Digital Lodgement of Cadastral Survey Data in Australia - Centre for ...

• for integration into the DCDB.
Additional to the introduction of digital lodgement, the responsibility for survey plan examination was reduced to a 10% audit
of the mathematical and legal aspects of surveyors’ plans lodged at DOLA. Previously responsibility for plan examination was
with the government, which audited one hundred percent of all documents lodged by licensed cadastral surveyors.
The new digital lodgement processes employed in WA have enabled faster updating of the State Cadastral Data Base (SCDB)
and streamlined the plan registration process. DOLA currently receives 85% of survey plan lodgements with CSD files and the
standard of these files is improving .
New Zealand
In New Zealand, a major reform program is taking place within Land Information New Zealand (LINZ), the primary land
information agency within that country. The Land Titles and Survey Automation Program was commissioned to run between
1998 and 2002, and its vision is of a fully digital information system environment, closely integrated with external users of land
information (Land Information New Zealand, 1997).
A fundamental principle of this concept is the merging of survey and title transactions into a single digital land transaction,
both of which were carried out separately in the past. For example, in order to deposit a plan, there were two processes
involved, these being the survey checks (carried out by the Chief Surveyor’s staff) and the legal checks (District Land
Registrar’s staff). One of the major initiatives of this project is to allow plans to be lodged for registration even before they have
been approved as to survey. This means that once the plan has been approved, the dealing can be registered, and titles issued
as early as possible, even on the same day that the plan was deposited (Grant et al., 1997).
Another major component of the project is the digital conversion of “physical records” to live and intelligent data that will play
an active role in the automation process. It is important to note that this digital conversion is not simply a change of format to
scanned plans, which are static. The key to the system is “intelligent data” (data containing attributes), which will be generated
by back-capturing historical records and ultimately by digital lodgement of cadastral surveys and title transactions (Grant et al.,
1997).
Two principles that will not change are the state’s guarantee of title and the integrity of the data. This will be ensured through
the use of a survey accurate coordinated cadastre, which is a fundamental building block for the survey component. It is crucial
that there be a national geodetic control framework in place to support all cadastral data. The accuracy of this geodetic
framework should be very high as any coordinates derived from it will only be as good as their source. It must be noted,
however, that these coordinates will not attain legal significance, but will merely be used to provide a summary of survey data
that will enable existing survey marks to be more easily found. The automation of survey data will become increasingly reliant
on an accurate geodetic infrastructure, enabling the efficient association and management of digital spatial cadastral data (Grant
et al., 1997).
One quite significant sub-project in the automation program is the “Electronic Parcel Capture” project which will capture the
dimensions of surveyed boundaries for entry into a numeric database to provide a survey accurate digital cadastre. Essentially,
the boundary dimensions with connections to a new, modern, geodetic control framework will be entered into the Core Record
System (CRS), which will enable LINZ to create the Survey Accurate Digital Cadastre (SDC), leading to the automation of both
surveys and the processing of survey data (Land Information New Zealand, 1998a). It has great benefits for surveyors since the
majority of new surveys will be in areas covered by the SDC and the system will have the capability to process plans arising
from these surveys within one day. The system will also allow the digital lodgement of survey data (Land Information New
Zealand, 1998a).
The Electronic Parcel Capture project is now at the stage where the automation project team is identifying the specific types of
data that will need to be interchanged between surveyors and the SDC. The interface exists at a point where the new CRS
exchanges data with a system or process which is external to the CRS. Data passing from the CRS (exports) or data arriving at
CRS (imports) need to meet agreed criteria (standards) of content and format to successfully navigate the interface (Land
Information New Zealand, 1998b).
Another significant reform being implemented by LINZ is the accreditation of cadastral surveyors. This is being done to
achieve a more appropriate and effective process for the verification and approval of cadastral surveys. The new accreditation
system will place more reliance on accredited surveys to maintain the required standard of work when lodging plans, and less
emphasis on detailed checks by LINZ.