Underground Land Administration from 2D to 3D: Critical Challenges and Future Research Directions

Abstract

The development and use of underground space is a necessity for most cities in response to rapid urbanisation. Effective underground land administration is critical for sustainable urban development. From a land administration perspective, the ownership extent of underground assets is essential for planning and managing underground areas. In some jurisdictions, physical structures (e.g., walls, ceilings, and utilities) are also necessary to delineate the ownership extent of underground assets. The current practice of underground land administration focuses on the ownership of underground space and mostly relies on 2D survey plans. This inefficient and fragmented 2D-based underground data management and communication results in several issues including boundary disputes, underground strikes, delays and disruptions in projects, economic losses, and urban planning issues. This study provides a review of underground land administration from three common aspects: legal, institutional, and technical. A range of important challenges have been identified based on the current research and practice. To address these challenges, the authors of this study propose a new framework for 3D underground land administration. The proposed framework outlines the future research directions to upgrade underground land administration using integrated 3D digital approaches.

Modelling underground cadastral survey data in CityGML

“…Previous studies described the applications and benefits of a 3D integrated model (Aien et al, 2015; Saeidian et al, 2023). Saeidian et al (2021) considered three approaches for developing a 3D integrated data model. The first approach is to develop a new 3D data model for all data requirements (components) which is a time‐consuming and costly approach.…”

“…Urban land, however, is limited and it is difficult to satisfy the community's growing needs (Yan et al, 2019). As a result, the use and development of underground areas have increased in recent decades (Saeidian et al, 2021). New underground developments such as tunnels require drafting multiple pages of survey plans to show vertically stratified legal spaces in the subsurface areas (Strack, 2021).…”

“…Urban land, however, is limited and it is difficult to satisfy the community's growing needs (Yan et al, 2019). As a result, the use and development of underground areas have increased in recent decades (Saeidian et al, 2021).…”

“…Since IFC and CityGML are limited in defining survey elements, the proposed integrated data models cannot fully support survey data. In this regard, an IFC-based integrated model was enriched with survey data by Atazadeh et al (2021).…”

3D Underground Property Rights of Transportation Infrastructures: Case Study of Piraeus Metro Station, Greece

“…Consequently, the spatial identification and description combined with the legal definition of underground transportation infrastructures' 3D property rights enhances underground land administration. As the absence of clear and reliable underground property rights results in delays and excess costs in large-scale development projects [53], it encumbers the development of an integrated underground land administration system.…”