Restauration of Property Boundaries in Sweden's Largest Forest Fire Area
Gunnar Ersbo & Kristin Land
Modern forestry requires accurate and clear property boundaries in order to enable felling all around the year. Between 31 July and 11 August 2014, Sweden experienced the largest forest fire of recent times. Approximately 13,000 hectares of forest land were affected, leaving some 130 property owners with their trees and various facilities in ashes. The forest fire area stretches into four municipalities? administrative districts. For these municipalities, the cadastral services are managed by the State through Lantm?teriet, the Swedish mapping, cadastral and land registration authority. In December 2014, the Swedish Parliament decided to provide SEK 18 million (about USD 2 million) to Lantm?teriet, to subsidise the costs for the property owners concerned who need their boundaries restored on the ground through cadastral procedure. Some land consolidation and handling of joint facility roads will also be required. For Lantm?teriet, carrying out field work in such a severely burned forest area implies new challenges, in particular with regard to risk management and the fact that many boundary indications common for forest areas (e.g. wooden fences and boundary clearings) have been consumed by fire. In addition, almost all of the damaged trees outside the new reserve area have now been felled, which makes it even more difficult to see the previous types of land use (e.g. clumps and different tree types). Hence, the cadastral work needs thorough planning and preparation in order to be handled in a smooth and systematic way. This paper presents the practical considerations, economic aspects, planned actions, and cadastral issues (legal and technical) that Lantm?teriet are facing, both internally and in collaboration with other authorities and stakeholder organisations involved. Ways of preparing the cadastral surveyors for communicating with people in crisis or post-traumatic stress are also touched upon. To give a broader picture of the role of Lantm?teriet, especially concerning collection and dissemination of geodata during and after the fire, the paper also describes actions taken with regard to aerial photography, laser scanning, infrared photography of hot spots, and provision of maps for all parties involved.
Event: FIG Working Week 2016 : Recovery from Disaster
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