How the ISO 19152 Land Administration Domain Model performs in the comparison of cadastral systems: A case study of condominium/co-ownership in Quebec (Canada) and Alsace Moselle (France)

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Abstract

This paper proposes an original approach for comparing cadastral management systems, more specifically, the conceptual modeling used to spatially represent vertical divided co-ownership (usually equivalent to the condominium). The comparison is based on the ISO 19152 Land Administration Domain Model (LADM) specification, an international standard recently adopted by ISO. The LADM comparison is applied between Quebec (Canada) and Alsace Moselle (France) condominium units. Specific attention is paid to the third geometric dimension of the spatial representation used in each jurisdiction. The study includes the creation of LADM layouts for condominium units in Quebec and Alsace Moselle and a comparative analysis. The paper discusses the advantages and limitations of using LADM layouts to undertake such comparisons and gives advices to produce similar analysis for others cadastral systems.

LADM schematization certainly made the comparison between Quebec and French condominium units easier, more concise and clearer. The formal description of common set of concepts and terms such as proposed by LADM allows us to quantify the similarities and differences, and potentially move towards the “automatic” creation of a matching file between both systems. One of the main advantages is the graphical views resulting from the schematization process that permit visual comparison where both systems can now be compared side by side, class by class, attribute by attribute. The use of the LADM specification is, however, not evident and requires quite a few skills in data modeling. The LADM documentation is somewhat technical and lacking in official definition. It required time to comprehend the documentation, and some LADM classes, attributes or relationships are ambiguous and still difficult to match with both systems.

Highlights

► ISO 19152 Land Administration Domain Model (LADM) applications. ► A novel approach for comparing cadastral management systems based on LADM. ► LADM layouts of vertical divided co-ownership (condominium). ► A compare analysis of Quebec (Canada) and Alsace-Moselle (France) condominium.

Introduction

The ISO 19152 Land Administration Domain Model (LADM) specification, recently adopted by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), proposes a reference model to “formalize” (i.e., rendering concepts in a graphic language) common aspects of land administration systems and, in particular, their central cadastral components (ISO/DIS 19152 LADM, 2011). LADM 19152 recommends a conceptual model that organizes the concepts and the relationships related to rights, responsibilities and restrictions (RRR), governing matters such as the ownership of real property (land or water) and the geometrical components associated with its spatial representation. One of the stated goals of LADM is “to enable involved parties, both within one country and between different countries, to communicate, based on the shared vocabulary (i.e., an ontology) implied by the model.” Based on this, the LADM could be used to document common aspects of land administration systems all over the world and contribute to sharing experiences and promoting good spatial data modeling practices.

Information sharing and comparative analysis are appropriate approaches for improving a land administration system. For instance, the International Federation of Surveyor’s Cadastral 2014 proposal was developed on the basis of a questionnaire which provided insight into current cadastral systems around the world (Kaufmann & Steudler, 1998). The same approach was used by van Oosterom, Stoter, Ploeger, Thompson, and Karki (2011) in order to establish a framework for 3D cadastres. A number of comparative analyses have also been conducted on 3D cadastres (Döner et al., 2010, Paulsson, 2007, Stoter and van Oosterom, 2006, Stoter et al., 2004). Nevertheless, none of them used graphical formalism or a formal semantic reference model to assess and enumerate the similarities and differences between systems. Compared to pure text, graphical formalisms such as concept maps (Sowa, 1984), graphs (Gross & Yellen, 2004) and Unified Modeling Language (OMG-UML, 2011) are simple and intuitive visual forms of knowledge representation. They support system design, decision-making, modeling and comparative analysis (da Silva and de Paula, 2002, Nosek and Roth, 1990, Urban and Dietrich, 2003). In using graphical representation such as proposed by LADM with the Unified Modeling Language, we can more easily quantify and indicate specific classes, attributes and relationships that are either missing or are inconsistent between systems. In addition, the use of a common vocabulary and formal description may facilitate the future establishment of a data exchange framework, since assembling a matching classification schema would become obvious.

In this paper, the LADM specification (specifically, its graphical illustration features and formal description of cadastral systems), is used as a new tool to conduct comparative analyses. The study compares the Quebec (Canada) and Alsace Moselle (France) cadastral systems, in particular, the conceptual modeling that is used to spatially represent condominium ownership of superimposed units, which is termed “vertical divided co-ownership” in Quebec law (Civil Code of Québec, 2012). Conceptual modeling refers to the organization of concepts and their relationships which are used to store and manage information contained in the cadastral plan and the associated co-ownership plans. The French and Quebec jurisdictions were selected because the authors are already in contact with authorities there and have access to documentation. Since the production of co-ownership plans is mandatory in Quebec and Alsace Moselle, content is easier to model. The comparison is based on the hypothesis that both jurisdictions want a better cadastral management system, one that will integrate the third geometric dimension and enable data-sharing and communication between organizations and their information technology systems. The advantage of using 3D cadastre is now largely recognized and several references discuss the challenges that must be addressed (Döner et al., 2010, Pouliot et al., 2010, Stoter, 2004). The International Federation of Surveyors (FIG) has created a 3D Cadastre working group (FIG/3D cadastres, 2012) that allows information and documentation sharing among experts and practitioners.

Comparing Quebec and French jurisdictions is appropriate since they share a similar societal relationship regarding rights to land. Both cadastral systems are centralized, parcel based, built on a Civil Code foundation (a Napoleonic Cadastre) and are used for property tax assessment. To limit the analysis and to allow for the development of recommendations regarding possible 3D improvements of the cadastral systems, the proposed analysis focuses on the concepts/rules used to illustrate the 3D geometric limits of condominiums (referred to as vertical divided co-ownerships). The condominium usually indicates a property including land and one or several buildings whose ownership is divided among owned by different individuals. Condominiums are common real estate arrangements in both jurisdictions, the use of 3D is highly beneficial because it provides optimal legal and spatial representation. Cadastral and co-ownership plans exist and are accessible by all users in both jurisdictions. This makes condominiums the most straightforward type of property to investigate for this first experiment based on the new formalization. As indicated, the innovative part of our approach lies in using the new ISO 19152 LADM specification, which provides a common set of concepts and terms and supports the use of 3D representations of objects. To our knowledge, this is the first attempt in either jurisdiction to progress toward LADM schematization of the cadastral system. This research also offers the opportunity to better appreciate and experiment with application of the ISO 19152 LADM. We were not involved in the production, nor the validation of the LADM specification. We used the LADM specification and documentation as a potential model for spatial data managers who would like to use this standard to improve their own systems.

The paper is structured as follows. Section 2 briefly presents the LADM specifications. Section 3 explains the two contexts in which the study took place and the conceptual modeling of vertical divided co-ownership (condominium). Section 4 presents the LADM modeling of vertical divided co-ownership of Quebec and Alsace Moselle, and our comparative analysis. Section 5 discusses the advantages and limitations of such an approach. The concluding section proposes a comparative framework based on our experiment.

Section snippets

LADM specification

LADM 19152 proposes a conceptual schema that organizes the concepts and the relationships related to RRR and the geometrical components associated with spatial representation of RRR. Fig. 1 shows a global overview of the LADM specification. For purposes of clarity, no attributes are indicated, only the classes and relationships are showed. The documentation used to understand the LADM specification was a draft version of the Land Administration Domain Model (ISO/DIS 19152 LADM, 2011). The LADM

Case study: spatial representation of condominiums

In order to test the usefulness of LADM graphics to support cadastre comparison, two case studies were selected. Analysis was limited to a comparison of the conceptual modeling of condominiums in both cadastral systems. As specified by the Civil Code of Québec (C.C.Q.), condominium (termed co-ownership) is a mode of ownership in which the same property is jointly owned by several persons. Co-ownership is termed “undivided” when the right of ownership is not accompanied by a physical division of

LADM comparative analysis

The LADM of the two jurisdictions was produced to begin a comparison. After some iterations and discussion, we were able to match almost all the pertinent co-ownership elements found in each jurisdictions with LADM concepts. Fig. 8, Fig. 9 show the LADM layouts of Quebec and Alsace Moselle condominium units where classes in gray are those explicitly added or modified from the original LADM model to fully represent the case study.

For instance, a distinction between private and common parts is

Discussion

This study has argued that the ISO 19152 LADM specification is a valuable tool for producing a better comparison between cadastral systems, leading to the possibility of improving the systems. LADM layouts for Quebec and Alsace Moselle were produced and a comparative analysis proposed. Prior to discussing the strengths and weaknesses of LADM, it is must be acknowledged that the LADM standard is still in a validation process and was not specially designed to represent the vertical cadastre.

Conclusion

In this paper, we proposed the use of LADM schematization in order to compare cadastral systems. The LADM comparison was tested between Quebec (Canada) and Alsace Moselle (France) condominium units, with a specific attention to the 3rd geometric dimension. As far as we know, this is the first experiment for Quebec and Alsace Moselle jurisdictions to progress toward LADM schematization of cadastral systems and using the LADM layouts to compare them. The paper discussed the advantages and

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Foncier Québec and the Cabinet Graff-Kiehl for allowing us to use cadastral data, Dr. Marc Gervais, land-surveyor; Alborz Zamyadi and the reviewers for their valuable comments regarding the paper and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada for having granted this research project.

References (21)

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