Formal Ontology for Land Registration Systems

The goal of this project is the development of a formal ontology for land registration systems. Land registration systems, used here as a generalised term for cadastre, title and deed registration systems, are crucial for the economic development of society, especially for developing countries and the reform countries of Eastern Europe. The World Bank has found that land registration systems provide security in the ownership of land and allow the use of land as a security for loans, making credit available to fuel economic development. Cadastral systems are based on an ontology of land parcels, persons, rights and obligations. The goal of the project is to determine the entities, properties and relationships between these, as they are typically found in a working, fully developed land registration system. The project will use the Austrian Cadastre and Grundbuch as primary examples. A formalization of the ontology of the cadastre is possible today due to the advanced formalization methods we have developed in previous research efforts, e.g. universal algebra. - From a formal ontology a number of fundamental insights will be gained into the working of a land registration system under normal circumstances and in extreme situations, e.g. periods of political transition of the sort we are witnessing today in Eastern Europe. This research brings modem methods of ontology research to bear on practical questions and carries the result through to the relevant industry, i.e. software production and consultants, advising the emerging democracies in Eastern Europe.