Integrated Land Ownership Management Using Geospatial Technologies and Visual Basics: a Case of Debark Town, Ethiopia

Abstract

Land is the most valuable resource; without it, life on the planet would not exist. Growing population, expanding needs and demands for economic development, as well as land degradation and negative environmental impacts, all place increasing strains on land resources, making an efficient and effective land management and administration system critical. Ethiopian land records, like those of many other African countries, are largely in paper format, with data that is sometimes disorganized, duplicated, or obsolete. The majority of Ethiopian urban lands including Debark today lack a comprehensive and well-organized land management system.This implies that each piece of land should be properly counted and documented and managed through inventory. Therefore this study aim to establish Integrated Land Ownership Management Using Geospatial Technologies and Visual Basic. A high resolution Ortho Photo with a 15 cm spatial resolution master plan of the city, as well as other materials, were used in this study. ArcGIS was used to build the geodatabase and tabular data format. For the purpose of data gathering, table and base maps with sample blocks were created. The study region's necessary ancillary data was gathered from the Debark town government office. Also, there are additional organizations. The primary data is acquired on the field survey by delineating the landholders' boundaries on a printed aerial photo, gathering point data using a portable GPS, and filling out a tabular form that the data collector fills out by asking landholders. The information collected on the field for each and every parcel was digitized and encoded, and parcel, block, and NHD cods were assigned. By combining Region code, City code, Kebele code, Neighborhood code, Block code, and Parcel code, a 14-digit UPIN is formed, which is then used to reorganize and link some files in the municipal office. In the three Kebeles of Debark City, a total of 7973 properties, 598 blocks, and 56 NHD were mapped. Land use was counted and calculated by area, and 167 kebele houses,98649.619 hec temporary land holdings, 22.8826 hec vacant lands were discovered, and 31.64 hec extra lands occupied by individuals were discovered. Finally, visual basics was used to construct a secure app that displayed all land ownership data