Using Ortho-Rectified Imagery to Delineate Land Rights

Session

Land reform and land tenure

Full Paper Review

Yes

Authors

Cleotilda Nxumalo, Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, South Africa,cleotilda.nxumalo@gmail.com
Jennifer Whittal,University of Cape Town, South Africa, jennifer.whittal@uct.ac.za
Xolani Xaba, Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, South Africa, xxaba@ruraldevelopment.gov.za

Abstract

In South Africa, the former apartheid land policy resulted in uneven distribution, development and management of land in South Africa, especially in rural areas. One of the main areas of redress for the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform (the Department) is the restitution and redistribution of land. A huge challenge faced by the Department is the demarcation of vast tracts of un-surveyed land parcels in rural areas. This is where the professional land surveyor plays a vital role.

There is a need to test remote surveying techniques as a means to increase efficiency in parcel surveys and hence speed up the process of land reform in rural areas. This paper investigates the use of high resolution ortho-rectifed imagery to identify land parcel boundaries in a case study of Giyani in rural South Africa.

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