Capturing Legal and Physical Boundary Differences in 3D Space : a Case Study of Trinidad and Tobago
Charisse Griffith-Charles, Michael Sutherland & Dexter Davis
Technology has simplified the construction of a 3D cadastre by allowing rapid, remote capture of the data required for the graphic components of the system. Research into using 3D information generated from laser scanning, LiDAr and satellite imagery, and aerial photography for Building Information Management (BIM) has advanced considerably over the last few years. These methods work by capturing man-made physical features such as walls or fences that coincide with legal boundaries or by capturing natural physical phenomena such as high water marks or river banks that are directly considered to be legal boundaries. Although the acquisition of some of this technology is very costly, the technology speeds up the process significantly beyond the time traditional labour intensive methods would require. However, in many jurisdictions there are several instances where the manmade physical boundaries do not coincide with the legal boundary or where the legal or accepted boundary has no physical expression in natural phenomena. This provides difficulties for the construction of 3D cadastres on land as well as in the marine environment. In these instances there must be alternatives to determining the location of the legal boundary. Where these intangible or obscured boundaries must be directly surveyed, the cost and labour required to construct the cadastre can render its development out of reach especially since the acquisition of the attribute data such as the nature of the interests and the identification of the interest holders also cannot be done remotely. This paper investigates the number of instances where the physical structures do not define the legal boundary and therefore the number of instances where additional surveying on the ground may be required to connect the legal boundary location to the physical expression of the boundary. The case study is Trinidad and Tobago. A sample area was used to determine what the various boundary types are and what methods can be used to acquire these data and construct the 3D cadastre in the most effective and efficient way possible.
Event: 5th International FIG Workshop on 3D Cadastres
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