An Introduction to 3D Cadastre

Over the last half century the world has seen rapid urbanization, which is anticipated to increase over the foreseeable future. According to the United Nations Population Division, only 30 percent of the world’s population lived in urban areas in 1950. As of 2018, that has increased to 55 percent with urbanization rates rising faster in some less developed regions.25 With the rise of urbanization, more people are living in multi-story buildings with shared services and facilities.

Cadastral mapping in Pakistan is often sketched on paper or cloth and generally falls below cartographic standards, lacking details on coordinate systems, datum and directional information of parcel lines. Survey numbers for parcel identification also lack digital interoperability. Parcel measurements and ownership information are manually recorded in multiple separate registers. The objective of this study is to leverage geospatial technology for automation, auditing and validation of present manual cadastral mapping in Pakistan.