Integration of Legal Aspects in 3D Cadastral Systems

This article continues a research on the feasibility of BIM for 3D cadastre in unified building models, presented in El-Mekawy & Ostman (2012). It describes problems and solutions concerning interaction between BIM and the registration and visualisation of legal 3D property information. BIM and legal 3D property are two seemingly different domains, and there is a lack of BIM-3D property research in relation to technical and registration issues. The article therefore focuses on possibilities and difficulties of addressing legal interests (i.e. rights, restrictions and responsibilities) in land. A Swedish case study is used to describe the use of 3D property formation and registration in Sweden, and how it might be possible to achieve a more integrated, standard based registration of legal boundaries and physical buildings. The results emphasize how BIM and 3D property domains can interact to serve the needs for effective information handling by e.g. importing 3D cadastral boundaries into BIM as basis for decision-making or to use BIM as input in the 3D cadastral formation process.