Cadastral Survey of Urban Plots

Boundary Surveys/Cadastral Survey

The Survey for demarcating boundaries of urban plots and rural farms/estates used to obtain legal ownership of land. Geomatics is becoming the most prominent service provider for Cadastral Survey. Our precision, sharpness to perform quick surveys of boundaries of irregular land parcels to produce adjudication maps usually required for valuation and compensation of land properties to facilitate acquisition of land for investment purposes.

Our clients have a great customer diversity in this arena as we have forged ourselves into the cadastral survey of  land measurement activity experts. We have helped our customers in their need to describe new or changed boundaries of land parcels and includes recovery and restoration of lost boundaries.

Our deliverables are in form of textual, numerical, graphical or a combination of these. The ultimate result of our works is to provide basic information of geometric descriptions (including spatial location, size and shape) of land parcels. Such information is prerequisite to successful land registration in Tanzania.

Accuracy, the degree of conformity with set standards, is observed in boundary surveys.

Accuracy in the surveys is important because, among other things, it helps surveyors to determine equipments and methods to use. Furthermore, accurate land parcel information is a fundamental tenet of cadastral systems. High accuracy implies high cost.

Because land ownership has historical connection with law of property, surveys that describe land units (i.e. cadastral surveys) have been carried out under legal frameworks. Hence, cadastral surveys are also known as legal surveys. The basic law on land matters in Tanzania, namely the Land Act No. 4 of 1999 states that a granted Right of Occupancy shall be issued on land that has been surveyed [section 22(1)]. Village lands are not a subject of a granted Right of Occupancy and are therefore not a subject of a survey as presented herein.

The principal legislation that regulates the technical operations of cadastral surveys in Tanzania is the Land Survey Ordinance, Cap 390 of 1956. This Ordinance is in consonance with the Land Registration Ordinance, Cap 334 of 1953, of which Section 88(1) states: ‘No estate shall be registered except in accordance with an approved cadastral survey plan’.

In addition to Cap 390, the Professional Surveyors (Registration) Act No. 2 of 1977 establishes the National Council of Professional Surveyors (NCPS) whose main tasks include the certification of the competence of practicing surveyors and enforcement of professional code of conduct and ethics.