Africa Surveyors September- October Digital issue 2021

CADASTRAL SURVEY
What are
Land Ownership
B o u n d a r i e s ?
“Traditional cadastral surveys are executed with
traditional survey equipment like theodolites and
tapes or with total stations whilst the modern
cadastral surveys are executed with modern
equipment like GPS,GNSS,drones etc,” says Fred
Aboagye-Larbi.
“The rapid rate at which advances in technology
are occurring have outpaced the ability of many
individuals and organizations to react quickly and
appropriately to change. It will take years to fully
“
understand the impact of emerging technology on
the land surveying profession. The differences are
basically advancements in; Methods and techniques,
Equipment, Data collection and presentation,
Data storage and retrieval system. The field of
land surveying and mapping have benefited from
technology innovations in personal computers, digital
instruments, global navigational satellite positioning
system (GNSS), geographic information system to
name just a few. New tools for rapid acquisition of
measured data are continually being developed and
refined, and the Internet has provided the means to
share such data with people worldwide,” elaborates
Geoinfotech.
before construction, and this knowledge could help
with the approval procedure.
According to Geoinfotech, a parcel of land remain
unmarketable so long as encumbrances and defects
in the record system are evident, even though the
person having an interest in such land may be totally
ignorant of the existence of such right. The company
further points out other marketability factors which
may include; access to road network and other social
amenities, Proximity to development, Land use
category (urban or rural settlement, industrial land
use, residential land use, administrative land use) etc.,
personality of the land marketer of or seller in terms
of reliability, trustworthiness and presentation.
There are two different kinds of cadastral surveys:
traditional and modern. The traditional survey is still
used by a number of voluntary organizations and
government bodies. One major advantage of these
traditional cadastral surveys is that they enable the
organization or government body to establish the
boundaries of areas of land whether the boundaries
change because of new developments, or boundaries
are shifted due to natural geological phenomena.
Another important advantage is that these surveys
are usually not particularly costly and tend to
produce very accurate results. Modern cadastral
surveys are less accurate and produce more random
results; however they are much more expensive than
traditional ones.
“New technology has not changed the boundary
surveyors’ core responsibility, which is to locate, mark,
and document the boundary in a legally defensible
matter, for their clients, all future owners of real
property, and interests in real property adjoining
the boundary. Nonetheless, the global positioning
system and computers have changed the way land
surveyors measure, analyze, and calculate data. Land
owners and land managers have turned to geographic
information systems to make complex ecological and
economic decisions. The increased need for better
tools to manage complex issues in land matters has
spawned to the realization and adoption of modern
cadastral surveying over the traditional methods of
rigorous, time consuming and outdated operations,”
enhances Geoinfotech.
There are some problems associated with nonremovable
types of boundary surveys. Because
of removable walls do not shift; it is difficult to
determine where a boundary should be moved when
new buildings are built on the boundary. In some
cases an accurate survey may still be required, but
in these cases it is usually possible to simply dig
a trench around the boundary to define the exact
position of the boundary. In addition to this other
problems include access to the land and the cost
involved in raising the land to the required level for
the surveyor.
There are also problems associated with the
traditional cadastral surveys. Landowners often find
that changes to their land ownership boundaries can
mean they will need to get a new survey in order
to mark the new boundary. This can result in extra
costs and a lengthy process; therefore it is necessary
to ensure that the boundary surveyor you choose
has sufficient experience and expertise in relation
to your land ownership boundaries and can produce
the results you require quickly and efficiently. If your
boundary surveyor cannot produce the correct results
then there is a good chance you will need a new one.
www.africasurveyorsonline.com
Semptember-October issue l 2021 17