Trias Aditya was the successful winner of the joint Aubrey-Barker Fund and FIG Foundation Research Grant from 2020-2023, receiving £20,000 towards his project “A blended learning course design in Fit for Purposes’ Cadastral Survey”.

At the time of the research, Indonesia was in the midst of undertaking a massive systematic land registration program (PTSL) – seeking to register more than 126 million land parcels. PTSL led to a significant increase in the quantity of titled land parcels – however in the process, considerable challenges emerged with over 15 million unmapped valid land certificates, and frequent boundary disputes. Trias’ research sought to address these challenges.

Based at the University of Gadjah Mada in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, Trias’ project sought to define a blended learning platform designed for undergraduate students, professional surveyors and para-surveyors (or community representatives) with the following key technological and methodological pillars:

• Fit-for-purpose principles, shifting to bottom-up, participatory data collection – from traditional, top-down survey approaches – to improve cadastral data quality.
• Modern collaborative tools, including exploring the potential use of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) on game engines to help landowners and surveyors to visualize and agree on boundaries in real-time, even from different locations.
• Forensic cadastre, developing methods to track and trace “floating” or “flying” certificates by investigating past documentation to locate them correctly on modern digital maps.

Key deliverables and impact

Despite challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the grant produced significant tangible outputs that influenced both Indonesian national policy, and international research. These include:

• Training Materials: A manual titled “Community-based Survey and Mapping for Complete & Systematic Land Registration” was developed, alongside two course module videos.
• Software Innovation: Trias and supporting researchers developed the PEREKAT QGIS plugin, a tool to help integrate field survey data with existing cadastral maps for improved accuracy.
• Policy Influence: The project’s workflows for data quality improvement and participatory approaches were adopted by Indonesia’s Ministry of ATR/BPN into their official PTSL Technical Guidance.
• Academic Contributions: Publications and presentations were submitted to international forums and journals, including:
  • Aditya, T., 2021 “A Blended Learning for Realizing Mix Reality of Cadastral Surveying Projects
  • Aditya, T. 2023  “Vizualizing Title Uncertainty and Quality Issues in the Digital Era of Land Administration” FIG Commission 7 and 2 Annual Meeting 2023. Deventer, The Netherlands, 2-4 October 2023. https://fig.net/resources/proceedings/fig_proceedings/7_2023/papers/se02/SE02_aditya_12363.pdf  
  • Aditya, T., 2022 “Cadastre forensics, para surveyor and mobile app for land registration” Coordinates magazine. November 2022. Available at https://mycoordinates.org/cadastre-forensics-para-surveyor-and-mobile-app-for-land-registration/
  • Aditya, T., Santosa, P.B., Yulaikhah, Y., Widjajanti, N., Atunggal, D. and Sulistyawati, M., 2021. Validation and collaborative mapping to accelerate quality assurance of land registration. Land Use Policy, 109, p.105689.

Further details can be found in the Final Report.