Established in 1998, Moscow's State Urban Cadastre
(SUC) has proven to be an efficient, cost-effective
and comprehensive service in a fast-changing environment.
The SUC works in close cooperation with other public
agencies dealing with architecture and historical
monuments, urban planning and surveying, and therefore
contributes to sustainable urban development.
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| A view of the Kremlin, Moscow.
Photo © Publishing House P-2, St. Petersburg,
2002. |
The major task of the SUC is to collect and record
data and provide reliable, legally sound information
in the required formats to a variety of users. These
include the Moscow municipal authorities, the legal
profession and institutions as well as individuals.
It thus contributes to efficient, sustainable decision-making
including the distribution, construction, renewal
and use of urban facilities in Russia's capital.
The main users of SUC services are investors, developers
and real estate agents. The new service spares them
the titanic efforts they used to deploy as they sought
reliable information from a string of municipal agencies
dealing in land and other property issues. The same
holds with regard to planning agencies. Comprehensive
SUC information enables them to collect, in a timely
and efficient way, the data required for their own
purposes. Such collection used to take up to six months
for a cost equivalent to between US$10,000 and US$30,000.
Today, the SUC can make the data, including the rights
to land and buildings, available within a week for
costs of between US$300 and US$500.
The Moscow cadastre service uses more than 30 basic
information resources. The SUC has to deal with recent,
complex developments such as regulated land use, dedicated
building and landscape areas, special land-use regimes
for nature conservation, a city-wide water pipeline
and the sewerage system. This well-rounded range of
data makes the SUC an important partner for sustainable
urban development.
The Moscow SUC would be unable to cope with such
an enormous mass of information without the use of
advanced technologies. It uses the basic Microstation
platform to process graphic proprietary information,
and the Oracle system for semantic data. SUC experts
are currently developing automated applications.
On top of these efforts, the SUC faces six major
tasks in the short to medium term. They include connection
to the Internet in the second half of 2003. The bulk
of the information developed over the past eight to
10 years must also be brought together and made available
electronically. Another IT project is to enable data
to be updated on a real time basis, in a longer-term
bid to streamline town planning services.
Further plans include a `one-stop shop' for basic
planning data. The SUC also plans to set up a monitoring
system that would identify and help smooth out disparities
in Moscow's pattern of land use. Finally, a major
SUC objective is to highlight the potential for land-related
investment in the city.
Meanwhile, and thanks to the SUC, Moscow is the first
city in Russia that has set up an efficient mechanism
for the implementation of the new City Master Plan.
Sound SUC data enable planners to avoid potentially
costly mistakes in urban development.
Beyond that, the SUC can boast a number of significant
achievements. It is good value for money. Calculations
show that every dollar invested in system development
generates a 14-dollar return.
Computerised technologies already enhance SUC productivity.
Cadastre reports are available on a same-day basis
and can cost as little as US$300, and the service
pays for itself as staff is kept to a minimal 15.
The SUC already operates as an integrated service
capable of supplementing a cadastre report with an
exhaustive list not just of planning and environmental
restrictions, but also of registered rights to land
plots and the relevant buildings and structures.
The system also provides the regulatory information
required to manage Moscow's land resources, on top
of easy access to urban development data.
Looking back on the development and implementation
of the SUC system in Moscow and elsewhere in Russia,
one can conclude that it proved to be efficient in
large, medium-sized as well as smaller urban areas.
Such positive results open up perspectives for the
future, including beyond Russia's borders.
Seminars with city governance experts from Denmark,
France and Germany showed that the SUC system could
work very well in developed countries. UN-HABITAT
literature suggested as much with regard to the transition
countries of the former Soviet Union and developing
countries. Moreover, development and implementation
costs are affordable, amounting to an estimated US$2,000
and to US$5,000 per 1,000 inhabitants.
This is why the Moscow SUC Service is ready to cooperate
towards the promotion of similar systems and in the
process support sustainable development in other cities
and countries around the world.
Sergei Melnichenko is the Chief of State Urban
Cadastre Service of Moscow.
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