The 3rd Cadastral Congress in Warsaw, Poland

The theme of the third International Cadastral Congress, organised in Warsaw, Poland, in October 2011, was ‘Cadastre in sustainable spatial management'. The Congress was organised by the Association of Polish Surveyors in close cooperation with the Head Office of Geodesy in Poland. Some 150 participants from 19 different countries attended.

The Congress was held under the auspices of the President of Poland, Mr. Bronis³aw Komorowski. The participants were welcomed by Stanis³aw Cegielski, president of the Polish Association of Surveyors, Jolanta Orli ska, surveyor general of Poland, and Teo CheeHai, president of FIG. Prof. Stig Enemark, honorary president of FIG, held a keynote speech.

Issues discussed were the future of Cadastre (Cadastre 2014plus), cadastral reforms on a local and global scale, integration of the technical and legal part of cadastre, cadastre in the field of disaster management and cadastre in the European Union.

The ambitions of the Polish Cadastre are to build an innovative and fully transparent land administration, to support in e-government, to support in participatory approaches (spatial planning), to integrate land administration with other public registers and to support cross-border services (the EU Digital Agenda) and INSPIRE. Presenters at the Congress emphasised that the majority of data included in the cadastre, especially the spatial data, can serve as a primary reference for the other public registers. Future cadastre should register in real time all rights, limitations and duties. An institutional foundation is needed.

The Congress recommended:

- to recognise cadastral systems as part of a wider state information infrastructure, including the legal framework, and with relationships to various users, especially with the financial and banking sectors,

- to institutionalise cadastral systems in a coordinated manner in order to obtain the maximum benefit from the cadastre, and

- to consider that a cadastral system supports long-term financial investments.

Progressive, incremental cadastral development is realistic, taking into account available resources for its implementation. The definition and availability of appropriate data and applications standards is essential.