Investigating Land Administration Practices in Ethiopia in light of developing Effective Land Information System

The case of Wukro, Tigray Ethiopia

Authors: Mesele Atsbeha

Amina Abdelkadir (presenter)

23 – 24 September, 2016 | UNCC, Africa Hall, Addis Ababa Ethiopia

Contents

1. Introduction

2. Problem statement

3. Objectives

4. Methodology

5. Results

6. Discussion

7. Conclusion & Recommendation

Introduction

Poorly organized information challenges decision making

Main reasons for poor information handling and management:

lack of awareness

Expertise

Technology

Land information system (LIS) when organized and

appropriately managed has significant contribution to planning,

land administration, fair distribution of resources etc.

Introduction….

LIS is a tool for legal, administrative and economic decision making and an

aid for planning and development

Contains databases that are spatially referenced

Procedures and techniques for the systematic collection, updating,

processing and distribution of Land information

For sharing of data and improving data accessibility for stakeholders

Important for public programs such as planning, development,

maintenance, environmental protection and resource management,

emergency services, basis for land markets etc.

Problem statement

Properly designed and developed land information system is,

crucial in effective land administration. Effective land

administration system requires beyond parcel information

repository and/or a simple boundary map, which currently is

conceived as a LIS in many urban areas of Ethiopia including

the study area.

Objectives

To investigate contemporary land administration systems and

land information handling mechanism, as well as to identify

existing Land Information management gaps and

recommend implementation approaches specific to the study

area that can be expanded to the country context.

Study area description

Wukro town is located on 130 47’ 26” N

latitude and 390 36’ 10” E longitude

in the Tigray regional state in Ethiopia

Research Design

Methodology

Data Collection

a. Literature Review

Understood the situation of LIS development, land administration and its contribution to sustainable

development in the study site

b. On Site Observation

Helped better understand the ongoing practices of land administration, LIS development and its results in

contributing to the planning, and enhancing service delivery in the town.

c. Experts Discussion

The discussion focused on how the cadastral system was planned to be developed, its effectiveness

evaluation methods, surveying standards, and its projected use in the town.

Analysis

Desk review

Through the literature, and policy documents,

To understand the contemporary situation of land administration,

Usage of modern tools of GIScience,

Cadastral development strategies and their effectiveness.

Qualitative comparative analysis

Analyzed the LAS at the study area level and compared its status with the national

level

Compared it against the initiative and practices accepted at the international level

Helped to identify the gaps.

Draw conclusions and recommendation on what approach need to be followed in

order to develop integrated cadastral/LIS in the Ethiopia context.

Results discussion

Focus of analysis was on the surveying issues, digital integration of the

cadastral datasets, legal protection issues, cadastral standards issues,

usability of modern GIS tools, and cadaster update issues

The study revealed that almost majority of the town’s parcels have been

surveyed using total station by the town municipality's capacity

A portion of the printed cadastral map of Wukro town is shown in the

following figure

Portion of Printed cadastral Map of Wukro town;Source: Wukro Town Municipality, 2012

Results discussion….

Surveying:

The surveying technology itself is not supported by surveying standards

because there are no national standards that dictate the surveying practices

Lack of finance and experts as well as clear institutional set does not exist to

develop the data and further enhance its management, use and update

Very limited data accessibility only for office experts

Digital integration of parcels to attribute information

The definition, use and development process of LIS is either misunderstood

or incorrectly implemented in the study area

This is also the case for many towns as per the various group discussions

The collected data is providing very minimal use to the public

Legal protection issues

The existing cadastre in the town, like that of the many cadastres in severaltowns of the country, does not have any legal status nor be guaranteed bythe legal authorities

Standard issues

Standards such as quality standards e.g. completeness of information are notconsidered at all

In the study area's cadastral development, these standards seem to ignored.

Exists no any practice of quality assessment and assurance such aspositional accuracy of measurements are barely known and varies withdevices and stuff.

Completeness: the attribute information is minimally coupled with thegeometric parcels. Thus, the LIS is incomplete in terms of handling thecadastral dataset (both the spatial and non-spatial information) in anintegrated manner

Storage, the town’s digital archiving system is so poor that it is hard toaccess the data, mainly because of the storage problems.

Results discussion….

Use of GIS tools and techniques

It is obvious that GIS tools are very instrumental for cadastral data process and

management. However, though the municipality has GIS team, the actual use of GIS is

almost ignored. Only total station for surveying and AutoCad for boundary definition is

used

LIS update practices

No update or update strategy exists for several years

Transactions such as mutation and consolidation of parcels as well as redevelopment of

areas and infrastructure expansion of neighborhood result in change in dimension of

parcels. Moreover, the growing construction in the town requires properties to be updated

In general, guidelines for updating procedures in their detailed form to implement the

updating are not in place

Results discussion….

Conclusion and Recommendation

The final goal of this research is to identify existing gaps in the land administration process in

Wukro town and to draw concluding recommendation

Cadastral quality assessment, data completeness and validation procedures need to be defined; and

these components should be part of the workflow of the cadastre development process

Updating strategies and plans need to be defined

Wukro town cadastre does not have any clear strategic plan for update. Therefore, whenever, any

cadastre is planned to be established, updating procedures need to clearly defined in the workflow

and should be supported by a meaningful institutional set up, finance and expertise.

All cadastral system development processes need to consider related government policies. Therefore,

any cadastral/Land Information system development need to refer and be align to the national land

administration framework in its entire processes.