LAND ADMINISTRATION AS A PROFESSION

Careers in Land Administration -

A Multi-Faceted Profession

When you are thinking about a future career there seems to be so many things to choose from. You need to think not only about the most suitable career for you, but also about the best way of gaining appropriate qualifications - which course to take and where to study.

If you are:

interested in working with the people, land and environment
good at management, geography and environmental sciences
interested in computers, graphics and high technology
eager to work outdoors and travel

you must consider Land Administration as a career.

Land Administration is a multi-faceted profession which offers both women and men a wide variety of satisfying job options as a professional. Land Administration can be defined as: -the functions involved in implementing land management policies, overarching system of policy, legal, regulatory and organizational elements which direct or enable recording, title, cadastral, planning or valuation functions.(Bill Robertson lecture, 1998)

Land Management - Managing land is a particular problem in countries where rapid population growth has caused increasing pressure on rural land, whilst at the same time causing massive migration of peoples to cities and uncontrolled growth of cities.

Land Management can be defined as:

"the management of all aspects of land including the formation of land policies" (Dale & McLaughlin 1988)

"the process whereby the resources of land are put to good effect" (Dale & McLaughlin 1988).

"the process of managing the use and development of land resources in a sustainable way." (Bill Robertson lecture, Dept of Geomatics, University of Melbourne 1998)

Includes diverse activities such as:

property conveyancing plus decisions on mortgages and investments
development and management of services (e.g. water supply, drainage, sewerage, gas, electricity and communications)
resource management
land use policies
monitoring land-based activities to determine impact and best-use.
Managing land consists of:
monitoring and information gathering;
planning and testing of models to develop alternative actions;
policy making;
implementing the policy;
further monitoring and review of policy effectiveness.

Information is the key: "Without accurate information about the lands and water, and without an up-to-date inventory of the country’s resources and what is happening to them and to the environment, the government and the people are handicapped in controlling their own destiny. It is not possible to make best use of the land and its natural wealth, or to prevent its misuse, without good factual knowledge of the country and its features." Institutional infrastructure must be valid: this includes land tenure (people’s rights and obligations associated with land ownership); formulation of land policy, preparation of land development and land use plans and the administration of a variety of land-related programs.(Roots 1985)

Land Administration requires skills and technology in measurement, representation, analysis, management, retrieval and display of spatial data concerning both the Earth's physical features and the built environment. The principal disciplines include the mapping sciences, land management, geographic information systems, environmental visualisation and studies, geodesy, photogrammetry, remote sensing and surveying.

The sorts of jobs that might be expected for someone with a qualification in land administration and management with the skills of implementing computer information systems for the management of land data in all its aspects :

for environmental monitoring and management
land development and computer based land information systems
Cadastral and land management
utility management through geographic information systems
natural resource management
environmental planning
project management through computer based land information systems
port development and management
marketing and promotions
managing the land and environment using GIS