A global perspective on cadastres and Geo-ICT for sustainable urban governance in view of climate change

Abstract

In the near future global environmental issues, such as ensuring clean air, water, no pollution and assuring the future sustainability of our planet and its resources will drive developments in land use changes, transport policies, energy and carbon pricing and other climate change mitigation and adaptation policies. Urban and peri-urban areas hugely affect global climate change since they consume as much as 75% of commercial energy; generate as much as 80% of all waste and 60% of greenhouse gas emissions . We argue that in view of climate change the need and demand for the collection, management and use of reliable spatial information and communication technologies (or Geo-ICT) intensifies to assure the integrated sustainability of the policies used to tackle global, national and local environmental issues. Based on three case studies (the Dutch Kadaster, HeatMap Overlay and the Solar Atlas of Berlin) and a review of recent empirical and policy literature, our findings support the view that cadastres and land registration organizations have an important role to play as part of a wider spatial information infrastructure in adapting and mitigating climate change in cities as a core and part of a wider spatial information infrastructure essential for sustainable urban governance.