5th Trans Tasman Survey Conference - Cairns 2006

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5th Trans Tasman Survey Conference - Cairns
2006

• SURVEY ACCURATE CADASTRAL PARCEL NETWORKS AS THE
  BASE LAYER FOR ENHANCED GIS
• Council Service Authority Case Studies and the
  role of the Surveyor
• Ian Harper - Geodata Information Systems Pty Ltd,
  Australia
• Craig Sandy ESRI Australia

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5th Trans Tasman Surveying Conference Cairns
2006

• 1. BACKGROUND TO GIS CADASTRAL DEVELOPMENT
• CASE STUDIES -
• The creation of Survey Accurate Cadastral
  networks
• Northern Territory - A Coordinated Cadastre as a
  prelude to Legal parcel Coordinates.
• Hunter Water Corporation - A major water
  utility with a long history of developing and
  working with an accurate cadastral fabric.
• Gosford City Council A rural LGA becoming part
  of the Sydney urban sprawl.
• Gloucester Shire Council A small LGA in rugged
  terrain with big errors in its DCDB.
• 3. FUTURE DIRECTIONS FOR THE SURVEY PROFESSION
  AND GIS CADASTRAL MANAGEMENT

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GIS CADASTRE BACKGROUND

• 10 years ago GIS systems were spatially
  pictorial.
• Screen graphics were used to add data and was
  spatially referenced to the existing database
  information.
•  

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CURRENT STATUS

• The spatial management of cadastral databases has
  not kept pace with the improvement in spatial
  quality provided by GPS, photography and other
  modern data collection technologies.
•  

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THE ESRI GEODATA ALLIANCE

• The process of integrating the GEODATA
  GeoCadastre software into the ESRI suite of GIS
  software is an initiative to bring survey
  accuracy to GIS cadastral modelling.

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THE ESRI GEODATA ALLIANCE

• ESRI 
• GEODATA INFORMATION SYSTEMS P/L
•  A Company formed in 2000 to promote the Survey
  (GeoSurvey) and Cadastral Adjustment
  (GeoCadastre) software developed over the last 20
  yrs by Michael Elfick Michael Fletcher for a
  user group of Survey Companies in Australia.  

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MOVING FORWARD

• The new workflows in the ESRI Survey Analyst -
  Cadastral Editor (to be released worldwide in
  2007) adopts survey methodology from the
  GeoCadastre process.
• This provides the most accurate model of the
  legal cadastre for use in GIS systems

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THE ESRI GEODATA ALLIANCE

• The result for ESRI was a completely new data
  model for parcels built within a GIS database.
• Instead of a parcel shape file as the basic
  unit, a seamless cadastral fabric is created
  which maintains the original survey plan
  measurements as defining the parcel boundaries.

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CASE STUDY No.1. - NORTHERN TERRITORY A
coordinate based cadastre created from existing
survey plan measurements is nearing completion.

• Locality sketch
• Show width ht

1,500 Miles
550 Miles
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NORTHERN TERRITORY

• Why a Coordinated Cadastre?
• Coordinate based GPS surveys have replaced
  conventional measurement survey techniques.
• A single surveyor with GPS has replaced a field
  party of 8.

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NORTHERN TERRITORY The goal of a Coordinated
Cadastre

•  

Due to their size, some Pastoral Leases are all
ready defined by Latitude and Longitude. ie
defined spatially by geodetic reference frame.
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NORTHERN TERRITORYCoordinated Cadastre The
Statutory Process

• The NT has enacted legislation to legalise the
  derived coordinates.
• As areas reach a required standard of accuracy
  they are proclaimed
• The coordinates then become the primary evidence
  as to the location of parcel corners.

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NORTHERN TERRITORYLICENSED SURVEYORS ACT 2004

• PART VI PRACTICE OF LAND BOUNDARY SURVEYING
• 46A. Coordinated survey areas
• (1) The Surveyor-General may declare an area of
  land in the Territory
• to be a coordinated survey area.
• (2) A declaration under subsection (1) is to be
  notified in the Gazette
• and takes effect on the date specified in the
  notice.
• (3) A survey within a coordinated survey area is
  to be in accordance
• with an approved methodology to delimit land
  boundaries by geodetic
• coordinates or with another approved system of
  delimitation.

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NORTHERN TERRITORYCurrent Status

• Local surveyors were involved in the process and
  supported the Department of Planning and
  Infrastructure.

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• The Northern Territory has moved from an 18th
  Century cadastral system to a New Millennium
  survey system.

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CASE STUDY No.2HUNTER WATER CORPORATION

• Hunter Water Corporation (HWC) is a water and
  wastewater Utility on the Central Coast of NSW
  covering 5 local government areas.
• HWC has a long history of the creation and
  management of survey accurate cadastral networks.

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HUNTER WATER CORPORATION LOCATION PLAN
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Hunter Water Corporation

• Area of operations 5000 Sq kms
• Population serviced 496,000
• Properties serviced 209,000.
• Pipe network details
• Water-mains - 4,300 kms
• Sewer-main - 4,400 kms

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HUNTER WATER AUSTRALIA - Historical 1970s

• The pipe networks and cadastral marks were
  located by survey and connected to the NSW
  Trigonometric network.
• Coordinates for parcels and assets were generated
  using hand calculators and base sheets were hand
  drafted from those coordinates.

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HUNTER WATER AUSTRALIA - Plat Coordinated
Manually
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HUNTER WATER AUSTRALIA - Asset Base Plan
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HUNTER WATER AUSTRALIA - Historical 1980s

• Computers and CAD superseded calculators and hand
  drafting.
• The same techniques used bearings and distances
  shown on survey plats were keyed into a
  coordinate geometry software package.
• This approach had a major shortcoming - the
  survey information and the thought processes
  which led to particular choices for adjusting
  misfits between parcels, was lost..

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HUNTER WATER AUSTRALIA - Historical 1990s

• The digitised Digital Cadastral Database (DCDB)
  was created by the NSW Lands Dept.
• Whilst this was a significant achievement, for
  HWA it revealed unacceptable spatial accuracy
  between the surveyed and digitised parcel
  boundaries.

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HUNTER WATER AUSTRALIA - Historical 1990s

• HWA decided to create their own coordinated
  cadastre.
• Accuracy required
• The width of a backhoe bucket 0.5 m

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HUNTER WATER AUSTRALIA - Historical - 1994

• Hunter Water adopted the GeoCadastre process
  (Survey Analyst Cadastral Editor) for
  cadastral database mapping.
• Important selection criteria were
• Survey plan information entered into the
  adjustment was weighted according to accuracy
• When the original field survey locating the pipe
  network was only related to the cadastre, those
  survey measurements were retained in the
  adjustment ie. as new accurate survey data is
  included, updated coordinates for the parcel
  fabric and the pipe network are produced.

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HUNTER WATER AUSTRALIA - CURRENT

• As a condition of final approval for new water
  sewer construction, a spatially accurate
  electronic dataset of the asset and the cadastre
  is lodged with HWA by a Registered Surveyor. The
  data is supplied in a specified format to ensure
  compatibility.
• Each day Hunter Water adds data from
  approximately five new survey plans to the DCDB,
  equivalent to 3,500 new parcels per year.
• Maintenance and updating of the DCDB is achieved
  with a resource of 0.75 staff.

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HWA Operations - 1

• Field survey recording asset locations is
  simplified by the need to be only related to the
  Map Grid of Australia (MGA)
• Boundary definition is not required to determine
  asset location.

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HWA Operations - 2

• Maintenance crews with field laptops, can view
  and print the current GIS data set.
• The GIS dataset on the laptops is upgraded
  weekly.

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HUNTER WATER AUSTRALIA - Outcomes

• Hunter Water now provide on-line
•   Dial Before You Dig requests for asset
  location information is returned via an automated
  email and facsimile system linked to the GIS.
•   Property water sewer connection point plans
  needed for the transfer of land ownership are
  sent electronically to solicitors.

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HUNTER WATER AUSTRALIA - Outcomes

• SURVEYORS CONTROL THE GIS CADASTRAL DATABASE

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HUNTER WATER AUSTRALIA - Outcomes

• Hunter Waters survey accurate cadastre is shared
  by Energy Australia (Australias largest energy
  distributor).
• With 20 years experience in cadastral
  management, HWA now consults to other Councils
  and Authorities.
• Cadastral upgrade projects have been undertaken
  across Australia.

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GOSFORD CITY COUNCIL - Location Plan
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GOSFORD CITY COUNCIL - AERIAL
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GOSFORD CITY COUNCIL - Background

• An historically rural area undergoing significant
  urban, commercial and infrastructure growth as a
  dormitory suburb to the Sydney urban sprawl.
• Population - approx 163,000
• Land parcels - 70,000 ( 40,000 urban)
• The GIS system is maintained by 2-4 corporate
  staff .
• Gosford CC have now commenced a program of a
  gradual upgrade of their GIS Cadastral Layer.

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GOSFORD CITY COUNCIL - Background

• The existing DCDB was out by 1 - 5 metres in
  urban areas and up to 20 metres in rural zones.
• In 2005, high resolution Aerial Photography was
  acquired.
• The DCDB was found to be visually and legally
  unacceptable for Council, particularly when
  dealing with planning issues relevant to
  multi-million dollar waterfront development.

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GOSFORD CITY COUNCIL - Benefits

• In the completed areas Council have accurately
  aligned cadastre photography.
• Engineering design layout (roundabouts etc) is
  being completed in the office.
• Survey information collected by Council surveyors
  is now being added to the GIS. Previously, they
  saw no point in populating the GIS with work as
  executed data due to the poor alignment with the
  cadastre.

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CASE STUDY 4GLOUCESTER LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA
Location Plan
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GLOUCESTER LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA - Background

• Gloucester LGA is a rural Council generally
  located in hilly mountainous terrain.
• Includes part of the Barrington Tops World
  Heritage Rainforest and Wilderness areas.
• The total LGA population is over 4,900 with
  Gloucester Township containing over half (2600). 

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GLOUCESTER TOWNSHIP
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GLOUCESTER BARRINGTON TOPS NATIONAL PARK
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GLOUCESTER LGA - GIS Background

• Gloucester Council has a total of 20
  administration staff - includes 1 GIS operator.
• Council was aware of the poor quality of the
  existing DCDB and there was no indication of
  improvement of that situation in the near future.

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Gloucester LGA - The Process

• GEODATA completed a contract to capture and
  convert all historical and current parcels within
  the Gloucester LGA using GeoCadastre software.

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GLOUCESTER LGA - Project Issues

• Some old Title plans (from late 1800s) were
  illegible in standard electronic format. Cost
  implications to retrieve legible original
  documents from NSW Government.
• Some plans had little or no survey information.
• Where boundaries were the bank of the creek, many
  surveys did not measure across the creek ie no
  connectivity between survey plans.

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GLOUCESTER LGA - Project Issues
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GLOUCESTER LGA - Project Outcomes

• 4,264 historical current parcels were captured
  and converted.
• Discrepancies of up to 200 metres were found
  between the DCDB and the numeric cadastre
  created.
• Plans of any development work lodged with Council
  are required to be spatially accurate (endorsed
  by Registered Surveyor).

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THE FUTURE

• State Governments have a role to host a unique
  cadastral database and maintain the standards
• Local Government Authorities and local Utilities
  are best placed to control the domain of creating
  and maintaining their own databases.
• Local Government appreciates the role that the
  GIS database plays in their operations.
•   There must be recognition of the true economics
  of creating a survey accurate GIS cadastre
  relative to the ongoing costs in maintaining and
  working in a database of poor quality.

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THE RELEVANCE TO THE SURVEY PROFESSION

• Recognise the changing circumstances which
  require a shift of focus in individual and
  corporate practices with respect to CAD GIS
  databases.
• Business opportunities supplying skills to
  database creation maintenance

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• There is an expectation within the GIS industry
  that software will resolve the issue of cadastral
  integrity.
• Software will provide the tools but alone will
  never provide the best solution.

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The importance of Surveyors

• The work of the Survey Profession creates the
  fundamental blocks for GIS systems and we must
  recognise that surveyors are best placed to
  control that foundation.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

• Michael Elfick, Wallalong, NSW, AUSTRALIA
•  
• Peter Bartlett Hunter Water Corporation
  Newcastle,
• Allan Large NSW,
  AUSTRALIA
• Graeme Samuels
• Darren Santer Gosford City Council - NSW,
  AUSTRALIA
•  
• Glenn Wilcox Gloucester
  Shire Council - NSW, AUSTRALIA
• Ben Roberts
• Julian Schneider
•  
• Garry West Surveyor General, Darwin, NORTHERN
  TERRITORY
•  
• Tim Hodson ESRI Redlands, CALIFORNIA
• Christine Leslie ESRI Redlands,
  CALIFORNIA
•  
• Roger Lee Geodata Information Systems P/L
  Newcastle,
• 
  NSW, AUSTRALIA