Development in Cadastral Surveying and Mapping in the Netherlands

Kadaster provides legal certainty about every piece of land in the Netherlands. Cadastral parcels are recorded in land surveying fieldwork reports and processed in the nationwide cadastral map. The current map has a so-called graphic quality (standard deviation of boundaries are 20 cm for urban areas and 40 cm for rural areas); as a consequence, the current map is not suitable for determining the exact location of the parcel in the terrain. With increasing digitization, multiple sources of information (including the cadastral map) are becoming increasingly accessible to a wide range of users. This situation leads to incomprehension. That is the reason Kadaster has started a program to develop a map where the location of borders is so accurate that the map will be more in line with future developments. For this purpose, almost all (historical) field sketches are being processed. This challenge requires far-reaching automation. The research program has investigated whether it is possible to automatically extract the original measurements from the fieldwork reports and to combine this information and redetermine the location of the boundaries. With the help of artificial intelligence, it has been possible to build an accurate cadastral map of known geometrical quality. In addition to the technical challenge, investigations were also conducted into whether the more accurate map meets future needs. The arrival of the new map forsees a change in the way of communicating. The built-up reconstruction map will be introduced and presented as Kadastrale Kaart Next (KKN; in English, “Cadastral Map Next”), replacing the current cadastral map.