Floss in Cadastre and Land Registration

Conclusion

In conclusion, it can be said that QGIS was the right decision for the canton of 

 Solothurn. QGIS can offer most of the features that were requested by the users. 

The canton of Solothurn subcontracts the development of features that QGIS lacks 

to commercial support providers. With PyQgis and PyQt there are excellent options 

for easy in-house application development based on QGIS. One huge benefit is the 

unlimited number of installations. To push the development of QGIS, the Canton 

of Solothurn has invested approximately USD 30,000 into QGIS every year since 

2007. This is much more efficient and target-oriented than the payment of  support 

into the black box of our former software provider. Apart from using FOSSGIS, the 

canton of Solothurn also provides public geodata free of charge via the SO!ONLINE 

web portal.

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5. Conclusions

Mika-Petteri Törhönen, Daniel Steudler

Information technology systems are crucial elements of cadastre and land reg-

istration everywhere in the 21

st

 century. Introduction of automation to land ad-

ministration has improved systems’ efficiency, standardisation and accessibility, 

which in turn have contributed to responsible land governance. Developing coun-

try land administrations are, however, often inefficient and poorly structured. This 

results partly from the lack of adapted and flexible software tools to standardise, 

structure and maintain the cadastre and the land registration. More flexible and 

 feasible systems are needed.

The chapters in this booklet clearly demonstrate that open-source software, or 

FLOSS, has become a credible alternative to commercial off-the-shelf software in 

the field of cadastre and land registration systems. The development of open-

source database management and geographic information systems has been  rapid 

in recent years and they are increasingly applied to spatial data management. This 

is relevant globally, but it is seen that, in developing country contexts in particular, 

the emerging awareness of alternative approaches and tools to support cadastral 

and land registration systems is a very important innovation. Flexibility and the 

ability to be adapted to local conditions, and saved licence costs are among the 

features that make open-source software attractive in low resources settings.

Open-source software should not, however, be seen as the panacea for sustain-

able information technology systems. Cadastral systems’ software needs continu-

ous maintenance and constant development, which require resources regardless 

of the software policy over access to the source code. Adequate business planning 

remains the key requirement behind feasible and successful introduction of auto-

mation and digital systems into cadastre and land registration. It is also evident, 

however, that there are cases and conditions where partial or full system solutions 

relying on open-source software can be the most feasible and successfully intro-

duced option.

This booklet has been prepared and published to serve as a source book for 

people working with and for cadastral and land registration applications using 

FLOSS.

This booklet can, in addition, be taken as a baseline study. This is what the 

FLOSS  cadastre and land registration scene looked like in April 2010.

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Contributing Authors