[ISP Commission IV, Invited Paper | 1 
The Use of Large Scale Orthophoto Maps in Cadastral Survey, 
and for Rural and Urban Development Projects 
J. Visser 
] Cadastral Survey 
1.1 As an Introduction 1 confine myself to two authoritative quotations: 
“Land forms a base for most human activity. Obviously, therefore, syste- 
matic records of land and rights in land have great importance for public 
administration, land planning and land development and private transactions 
in land. This is particularly true in those developing countries where the 
rapid growth of populations has created increasing pressure on rural land, 
while simultaneously a massive migration of people to cities and towns has 
led to the uncontrolled growth of urban centres. Nevertheless, the need for 
accurate land records is often ignored by policy-makers, and the cadastral 
systems of many countries are in consequence highly defective” (report of 
the United Nations’ Ad Hoc Group of Experts on Cadastral Surveying and 
Mapping to the 7th UN Regional Cartographic Conference for Asia and the 
Far East, Tokyo, October 1973). 
“If Cadastral surveys in developing countries were carried out accord- 
ing to the sophisticated procedures established (though, in fact, only partly 
carried out) in the developed countries, the consequence would be great 
expense and slow progress. The contribution of such a cadastral survey to 
the development of the country would therefore be small, and probably 
very inefficient having regard to cost’ (Prof. A.J. van der Weele, United 
Nations’ Inter-Regional Seminar on Cadastral Surveying and Urban Mapping, 
West Berlin, 1974; also published in ITC Journal 1974-5). 
1.2 The Basic Aims of a Land Cadastre are to provide for 
— legal protection of rights in land (by means of a legal cadastre ) 
— a fair system of land tax collection (by means of a tax cadastre). 
In the pre-industrial stage of a country, land tax income may repre- 
sent as much as 20% of all government revenues. For a fair distribution of 
this burden among the land owners, a tax cadastre is needed, i.e. a 
methodically established record of the surfaces and the land values of each 
UDC No. 528.74:528.44 (084.3-223.5) — 528.74:711.3/.4 (084.3-223.5)