Cadastre
A cadastre or cadaster (/kəˈdæstər/ kə-DAS-tər) is a comprehensive recording of the metes-and-bounds of a country's real estate or real property. Often it is represented graphically in a cadastral map, though historical written accounts, such as the Domesday Book in England in 1086, were early examples of cadastre.
In most countries, legal systems have developed around original administrative systems and use the cadastre to define the dimensions and location of land parcels described in legal documentation. A land parcel or cadastral parcel is defined as "a continuous area, or more appropriately volume, that is identified by a unique set of homogeneous property rights".
Cadastral surveys document the boundaries of land ownership, by the production of documents, diagrams, sketches, plans (plats in the US), charts, and maps. They were originally used to ensure reliable facts for land valuation and taxation. Cadastral survey information is often a base element in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) or Land Information Systems (LIS) used to assess and manage land and built infrastructure. Such systems are also employed on a variety of other tasks, for example, to track long-term changes over time for geological or ecological studies, where land tenure is a significant part of the scenario.
The cadastre is a fundamental source of data in disputes and lawsuits between landowners. Land registration and cadastre are both types of land recording and complement each other. Under his code, Napoleon established a comprehensive cadastral system for France that is regarded as the forerunner of most modern versions.
By allowing for the clear assignment of rights to property, and demarcating and delimiting parcels of land, cadasters have been credited with strengthening the financial independence of land owners, facilitating economic risk taking and in turn growth in output and employment, and improving state fiscal capacity (through, for example, improved tax collection and more properly valued real estate markets).
