their rights according to the modern legislation. Cadastral systems will allow the
establishment of procedures for fair land allocation prevent land speculation, protect ethnic
minority interests etc. One consequence of aids is a demand to provide for proper registration of
property to protect children’s access to heritage after their parents.

From government point of view, land information is needed for taxation of land and property,
and for better decision-making for sustainable development of land resources, through for
instance land use planning, improvements of land management practices and for environmental
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protection. Land markets are usually regarded as more efficient on allocating land resources to
most economic use than traditional land tenure systems. In order to function well, with low risks
and low transaction costs, land markets need cadastral systems to provide reliable information to
the actors on the market. However, cadastral systems will not create land markets. When
economic development in an area is reaching such levels, when demands on a more efficient land
market occur, the time will be ripe to introduce cadastral systems. Economic development,
investments etc can create conflicts between investors and traditional land users, Modern
governmental administration can come into conflict with traditional leader’s authority and also
into conflicts with local communities. Often much money is involved and temptations for
corruption occur. Cadastral systems can be demanded in order to establish more transparent
procedures and to allow for solving interest conflicts of this kind to the benefit for all parties.

Generally, the cadastral system in most African countries is in its’ inception stage that is with
less than 1% cadastral map coverage. And most of the countries are used a measurement based
cadastral surveying which traditional method of surveying. For instance, the Egyptian Survey
Authority (ESA) started developing cadastre since 1988, using the total station technique. About
1.2 million parcels (feddans) of total nine million parcels were covered by cadastral maps. The
shortcoming digital maps with no attribute data have been produced which is incomplete
cadastral map.
However, in relation with other African countries Egypt, Kenya, Uganda and South Africa have
relatively well organized cadastral surveying and mapping administrational as well as technical
framework. For example, the cadastral surveying of Egypt was established during the period
1897-1907. This because, the increase in the total area of cultivated land and the rapid escalating
need for planning of national projects, highways, canals as well as updating land information
require non-traditional solution of such large-scale maps.

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Kenya is perhaps the best examples of a country, which has tried to establish European like
cadastral systems for land registration through adjudication of existing traditional rights in very
systematic and comprehensive way, through different more and more simple methods in order to
keep the costs for the registration as low and affordable as possible. Several millions of parcels
have been registered in these adjudication processes. Yet, there is no clear evidence that this
enormous investment by the government is contributing to economic development in a way that
should motivate the investments made. On the contrary, the cadastral system thus established
seems in many cases to fall apart through lack of proper maintenance. The poor maintenance can
depend on many different causes, from lack of interest and understanding among the landowners
to lack of appropriate services from the responsible authority. Both can be translated into a lack
of demand of cadastral services (Wachter, D. et al,1992).

Sometimes the conclusion of these problems has been that cadastre and land registration is not
appropriate for African conditions. Africans need to develop new approaches to land
information, for instance Geo- information system to support decision-making regarding land use
and management that are based on the principles of cadastre.

Therefore, modern Surveying must be designed in such a way that the costs for the establishment
and maintenance of the system are affordable compared to the economic value of the existing
land Administration. This can be achieved through a combination of modern technology and a
flexible/ non-traditional approach to the information content of the information system and the
technical and legal demands on accuracy etc. Cadastral procedures should be designed to allow
for an efficient decision-making based on law and free from political influence in developing
countries like Africa. The process should be participatory and transparent. The cadastral officer
should be responsible to investigate all aspects of cases and to protect all private and public
interests on an equal basis in the process (Wachter, D. et al,1992).

However, many African countries have recently changed their land legislation or institutional
setup with the goal of being able to recognize land rights and provide security of tenure to

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occupants in new and innovative ways. One key objective of doing so has been to establish
systems of land administration that can provide country-wide coverage at an affordable cost, and
that can be upgraded in a flexible way as and when the need to do so arises. While a systematic
assessment of the performance of such systems would be of great importance to inform the
policy debate, it is made difficult by a huge and widening gap between legal initiatives and
actual implementation. The case of Ethiopia, where –within a rather short time frame- about 6
Million land use certificates were distributed, even though during the “first phase” no map or
spatial reference is included, is thus of potentially large interest for policy makers (Wachter, D.
et al,1992).

5. 4 Ethiopia Land Policy and Administration Assessment 
 

Recent land tenure regimes in Ethiopia fall into three broad time periods. Before 1975, land
tenure was based on a feudal system where land was concentrated in the hands of absentee
landlords and the church, tenure rights were highly insecure, and arbitrary evictions took place.
Following the overthrow of the imperial regime in 1974, the Marxist-oriented government (the
Derg) transferred ownership of all rural land to the state for the distribution of use rights to
cultivators through local peasant associations. The further transfer of land rights was highly
restricted, because transfer through sales, lease, exchange, or mortgage was prohibited, and
inheritance was severely restricted. Tenure security was further weakened by the peasant
associations’ and other authorities’ ability to redistribute land. The government that took power
in 1991 following the fall of the Derg—while committed to a free market philosophy— has
made little substantive change to farmers’ land rights, which are still considered inadequate.

The 1994 Ethiopian Constitution draws a broad framework for land policy in the country and
enshrines the concept of public land ownership and the inalienability of landholdings. The
Ethiopian Constitution asserts state ownership of land; there are no private property rights in
land. Article 40(3) states:

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The right to own rural and urban land as well as natural resources belongs only to the state and
the people. Land is an inalienable common property of the nations, nationalities and peoples of
Ethiopia and shall not be subject to sale or to other means of transfer.

5.4.1 Existing Surveying Capacity in Ethiopia 
 

Ethiopian Mapping Authority (EMA)

The EMA is the Ethiopian Government’s institution responsible for spatial data at the national
level. It is an organization of approximately 360 professionals and technicians with the
responsibility for all national geodetic surveys, datum definitions, and cartographic programs.
EMA has capacity in use of satellite data, planning and management of air photo acquisitions,
production of orthophotos, and basic GIS development. It carries out training at the national and
regional levels, though the way this is carried out could be vastly improved.

Enhancement of the EMA capacity could provide significant assistance to regional land
administrations in terms of access to spatial data as well as training programs and staff
development. Modalities would need to be worked out to determine to what extent mapping
activities should be devolved to regional administration and what activities should remain
centralized. The EMA could be taking a more active role in assisting the regional governments in
this area. This would ensure that efforts undertaken by the regional governments are compatible
with national standards.

Other Ethiopian Government Agencies

Significant interests on the part of a variety of Ethiopian Government institutions are working
with spatial data, the most notable after EMA being the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), Ministry
of Water Resources (MOWR), Disaster Preparedness and Prevention Commission (DPPC), and
Central Statistics Authority (CSA). In the MOA, the Woody Biomass project has become one of
the national leaders in use of remotely sensed imagery. The MOWR is classifying land cover at
1:250,000 in the watersheds in the key the four main regions and developing orthophoto products

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for its irrigation schemes (photo acquisition by the Israeli firm OFEK as a result of international
tender and orthophoto production through EMA).

In an effort to share and standardize information among these agencies, EMA has taken the lead
on the development of a National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI). Numerous Ethiopian
Government agencies are participating.

Nongovernment Institutions and the Private Sector

Some capacity exists outside of the government structures. At present there is only limited
capacity within the university community. There is some indication of private sector activities
developing as companies are awarded contracts for digitizing maps.

International Community
The international community is also quite active in the collection and use of spatial data, though
the primary use is in the development of GIS and thematic maps for specific project activites.
Image processing of remotely sensed data (satellite data and air photos) is only being carried out
by a few donors, including USAID/Famine Early Warning System (FEWS) and soon the World
Food Program (WFP). Numerous projects (such as GTZ’s Land Use Planning and Resource
Management Project in the Oromiya region) have made extensive use of remotely sensed images
and GIS.

The international community’s involved in mapping and use of other forms of spatial data, led by
WFP, have organized a Mapping Task Force to address issues common to all of the participants.
These include issues of sharing data, common and standardized coding, projection, and datum
standardization. The technical leaders in this appear to be WFP VAM Unit, USAID/FEWS, and
the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). To their credit, there is good national
representation in the Task Force in the representation so far (two meetings) of EMA, MOA, and
MOWR.

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5.4.2 The situation of cadastral surveying techniques in Ethiopia 

As far as the Knowledge of the researcher the cadastral surveying and mapping in Ethiopia at
this time has not any clear administrational and technical framework. Even the Ethiopian
Mapping Authority (EMA) currently has not a clear and well organized strategy towards the
development of cadastral surveying and mapping. This is to say that cadastral mapping in
Ethiopia just like most African countries has not a full-fledged and clear direction.

However, some pilot projects which are started yet in the three regional states such as, Oromia,
Amhara, SNNP and Tigray have been utilized traditional surveying. These are plot perimeters
and distances from permanent features are measured using traditional measuring devices (e.g.,
chains, rods, tape, or strings). Besides, the plots are described according to their positional
relationship to those features and as to their position relative to neighboring plots (e.g., whose
property is on the north, south, east, and west sides of the plot being registered). Areas are stated
in local measurements (e.g., “timads” in parts of Ethiopia).

Figure5.3: The colored area represents the four regions Project area of cadastral map in Ethiopia.
Source: www.ardinc.com

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Under the Ethiopian Mapping Agency (EMA) was commissioned to field test five levels of
cadastral surveying technologies with respect to factors such as cost, efficiency, accuracy and
appropriateness of technology regarding skill requirements, availability of equipment, costs per
hectare and cost per parcel. While some of the factors raise questions of subjectivity, the findings
presented a clear picture of the different options (See Table 5.3).

Table 5.3 Comparison of cost of rural cadastral surveying technologies

No.  Method  Cost in  Application 

Birr/ha
1.  Rope only  13.00 Most rural areas 
2.  Rope & HH GPS centroid  15.70 Most rural areas 
reading 
3.  Hand‐Held (HH) GPS  80.40 Most rural areas 
corners reading 
4.  Compass/Tape  291.80 Inappropriate for all 
areas 
5.  Total Station  117.41 High potential areas:  
            ‐ peri‐urban, irrigation 
                 ‐ resettlement, 
compensation; 
       
    ‐ commercial farming 
       
    ‐ investment purposes, 
etc. 
6.  IKONOS high resolution  229.90 Applicable for all areas if 
satellite data  cost contained 
7.  DGPS (not in EMA study)  High potential areas as in 
Total Station 
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐  

Source: ELTAP 2006 (under preparation). Data compiled from the Ethiopian

Mapping Agency testing of various survey technologies.

The costs shown in table above are the one-shot direct costs of land titling. They do not include
the cost of the certificate and the annual maintenance cost once the cadastre is established. As
can be seen, the direct cost of land titling escalates quickly as one move up the technology scale.

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The cost of using handheld GPS with corners reading that produces parcel area is six times that
of the traditional rope-only method. Using total station costs nine times more.

The conclusion drawn was that the high-end technologies which are also expensive are not
appropriate to low-valued rural lands with little potential of development. Such technologies
should be reserved for high-valued land in peri-urban, commercial agriculture, irrigation
development and resettlement areas. No single methodology would be appropriate for all of
Ethiopia, or for all circumstances in a given region or wereda. Decisions will have to be made
on a case by case basis bearing in mind that areas surveyed by low cost technology could be
upgraded to a higher level of sophistication and accuracy as capacity, resources and needs
require. In subsequent discussions, regional land administration agencies preferred to use
handheld GPS for their cadastral surveying. A manual was prepared for this purpose and 13
federal and regional trainers of trainees (ToTs) were given practical training on using handheld
GPS for measuring parcels and producing index maps. They in turn are going to train district
staff and private contractors in this methodology in the four regions.

Nevertheless, the current status of the Ethiopian horizontal and vertical geodetic reference frame
is that they are in very poor condition and completely unsuited to supporting modern positioning
(e.g., GPS) and remote-sensing technologies and applications.

Their systems will not adequately support the application of modern cadastral surveying
operations that could be used to enhance the rapid collection of positional data relative to land
parcel boundaries.
Thus, EMA should be committed to enhancing the National Spatial Data Infrastructure to be
consistent with the recommendations of the International Association of Surveyors (FIG)
Commission X, African Reference System (AFREF) working group as outlined in the
“Windhoek Declaration” adopted at a meeting of African National Mapping Organizations in
December 2002.Besides, EMA should be modern enough at all circumstances regarding spatial
data collection system especially cadastral surveying. And, in order to be consistent with
principle and statement of cadastre 2014.
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5.5 Summary  
 

The issue of Cadastral surveying and mapping has been an international trend, starting with the
United Nations Summit on Social Development in 1995, the United Nations City Summit in
1996, the Bogor Declaration on Cadastral Reform in 1996, and the multi-million dollar cadastral
projects in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, China, Australia, New
Zealand, South Africa, most countries of Western Europe as well as Argentina and Brazil in
recent years. These prove that great majority of the developed countries and many developing
countries have entered cadastral reform program.

In developed countries, survey and mapping organization undergo various degrees of privatizing
and budget cut. Most of them have their cadastral maps digitized. Few leading countries are now
converting their cadastral map from map accuracy to survey-accuracy and developing internet
data communication facilities.

The South Korea, Netherlands, Canada, Sweden and Singapore are the forerunners in these
areas. The reforms are for better economics and efficiency. There are also cadastral system
reforms. The force, which drives a cadastral system reform, always comes from political
changes. Eastern European countries and South Africa are examples of this group.

Commission 7 of FIG had set up a working group in 1994 to develop a vision for a modern
cadastre 20 years into the future. The resulting research named ‘Cadastre 2014’ is an important
document, which will impact on cadastral reform world-wide for many years. The cadastral
vision developed fully recognizes the changing role of governments in society, the changing
relationship of humankind to land, the dramatic influence of technology on cadastral reform, the
changing role of surveyors in society and the growing role of the private sector in the operation
of the cadastre. Based on studies of existing cadastral systems all around the world, the working
group agreed to six statements on the development of cadastre in the next twenty years (see in
the Appendix).

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Moreover, the cadastral reform is inevitable in this new millennium to handle and manage the
constant proliferation throughout the world. This is to some extent due to technological
advancement in computerization, information acquisition and communication. Cadastral reform
may relate to various aspects of cadastral system such as office automation, field measurement,
and cadastral database development. These will lead to the concept and realization of the
Coordinate based Cadastral System in some countries today.

Cadastral reform is concerned with improving the operation, efficiency, effectiveness and
performance of the cadastral system in a state or jurisdiction. Cadastral reform is being
undertaken in many and diverse parts of the world. Different countries have different needs for a
cadastre at different stages of development.

Due to their different stages of development, different countries have different capacities for the
development of cadastral systems. In particular, human, technological and financial resources
will determine the most appropriate form of cadastral system to meet the needs of individual
countries. Thus, a simple low cost manual cadastre recording only private ownership rights may
be appropriate for one country, while a sophisticated and relatively expensive fully computerized
cadastre recording a wide range of ownership and land use rights may be appropriate for another
country.

In order to improve a cadastral system the importance of focusing on the cadastral processes to
identify bottlenecks, inefficiencies and duplication was recognized. Once the processes have
been fully documented and understood it is possible to re-engineer them to improve efficiency
and effectiveness in the delivery of cadastral services to the user. Such re-engineering often
requires changes to legislation, modified institutional and administrative arrangements, and the
use of different technologies (Williamson, 1998).

 
However, the nations with total coverage of their cadastral records (100% legally registered and
surveyed) include Belgium, Brunei, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, South
Korea, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland.

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In contrast, in many African countries the development of cadastral surveying and mapping is in
its’ infant stage which is almost below 1% cadastral map coverage. The same is true for the
countries like Ethiopia that is the cadastral surveying is still based on traditional rope system (i.e.
measurement based cadastre).Even with this method in Ethiopia there is no a full-fledged
cadastral map.

Therefore, in order to accelerate cadastral map coverage for the whole country in the near future
the modern coordinate based cadastral surveying is a must. As a result, the integration of GPS
and high resolution satellite image with GIS could be the appropriate techniques for the
acceleration of cadastral map coverage.

 
 

   

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Chapter Six 

6. Integration of GPS, Satellite imagery with GIS in preparing coordinate 
based cadastral map in the study area 

This chapter entirly focuses on the integration of GPS ,satellite imagery and GIS in preparing
coordinate based cadstral map in the study area.

Since cadastral data are defined as the geographic extent of the past, current, and future rights
and interests in real property, including the spatial information necessary to describe that
geographic extent.
Preparation of low cost rural coordinated cadastral map using GPS and satellite imagery
integrating with GIS is apparently the a splendid idea for countries like Ethiopia which has at
least no or little cadastral map coverage as disscussed in the earlier cahpter.This is in the sense
that the maps ingeneral and cadastral maps in particularl could be an input to NSDI(National
spatial data infrastrcture ).

Hence ,this section tries to demonstrate the integration of the three methods based on the data
collected from the field using handheld GPS and the satellite imagery(i.e panchromatic
Quickbird ),and as supplementary Google Earth. This based on extracting the absolute
coordinate points rather than the traditionl surveying methods which give us a cadastral map
that has relatve location (i.e. NE,SE , NW and SW) only .

The study area has about 5000 parcels of land with varied topographical setting i.e hilly and
some undulating land scape as it has already disscussed in chapter 3. However,producing
cadastral map is not the scope of this research work and apparently is not an easy task . Hence ,
this section will trying to test coordinate of some selected parcels of the data collectd from
handheld GPS and Satellite imagery as well as Google Earth.

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Figure 6.1 : selected parcels of the study area(source; Author)

This test was conducted in welenkomi area part of Ihud Gebeya town Bite Ejersa Lafo Kebele
Administration by comparing the Selected point coordinate and areas of the parcels data
collected from the field using Hand held GPS,satellite image and Google Earth . The test area is
more or less have an average elevation 2443 with undulating type of topography and majority of
the area have a slope ranges from 0-10 degree (see in cahpter 3 ).

Unfortunately, in this area and other part of the country as a whole there is no any kind of the
existing cadastral maps, and only with poor filing system of ownership information to be
collected from the responsible weredas or any surveying office. Hence , the parcels were
digitizing from Quickbird and Google Earth and the corner points of coordinate were collected
by handheld GPS .Besides, the digitised parcel data of each areas were automatically computed.

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Accordingly, the slope map and sample parcels of the study area tries to test the parcel which is
found in the slope 0-10 degree and as well as which was not affected in shape relatively for long
years compare with other parcels of the area. Hence, this selected to show the differences among
the coordinate collected in the field and the data extracted from the satellite imagery.

Figure 6.2: Overlaying Sample parcels with Slope map of the study area

(Source; digitized from Quickbird imagery)

Generally, in the study area different types of parcel shape and size exist in relation with the
topographical setting of the physical landscape of the area. Likewise, the figure below show as
the average parcel size of the digitized and collected field parcels in the area ranges from 0.2-2.6
ha maximum and minimum respectively. But the average parcel size in the area is 0.5 hectare
and indicated in red color as illustrated in the Graph.

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Figure 6.3: parcels with their respective area in hectare (Source: plotted from the field data)

The detailed and further analysis of the parcels point coordinate as well as the size of the parcels
will be organized in the coming subsection.

6.1 Testing the parcel coordinates of GPS and Quickbird imagery 
In this section tries to analyze the association of coordinates and area of some selected parcels
which are extracted from the methods i.e., Quickbird and Hand held GPS respectively.

6.1.1 Quickbird Imagery Data 
The parcel in fig 6.3 is one of 243 polygons digitized from the panchromatic Quickbird. This is
selected because of its relatively static nature of the parcel form year to year. The parcel has
seven corner point coordinates, and these are also different from the points extracted and
generated from both hand held GPS and Google Earth ( and Appedix-2 respectively).Besides, the
parcel generated from the hand held GPS based survey has different in shape and to some extent
its orientation.

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Figure 6.4: Map of the selected parcel digitized from Quickbird Imagery (source: Author)

The digitized line features; Line (arc) and area (polygon) features consist of a series of linked
single point positions; therefore, single point tests can be used to estimate the accuracy of line
and area features.

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Table 6.1 Coordinate of seven point corners

Parcel Coordinates(in meter) Elevation Remark

No
(in meter)
Easting Northing

P1 42 5216.67 999185.46 2351

P2 425247.09 999159.76 2350

P3 425224.60 999058.55 2346

P4 425168.89 999061.47 2346

P5 425168.13 999044.34 2347

P6 425119.81 999060.47 2345

P7 425132.45 999083.66 2347

source: Tabulated from the Map 6.3 Parcel

6.1.2 Handheld GPS Data  
After the field data collection of corner points of the parcel using hand held GPS (i.e GPS
Map76 CS) in the study area the process of data transfer was undertaken. Hence, the GPS
connected with the Hp Laptop by the cable USP serials and the points transferred by using latest
soft ware MN DNR Garmin 5.4(Minnesota Department of Natural Resources soft
ware).consequently, the transferd points save in ArcMAP as a shapefiles which is compatible
format type to the available ArcGIS software’s.(see Appendix 4)

Finally, as depicted in the figure below the corner coordinate points displayed in ArcMAP and
ready for further analysis.

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Figure 6.5 the distribution of collected GPS points

Subsequently, some of the collected points are converted or generated to be a polygon, and with
further editing the attributes and the spatial data of the parcels in Arc MAP are provided for
comparison and analysis.

Hence, the corresponding parcel with the already digitized and extracted from the panchromatic
Quickbird earlier (see fig 6.4) and the parcel generated from hand held GPS below (see fig 6.6)
have relative similarity in shape but different in the number of corner parcel point coordinates.

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Figure 6.6: Map of the selected parcel (source: Generated the parcel from Collected Field

GPS Data, 2008)

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Table 6.2 coordinates of five point corners

No Coordinates(in meter) Elevation Remark

(in meter)
Easting Northing

P1 42 5272.10 999380.38 2351

P2 425304.38 999363.11 2350

P3 425280.88 999285.00 2346

P4 425197.50 999260.09 2346

P5 425199.13 999280.22 2347

Source: Tabulated from the Map 6.4 Parcel

Generally, both fig 6.4 and 6.6 above indicated that the same parcel but with more or less varied
coordinate setting and different in shape of the given polygon. Those coordinate points which
are extracted from Quickbird have seven points where as from hand held GPS have five for the
identical parcel in the study area.

The reason for this variation can be essentially the social and technical context of the study under
consideration. First, this is apparently due to the dynamic nature of the agricultural farm area in
Ethiopia as whole and in the “Bite Ejersalafo” in particular. The logic behind this is mainly
because of land parcel fragmentation and crop rotation. Secondly, the satellite imagery year of
data acquisition should be as recent as possible in order to have current interface of the area
under study .But, the satellite image used for this date of data capturing was November,
2005.Hence, the

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6.2.3 Combination of (x, y) point coordinates of Handheld GPS and Quickbird 
As shows in table 6.3 below ten selected points of the collected from the field using GPS and
extracted from Quickbird are taken for comparison purpose. As a result the analysis indicated in
the difference chart is the variation in both x and y coordinates reaches up to 20 -30 meters
respectively.

Table 6.3: coordinates of 10 selected points of three methods

Coordinates from Coordinates from Coordinates from

*Diff
Quickbird Google Earth Handheld GPS

No Yq Xq Ygo Xgo Ygp Xgp Dxq-Dxgp Dyq-

Dygp
P1 999586.06 425467.17 999586.00 425467.16 999585.06 425468.17 -1.00 1.00
P2 999545.64 425458.71 999545.14 425458.21 999543.64 425459.71 -1.00 2.00
P3 999540.22 425499.17 999539.22 425499.17 999541.22 425500.17 -1.00 1.00
P4 999540.77 425501.67 999540.42 425501.45 999539.77 425502.67 1.00 1.00
P5 999536.41 425513.48 999536.40 425512.47 999538.41 425515.48 -2.00 2.00
P6 999513.81 425514.05 999513.70 425513.05 999516.81 425524.05 -10.00 -3.00
P7 999513.40 425556.34 999513.57 425555.67 999523.40 425546.34 10.00 -10.00
P8 999570.69 425572.14 999571.65 425573.10 999560.69 425582.14 -10.00 10.00
P9 999589.30 425567.91 999590.30 425563.81 999579.30 425547.91 20.00 10.00
P10 999610.02 425564.56 999611.02 425565.56 999640.02 425554.56 10.00 -30.00
Sources: The Author

But the point coordinates extracted from of Google Earth in comparison with both hand held
GPS and Quickbird image as shows in the table 6.3 above almost insignificant discrepancies
with the later one but significant variations with the former. However, in terms of absolute point
coordinate positioning the (x, y) points of both images have similarity compare with handheld
GPS.

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Difference Chart
30
20
Difference in (x,y)

10
0
‐10
‐20
‐30
‐40
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Dqx‐Dxgp ‐1 ‐1 ‐1 ‐1 1 2 ‐10 10 ‐10 20 10
Dqy‐Dygp 1 2 1 1 2 ‐3 ‐10 10 10 ‐30 10

Figure 6.7 Difference Chart

The lines both the blue and the red colored which are intermingled indicated that corner point coordinates
of handheld GPS and Quickbird satellite image of the study area almost small variation regarding
absolute point positioning. While, in generating a polygon features from the collected coordinate points of
both methods have their own limitation. The reason behind this is not clear .However this could be due to
the trend or the period of the high resolution satellite image and the nature of the handheld GPS own
error.

Nevertheless, the integration of these two methods could minimize the error which can obtain in the field
and might accelerate the cadastral map coverage of a certain locality.

 6.3 Testing the area of parcels:­GPS and Quickbird Imagery  

In Ethiopia, like many other countries, there is no complete cadastral map or land register that
includes information about holding areas. Experience from previous surveys and a census also
reveals that most of the holders in rural Ethiopia are not able to accurately determine the size of
their land in useable quantitative units. As a consequence, all information about size of land has
to be collected by measuring.

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Hence, the handheld GPS based calculation of areas was done by two ways. One by
downloading some track log polygons to GIS software using MN DNR Garmin and by
converting the collected coordinates in to polygon in ArcMap for storage, mapping and area
calculations on a lap-top. Likewise, the parcels extracted from the image also done in order to
compute the area of each parcels.

Thus, as illustrated in the Graph below the average area of the parcel of the collected by GPS and
extracted from satellite imageries is 5000 sq.meter and depicted in a red color in the graph
below. Besides, the total ranges between 2,000-26,000 sq.meter with minimum and maximum
respectively.

Figure 6.8: The Graph of some selected size of parcels in meter sq. of the study area

(Source: plotted from the field data)

Hence, the graph generally shows us in the study area the size and shapes of the parcels are
varied. That is the size of the parcels classified as from very small from below 2000 sq.meter to
larger than 26000 sq.meter in size .Besides, the shape of the parcels are classified as irregular

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and regular i.e. the shape of parcels varying in relation with the topographical setting of the
area(see fig 6.1 ).

Table 6. 4: Area of some selected parcels (in sq.meter)

Parcel- Owner Name Area1 Area2 (Area1-Area2) Area1 Extracted from Quickbird

Id
1 1398 1400 -2 Area2 Generated from Handheld GPs
2 1696 1689 7
(Area1- Differences in Area
3 2816 2810 6
Area2)
4 2969 2969 0
5 3014 3000 14
6 3031 3021 10
7 3241 3240 1
8 3246 3240 6
9 3557 3550 7
10 3893 3890 7
11 4000 4010 -10
12 4065 4067 -2
13 4325 4320 5
14 4874 4870 4
15 6507 6500 7
16 6773 6776 -3
17 7910 7903 7
18 9289 9280 9
19 10749 10751 -2
20 26598 26588 10
Source: (Author)

The table demonstrates the area of parcels computed from both GPS and satellite image. The
differences of the size of the parcels range from 0-14 sq.meter. This shows the variation between
these methods is not as such large. But, the table generally indicated the size of the parcels
computed from the image is larger than the parcels extracted from hand held GPS.

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20

15

10
Diff. in Area

(Area1‐Area2)
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1011121314151617181920
‐5

‐10

‐15
No  Parcels

Figure 6.9: Differences in Area of parcels extracted from GPS and Quickbird

The results from the above figure indicates that Quickbird of the plots that are more than 0.5
hectares or 5000 sq,meter , gives a slightly larger area per plot compared to the same plot area
measured by hand held GPS equipment. This tendency seems to be the same when plots with
area size less than 0.5 hectares are measured. i.e. those plot areas that were less than 0.1 hectares
or 1000 sq,meter .This indicated that small parcels are relatively stable or unchanged.

In addition, the graph display only 5 of the parcels out of 20 have a negative value .This
indicated that the value of Area1 is larger than Area2.This in turn shows us size of the parcels in
the study area which have extracted from the Quickbird are larger than the size of the parcels
generated from the hand held GPS as discussed above.

Hence, from the analysis in the study area the variation of the size for identical parcels comes
from the two main factors i.e. as discussed before the inconsistency in shape and the size of the
parcels due to apparent land fragmentation and crop rotation. This is especially in the study area
crop rotation have its own impact in the shape and size of the parcel deformation. As a result the
effect of these could have their own impact on the mismatch or inequality between two different
techniques during the application of cadastral surveying. For instance, in this research the
methods used are satellite imagery and hand held GPS but, the image was captured before two to
three years where as the GPS data collected currently. Therefore, time differences should be
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taken in to account during the preparation to select the techniques of cadastral surveying mainly
satellite imagery integrating with other methods.

This map indicated the combination two selected identical parcels taken for the purpose of
comparison .These parcels originally extracted from Quickbird and hand held GPS but as
depicted in the figure below they are not equal in shape as well as in size. As already discussed
before the size of the parcels computed from the image is larger than the hand held GPS.
Likewise, in figure also the area of parcel [1] is larger than parcel [2] i.e. 7910 and 7903
Sq.meter respectively (see table 6.4). And they are not overlap even though they are similar.

Figure 6.10: Map of selected Quickbird and GPS parcels overlaid

Thus, the rural parcels have apparently changed with time due to the factors already discussed
and other unforeseeable factors in this study. To conclude the integration of different techniques
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Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 
in cadastral surveying and mapping have their own diverse limitations. However, by considering
these limits and moving to take an action also can have a benefit of accelerating the preparation
of cadastral map for the country that do not have even a single organized cadastral map.

Generally, the results of the area measurements by the GPS and the satellite image are very close
– for parcel areas there were no statistically significant difference between the results of the two
methods. Considering the human errors in account that the parcels extracted from both GPS and
Quickbird imagery is much faster than that of traditional methods. This in turn indicates that the
potential applicability of both techniques for agricultural area measurements.

6.4 The boundary of the Parcels Vs Cadastral surveying methods 
The boundaries of the actual agricultural land used of course do not necessarily follow the plot
boundaries of the cadastre. Indeed, agricultural parcel boundaries, which are defined as units of
land used by a single farmer and covered by a single crop, most commonly do not correspond to
the plot boundaries, but are a part of one/several plots, or even several agricultural parcels may
lie within one plot. Moreover, most agricultural parcel boundaries may vary from year to year.
Examples of parcel/plot relationships and the difference between the cadastral geometries and
the geometries resulting from delineating the actual land use parcels of a specific year are
illustrated in Fig.6.11 below. This figure also illustrates that the plot/parcel relationship can best
be depicted on the basis of recent high resolution raster data, such as aerial photographs.

However, empirical studies related to rural land disputes are very scanty. In some parts of the
Ethiopian highland, as a custom, uncultivated grass strips or soil bunds are used to define
boundaries to separate property rights. Often the width of the strip or the soil bund stretches from
less than a meter to up to two meters (see figure 6.11 below).

Usually the boundary between two or many parcels is unclear and different in shape as well as in
type in developing countries like rural Ethiopia specifically the study area (Bite Ejersa Lafo ).As
a result this may happened with the community boundary conflict .Besides ,it is difficult the
preparation of cadastral map only by one method of cadastral surveying for instance using
Remote sensing (i.e. satellite imagery).This because it is not easy to identify the boundary of

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each parcels on the ground from the satellite imagery due to the Quality and Resolution as well
as the ability of the interpreter is considered.

Figure 6.11Various parcels boundary of the study area (Photographed by the Author, 2008)

Moreover, the GPS and other surveying technologies have also their own limitation during rural
cadastral mapping that is for instance absolute coordinate errors of the parcels corner .This due to
the total GPS errors and lack of skilled manpower .

Any adjoining owners or holders some times in the study area sparks boundary disputes this
usually due to the unclear parcel boundary. Thus, the cases are often brought to customary
institutions or Social Justice of the Kebele Administration, depending on the local custom and
the magnitude of the dispute. The provisions on boundary demarcation and its legal basis in both
Federal and regional land administration and use laws are much generalized. Monumentation of
parcel corners with peg as boundary demarcation can be easily obliterated and buried in the
ground given the widespread animal-based crop cultivation and free livestock grazing practices
in most parts of the Ethiopian highlands.

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Moreover, with the vagueness of the law on the issue, causes related to boundary-related disputes
may not be settled with clear-cut procedures and approaches. On the contrary, they may
aggravate the disputes.

Hence, to settle such a dispute it is better to use the integration of different methods in the
preparation of rural cadastral mapping such as remote sensing, GPS and other surveying
mechanism in combination with GIS and related surveying soft ware’s. Accordingly, every
farmer could have a printed out certificate of his own property of land.

Generally, when a parcel splits or the ownership of a parcel changes. It is a legal process that
reflects overall trends of parcel development over time. Although this legal change of parcels
could take place pre- or post-development, it is often the case that parcel use change occurs after
a parcel is purchased or divided among the member of the family(i.e. fragmentation of the land),
especially when a agricultural activities are involved. Tenure change therefore sets up a
framework for other land-use change induced by humans. There are generally five aspects of
parcel-based change in which we are particularly interested: (1) overall trends of temporal
changes that reveal factors that affect the change during a specific period; (2) parcel physical
parameters such as number and size; (3) spatial patterns and their spatial relationships to tourism
and recreation resources; and (4) ownership of large parcels that indicate who or which agents
have been involved in the parcel based land-use change.

Likewise, some of the factors are the reason for physical parcel change in the study area as
mentioned earlier the dynamics of parcel change are mainly the fragmentation of parcels of land
and crop rotation specifically in the area.

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Chapter Seven 

 7. Conclusions and Recommendations 

7.1 Conclusions 
 

Ethiopia is like most developing countries of the world the cadastral surveying technique is still
supported by traditional methodologies. Hence, the output comes from this kind of methodology
is apparently the measurement based identification of the parcels .For instance, cadastral survey
was undertaken in the four regional state (Oromia, Amahara, SNNP & Tigray) with traditional
methods in the first ,second and third level of certification. But, the size of the plot was
determined either using ropes or relying on knowledge of the number of ‘timads’ of a plot. In
addition the plot is described by naming the neighbors on the N, E, S and W. Thus, in none of the
regions still produced a full-fledged cadastral map and not even a valuable sketch that could
distributed as a certificate to the owner of the parcels of the land.

Coordinate based cadastral map refers exclusively to the cadastre being based on boundary
coordinates. The crucial issue here is that the geographical extent of every registered parcel is
described or defined numerically by national coordinates stored in a data base and visualized on
a digital cadastral map. Thus, this kind of cadastral Surveying will enhance the cadastral map
coverage of the country and

Hence, the preparation of coordinate based cadastral map using the integration of GPS and high
resolution satellite imagery in rural areas of Ethiopia have the advantage to accelerate the
cadastral map coverage for the whole country in the upcoming decades. As a result, the
integration of these techniques conducted in the study area ‘Bite Ejersa-Lefo’, to see the
possibility and procedures of methodologies.

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Likewise, the area and corner point coordinates of the parcels are taken in order to testify the
parcels that are extracted and generated from the Quickbird and handheld of GPS. Accordingly,
out of 243 digitized parcel polygons from the image some selected parcels were taken in to
account along side with the parcels generated from the hand held GPS. Thus, the results of the
area measurements by the GPS and the image are very close for parcel areas have no statistically
significant difference between the results of the two methods. Considering the human errors in
account that the parcels extracted from both GPS and Quickbird imagery is much faster than that
of traditional methods. This in turn indicates that the potential applicability of both techniques
for rural cadastral mapping. Even though, the scope of this thesis work is confined to
demonstrate the integration of the methods in preparation coordinate based cadastral map one
should also take in to account the accuracy, cost and time for preparation of cadastral map.

Generally, the integration of other modern surveying with GIS is the prime alternative for
evolving strategies for better governance. However, the present widely used traditional method
needs to be further refined for better acceleration and accuracy in the maps.

Due to their different stages of development, different countries have different capacities for the
development of cadastral systems. In particular, human, technological and financial resources
will determine the most appropriate form of cadastral system to meet the needs of individual
countries. Thus, a simple low cost manual cadastre recording only private ownership rights may
be appropriate for one country, while a sophisticated and relatively expensive fully computerized
cadastre recording a wide range of ownership and land use rights may be appropriate for another
country.

Finally, improving land administration and the cadastral system in particular has the potential to
significantly increase investments in agriculture by all producers, improve rural livelihoods,
reduce conflicts over land, reduce land degradation, and improve resource use. Along with other
interventions, improved tenure security is vital to creating an environment in which the rural
population is able to survive and prosper and at the same time to adapt to environmental and
other shocks.
 
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7.2 Recommendations 

Preparation of low cost rural coordinated cadastral map using GPS and high resolution satellite
images integrating with GIS is apparently the a splendid idea for countries like Ethiopia which
has at least no or little ful-fledged cadastral map coverage.This is in the sense that the maps
ingeneral and cadastral maps in particularl could be an input to NSDI(National spatial data
infrastrcture ).

It is difficult to built a complete and resourceful cadastral map using traditional surveying
techniques in short period of time.Hence, it is better to use an up to date surveying technologies
,such as the integratin of GPS and satellite images with GIS, in order to enhance and accelerate
the level of cadastral map the country.

Generaly , in order to practice healthy land admnistrstion and management, and to fullfill all
issues related to the sound sustainable use of land.

List of Recommendations

• Federal institution should be responsible for land administration to support and

coordinate regional efforts in order to improve land administration system at kebele level.

• Rural cadastres should be principally maintained at’ kebele ‘levels where these would
provide for convenient access to the records, considerable costs will be incurred in the
establishment, staffing, and maintenance of offices at this level.

• Enhancing the capacity for the dissemination of information to the public about the
various land administration reform programs, their impacts, objectives, and ways that
they will impact local resource use.

• The land administration programs should be technological center regarding data

collection for land registration purpose.

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• The decision makers should aware enough about the integration of surveying
methodologies such as GPS and high resolution satellite images with GIS effectiveness in
cadastral surveying projects.

• Cadastral surveying project should mainly perform in collaboration with academic

institutes like Addis Ababa University.

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Williamson, I., Ting, L. (2001). Land administration and cadastral trend – a framework for
reengineering.Computer Environment and Urban systems, an International journal, Theme
Issue:Cadastral systems, edited by C. Lemmen & P. van Oosterome. Elsevier Science Ltd.

Zevenbergen J. and Boagearts, T. (2001), 'Cadastral Systems - Alternatives', in: ‘Computers,

Environment and Urban Systems’, Theme Issue ‘Cadastral Systems’, p. 325-337, Volume 25,
number 4-5, 2001, Elsevier Science, NewYork.

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Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 
List of Appendices
Appendix 1: Field Data GPS Points

Point Name Latitude Longitude Altitude

P 999593.021 425505.498 2465
P10 999610.028 425564.563 2468
P1 999586.068 425467.171 2458
P11 999599.694 425525.419 2463
P13 999584.723 425462.488 2466
P14 999586.483 425417.959 2464
P15 999530.994 425415.570 2467
P16 999530.218 425443.741 2463
P17 999517.647 425441.323 2468
P18 999524.753 425412.979 2468
P19 999472.581 425405.843 2467
P2 999545.649 425458.712 2466
P20 999469.643 425435.337 2463
P21 999474.764 425407.561 2468
P22 999589.785 425416.813 2468
P23 999594.490 425363.620 2468
P24 999501.715 425338.085 2465
P25 999505.047 425334.996 2467
P26 999594.034 425364.688 2468
P27 999591.347 425304.830 2468
P28 999528.916 425282.354 2470
P29 999517.469 425303.172 2469
P3 999540.227 425499.172 2467
P30 999445.240 425286.887 2459
P31 425319.744 2458
P32 999433.113 425335.783 2466
P33 999502.155 425336.979 2464

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Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 
P34 999501.818 425403.571 2460
P35 999474.077 425400.586 2460
P36 999429.210 425406.993 2460
P37 999421.477 425359.465 2456
P38 999361.958 425373.346 2458
P39 999350.560 425351.094 2454
P4 999318.852 425501.679 2455
P41 999540.778 425295.299 2458
P42 999341.977 425305.812 2457
P43 999377.247 425288.754 2460
P44 999443.356 425301.966 2464
P45 999517.926 425276.072 2463
P46 999529.437 425247.683 2460
P47 999467.334 425247.792 2464
P48 999466.342 425285.614 2465
P49 999444.289 425262.120 2462
P5 999388.672 425513.482 2464
P50 999536.410 425223.848 2461
P6 999421.412 425514.057 2460
P7 999513.815 425556.341
P8 999513.402 425572.146 2469
P9 999570.692 425567.915 2469
R01 999589.309 424453.832 2474
R02 997530.490 424516.723 2361
R03 997865.419 424815.924 2371
R09 998368.638 424354.054 2393
R11 997205.871 425192.264 2356
999429.153 2455

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Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 

Source: Field data collection Using GPS Map 76cs,(2008)

Appendix 2: Google Earth Map

(Source: Author)

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Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 
Appendix 3

(X, Y) combination Graph of coordinates

Source: (Author)

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Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 
Appendix 4

Short explanation: the Garmin handheld GPS Map76 CS used in this Research

It provides 8 megabyte of internal user memory to be used for storing downloaded point of
interest.
Major features:
Designed for navigation
Works very well with collection points
Small and lightweight.
By calibrating and correcting the data collected is also used for Surveying etc.
Accuracy:
Uncorrected data without Selective Availability: 10-20 meters
Under trees 20-50m
During best time of hunting and Fishing , and good latency Ranges from 3-10 meters
Software:
Various software is available for downloading GPS data to ArcGIS 9.2. But, in this study the
researcher was used the latest version of GPS software DNR 5.4 Garmin extension to connect
with Arc Map and Google Earth. This was freely downloaded from Department of Natural
Resource of Minnesota State.

(Source GARMIN, from www.garmin.com )

[Further details available from http://www.garmin.com/products/gps76cs/ (Accessed on
12/6/2008)]

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Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 
Appendix 5: The connection between MN DNR,GPS with ArcMAP

Source: Author

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Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 
Appendix 6: Field Photo

The Researcher during Field Data collection (Photo graphed by :Brahanu)

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Preparatioon of Coordinatte Based Rurall Cadastral Maap December 3
31, 2008 
 
Appendiix 7

The six statements

s of
o cadastre 2014

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Preparatioon of Coordinatte Based Rurall Cadastral Maap December 3
31, 2008 
 

96

 
Preparatioon of Coordinatte Based Rurall Cadastral Maap December 3
31, 2008 
 

Source: from
f the Rep
port by Cadaastre 2014(w
www.fig.net, Accessed onn12/6/2008))

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Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 
Appendix 8: Schema of the Dutch cadastral system

Source: Adopted from the Netherland cadastral Report (www.dutchcadastre.net, Accessed

on12/08/2008)

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Preparatioon of Coordinatte Based Rurall Cadastral Maap December 3
31, 2008 
 

Appendiix 9: Examp
ple of a Cad
dastral Map

Cadastral map is re-sstructured byy seamless mapping

m in one single graaphic databaase with NGIIS
(National Geographic Informatioon System), which is proovide a publlic service by
b LBS (Loccation
Based Seervices) systeem in parcell address sysstem.

Source: www.kcsc.co
w o.kr; (Accessed on12/6/22008)

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Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 
Appendix 10

Figure: The plot is prepared by the combination of DNR Garmin 5.4 with ArcGIS 9.2

(Source: Field Data)

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Preparation of Coordinate Based Rural Cadastral Map December 31, 2008 
 

Table: CEP, Mean XY, SD XY of the 50 points (source: calculated from field GPS data)

Coordinate Type Mean (X,Y) SD (X,Y)

Geo.coordinate (38.321, 9.041) (0.000869, 0.000688)

UTM (425,392.039 , 999,501.537) (95.580, 75.928)

Circular Error of Probabilities (CEP) in Meters:

50% = 113.41
90% = 186.36
95% = 192.92
98% = 196.64

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January 8, 
DECLARATION 
2009 
 
Declaration 

This  thesis  is  my  original  work  and  has  not  been  presented  for  the  Degree  in  any  other 
University,  and  that  all  sources  of  material  used  for  the  thesis  have  been  dully 
acknowledged.  

Name: Amanuel Tesfay Gebru 

Signature: ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ 

Date: December, 2008 

Place: Addis Ababa University 

This Thesis has been submitted for examination with my approval as a university advisor. 

Signature: ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐                           Signature: ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ 

  Dangnachew Legesse (Dr.)                                                      Ato Esayiyas Sahalu 

December, 2008 

Addis Ababa,Ethiopia