Download Next Generation Land and Urban Systems are 3D The

Next Generation Land and Urban Systems are 3D
The paper discusses today’s land administration and management investments and questions whether
the investments mirror correctly urban land systems of 2026 and the era they mean to serve. As a sample,
the World Bank’s technical land administration support often consists of investments to land and cadastral
records, and in their most advanced scope focuses on automation and digital solutions; sharing and
exchanging geospatial data; provision of electronic services; and integrating land and geospatial records
to the eGovernment infrastructure of the nation. New applied services (such as One Map, Mass Valuation
Systems, and State Land Management) are being introduced, and in parallel endless number of private
sector applications and Start Ups make use of Open Data policies. However, conceptually, the manual era
and 2D logics still dominate, which scope this paper suggests to be outdated. Private sector professionals
including Architects, Geospatial providers and Construction companies operate already 3D environments,
cities globally invest in 3D models, and 3D processes are starting to emerge. The paper concludes that
today’s land and urban system investments should support 3D infrastructure and services as the rule, and
that the 3D land and urban systems will become the norm in cities by 2026.
Key words: Land administration, Urban systems, 3D
The paper starts by taking stock on current investments and best practices of land administration and
geospatial systems. In particular in transitional and middle-income countries, the World Bank-supported
land projects have contributed to (a) building a secure base and services for using land and property as
collateral, and (b) providing market actors with reliable property market information from increasingly
automated land and property records. These, digital and accessible systems have increased the
transparency of land and natural resources transactions, and allowed new means of social monitoring and
hindering corruption not least by making records and geospatial data available online. In parallel, private
sector provides outsourced production and maintenance services, adds value to public datasets and
tailors location based services to public and private sector clients.
Taking next steps, countries and cities invest in integration of land and geospatial records and providing
automated access and services through the internet within a broader eGovernance structure. Key public
sector services now include Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) services such as One Map, which assemble,
link and exchange geospatial data to produce more informed and coherent public services through joint
portals and governance, State Land Inventory and Management applications, and Mass Property
Valuation systems, and others all of which add value to the public records and geospatial infrastructure.
In parallel, Open Data policies spread and open new opportunities for the private sector to generate
businesses, jobs and growth with geospatial data. Having said that the publicly produced geospatial data
is still far too often held back to benefit inefficient monopolies, or to serve restrictions of defense or
privacy origin, which have long been marginalized by the publicly accessible private sector or not-forprofit produced data and services such as the Google Map or Open Street Map.
In 2026, countries and in particular cities will have started to manage their infrastructure and environment
through constantly updating 3D urban information models, instead of 2D records, maps, and plans. 3D
processes will have become the norm in land administration, urban planning, development and
maintenance of built infrastructure. This changes completely how we think and approach the property
rights registration, planning, land delivery and permitting. It requires fundamental re-thinking and
streamlining of main urban processes. Open 3D data and public-private sector partnership will become
the key and make a major contribution to new businesses, growth and jobs by providing an inspiring data
platform for business innovations and out-of-box services and products, such as simulations (solar energy,
fire, floods and rescue; city lighting, noise models …), self-driving traffic, gaming etc.. The benefits of 3D
urban information models and processes can be summarized to a) streamline key urban processes, b)
enhance communication between public servants, private sector and citizens, and finally c) provide an
open platform for new service and business innovations.
Today, most if not all serious buildings are designed with modern 3D software and then flattened to 2D
presentation for meeting the permitting norms, which is silly. Simply, by taking advantage of this existing
3D data in urban planning, building permitting and all the way to infrastructure asset management, cities
can save a lot of duplicated work and operate much improved systems. Next generation building permit
application will not present the building on a pile of paper, it will be a 3D model. Since all new buildings,
infrastructural assets and new neighborhoods are planned in 3D, it will be easy for cities to specify, require
and apply standard 3D models to all steps of urban development.
This vision is already strong in many countries and regions. For example, the Digital Agenda for Europe
(European Commission, 2010) says: ”The concepts of BIM (building information model) should be extended
to regional and urban planning. It could then serve as a shared knowledge resource for an area, forming a
reliable basis for life-cycle analysis, user-driven business process development and value-creating decisionmaking.” The transition to 3D is inevitable and has started, but the full change will happen gradually. The
massive rate of urbanization means giant urban development projects all over the world, and they provide
are ideal platforms to test and deploy the next generation 3D processes.
The paper ends with a vision of land administration, geospatial and urban systems in 2026, which receive,
produce and disseminate 3D information and services, and operate 3D processes. The paper suggests that
the World Bank supported, and other, investments to land and urban systems, which are planned today
and will serve the 2030’ies, will need to prepare and adopt 3D systems and processes as the aim
nationwide in the middle-income and high-income countries, and perhaps more radically, also in cities in
developing countries. Visioning anything else than 3D urban systems will prove historical much sooner
than we dare to think today.