Turkish cadastral system

In Turkey, cadastral works were started after the foundation of the Republic of Turkey. These studies were carried out in such manner that ownership of the land was given to the people who were using it. Firstly, in 1924, the process was started in urban areas where one fourth of the total population of the country lived Because of various problems including economic difficulties, technical deficiencies, personal insufficiencies, these cadastral works were only carried out in cities within the first 25 years from 1925 to 1950. Then the cadastral works were speeded up and most were carried out between 1950 and 1990. In this period, the work was achieved utilizing the available technology at that time in rural and urban areas. Today, 97% of the urban cadastral areas and 67% of the rural cadastral areas have been completed in Turkey. Generally, graphic, photogrammetric, orthogonal, and tachometric measurement methods have been used in this work. While 45% of the Turkish cadastral maps have been produced using graphic method which does not have a coordinate system, the other maps have been produced using the different measurement methods. These are also in different coordinate systems and scales. Only 7% of the whole cadastral maps are in digital format. On the other hand, because of the factors mentioned above, Turkish cadastral bases do not contain sufficient information to be converted to digital system in accordance with field. Since 1990, different methods have been used to digitize these non-digital cadastral maps. However, these attempts have failed. The main goals of this study are identifying historical background of cadastre and existing situation of it in Turkey.