Spatial and temporal functional requirements for an extended parcel-based land information system

The nature of cadastral data in the United States is dynamic from a temporal perspective and measurement-based from a spatial perspective. The fundamental characteristics have been comparatively ignored in the development of early parcel-based land information systems (LISs). Functional requirements with respect to the characteristics are investigated based upon interviews of professionals in six target groups: (1) surveyors; (2) title insurance workers; (3) the register of deed office; (4) property assessors; (5) planners; and (6) geographic information system application developers and users. The investigation ended up with six major functional requirements: (1) incorporation of measurement data including measurement data retrieval, automatic coordinate update, and spatial data consistency checking; (2) identification of spatial discrepancy; (3) retention of historical data; (4) temporal topology; (5) snapshot; and (6) incorporation of document image data. The writer presents the preceding functional requirements in order to extend the capability of current parcel-based LISs and to support more users' needs.