G.P.S. AND G.I.S. FOR REALIZATION AND GOVERNMENT OF ROAD CADASTRE 
Giuseppe Mussumeci 
Researcher, Faculty of Engineering, Catania, Italy 
ISPRS WG VI/3 
KEY WORDS: GPS, GIS, Roads, Cadastre 
ABSTRACT 
The road system plays a strategic role for the global analysis of the territory and a correct understanding of it is very 
important for the management of ordinary and emergency situations. 
In this note a methodological approach is proposed for the realization of a Road Cadastre using the differential kinematic 
Global Positioning System for the survey of road geometry and the Geographical Information System for data 
management. 
After a preliminary definition of the geographical database characteristics, road elements that have importance for the 
Cadastre and that interact with the territorial system and, in particular, with risk and emergency management, are 
analyzed. 
A road cadastre organization on the basis of current G.I.S. technology is proposed. 
1. ROAD CADASTRE AND ITS USEFULNESS 
The road cadastre can be seen, in a simple way, as the 
cataloguing of all the road infrastructures and works 
correlated elements (structures, equipment, ancillary 
works, etc.) present in the territory. However, it should 
be seen as the basis of the Road Information System of 
which every proprietor should have for a correct 
management of the road network. 
From this point of view, it assumes the value of a 
functional support for the management of the road 
network and the planning for its development. 
Its construction needs, essentially, the following: 
□ A training process, aimed at acquiring, archiving 
and representing, with cartographic support and 
databases, the elements that characterize 
geometric properties of the road network; 
□ A management process, which organizes and up 
dates the collected information, for their use in 
functional classification of the road network, 
maintenance planning, and investment planning. 
The primary objective of the management of an road 
infrastructure is, today more than ever, safety. The 
current high number of accidents and victims that are 
recorded on the roads is not acceptable by a modern 
society that needs the road network so much for social 
and economical development. It is therefore necessary 
to have the instruments that at least “know” of the road 
network or, better still, are a real support for decision 
making. In general, in fact, today it is possible, 
structuring the information in a correct way, “shaping” 
the territory into a Geographical Information System. 
2. BASIC CARTOGRAPHY 
Numeric cartography is certainly the ideal support for 
Geographical Information Systems. The geo- 
referencing of the represented objects and the absence 
of limitations in the memorization of elements and 
attributes allows an information content of great 
interest. 
Maps can be designed in such a way as to respond to 
many needs of G.I.S., allowing, for example, through 
their consultation the qualification of the elements of 
most interest and the identification of the logical and 
spatial correlation between them. 
In particular, in the case of a G.I.S. oriented to Road 
Infrastructures management, cartographic production 
must be finalized for the close examination of the 
“information-communication level” and the 
measurement of all the elements of the territory that 
interfere with the road network. The nominal scale will 
naturally be identified in function of the finality of the 
G.I.S. and will characterize the map in relation to its 
information content. 
The memorization of data, finally, must be carried out 
respecting the precise logic of aggregation and 
representation of the territorial and road elements, 
which take into account the particular aspects of the 
infrastructure system and its relation with the territory 
2.1. Geodetic reference 
In general, the cartography of a country is placed 
geodetically with respect to a national reference 
ellipsoid, that, even when it coincides from the 
geometric point of view with Hayford’s ellipsoid, is 
orientated differently. 
The necessity to uniform, on an international scale, the 
geodetic reference, for the obvious consequential 
advantages in terms of univocal “reading” of the 
different national cartography and for simplification (if 
not elimination) of the procedure of transfer of 
cartographic information between connecting countries, 
finds in the WGS84 reference systems and satellite 
sampling ideal instruments. 
Therefore, even if each country has its own system of 
national cartography and its own cadastral cartographic 
tradition (land and buildings census), which do not 
always have the same geodetic reference (as in Italy, 
where national cartography and cadastral cartography 
are referred to two different ellipsoids, with the obvious