Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are considered an innovative tool for land administration. However, despite the prospects and market opportunities in the domain, there is a gap between experimentation and widespread technology diffusion. In this work, the Framework for Effective Land Administration (FELA) and the Hype Cycle concept are integrated to understand the dynamics of the innovation process of UAVs for the land administration sector. Empirical data stems from literature and interviews of UAV and land administration experts worldwide. The majority of experts estimate UAV technology to be in a phase in which the innovation needs to overcome initial unmet expectations to foster market development and increased adoption. The assessment indicates the changing importance of different FELA pathways during this process. Enabling laws and policies and supporting governance, accountability and institutions are crucial to create such a UAV-friendly national ecosystem early on and allay exaggerated expectations. Once this ecosystem has been made, market demand is expected to surge driven by partnerships, adapted standards, tech advocacy and awareness-raising campaigns, highlighting the superiority of high-resolution data amongst other benefits of UAV technology. These insights can be used as a baseline to direct national strategic decisions towards the increased adoption of UAVs in land administration.

The well-recognized and extensive task of mapping unrecorded land rights across sub-Saharan Africa demands innovative solutions. In response, the consortia of "its4land", a European Commission Horizon 2020 project, developed, adapted, and tested innovative geospatial tools including (1) software underpinned by the smart Sketch maps concept, called SmartSkeMa; (2) a workflow for applying unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV); and (3) a boundary delineator tool based on the UAV images. Additionally, the consortium developed (4) a platform called Publish and Share (PaS), enabling integration of all the outputs of tool sharing and publishing of land information through geocloud web services. The individual tools were developed, tested, and demonstrated based on requirements from Rwanda, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Zanzibar. The platform was further tested by key informants and experts in a workshop in Rwanda after the AfricaGIS conference in 2019. With the project concluding in 2020, this paper seeks to undertake an assessment of the tools and the PaS platform against the elements of fit-for-purpose land administration. The results show that while the tools can function and deliver outputs independently and reliably, PaS enables interoperability by allowing them to be combined and integrated into land administration workflows. This feature is useful for tailoring approaches for specific country contexts. In this regard, developers of technical approaches tackling land administration issues are further encouraged to include interoperability and the use of recognized standards in designs.

Millions of customary land rights are still undocumented worldwide. Recording and digitizing the plurality of these land rights has been identified as a key challenge in previous work. Documentation is an essential step to make effective progress towards a more sustainable future of our planet and for achieving the SDGs, with Goal 1 “No Poverty” (Indicator 1.4.2: proportion of the total adult population with secure tenure rights to land) in particular. To advance the documentation of customary land rights, SmartLandMaps follows an approach based on three pillars: acceptance, efficiency and flexibility. With our approach, we contribute to the advancement and sustainability of efforts to record customary land rights worldwide and bridge the gap between low-tech participatory mapping and modern Land Administration Systems. In particular, we put a strong emphasis on fostering the reuse of collected datasets through the use of semantic technologies. The aim of this article is to introduce the SmartLandMaps initiative and the opportunities offered by our approach.

Conventional land tenure recording approaches to create a sustainable land administration system (LAS) have been found to be of limited value in developing countries. To respond to this challenge, the 'fit-for-purpose' (FFP) approach was developed. This approach has gained relevance in the last years and promotes the use of new technologies like unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) to provide valuable base maps. Yet, contemporary failures demonstrate that technological innovations should consider the governance context when being implemented. Understanding the relevance of the FFP approach and acknowledging the importance of institutional factors in policy implementation, this research presents and applies the 'Fit-for-purpose governance assessment framework' (FGAF). The FGAF operationalises the seven elements of the FFP approach with five governance dimensions of the framework named Governance Assessment Tool (GAT). To apply FGAF, our selected case study is focused on the UAVs implementation in Rwanda. We conducted 37 semi-structured in-depth interviews, a pilot project with Rwandese stakeholders, and analysed several official documents and national reports. Additionally, UAV data collection was carried out to test the performance of the technology too. This research found that participation and flexibility are the governance qualities that present the main challenges, while inclusiveness, affordability, upgradability, attainability and reliability provide better opportunities to implement UAVs. Based on our case study, we conclude that the governance context favours a top-down approach for the implementation of the UAV technology in the LAS. For the sustainability of the LAS, the central government should incentivize participatory governance models for local and non-governmental actors. Also, strengthening the capacities of the field agencies at the district level through fiscal decentralisation can support the effective uptake of the UAV technologies in the LAS.

There are millions of unrecorded land rights in sub-Saharan Africa, which are still not mapped. Therefore, there is a clear demand for innovative solutions for land tenure recording, as also written in the target 1.4 of UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In response to this need, the consortia of “its4land” European Commission Horizon 2020 project developed the “its4land toolbox” based on the continuum of land rights and fit-for-purpose approach. The advanced technological solutions of the toolbox include smart sketch maps, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), interactive boundary delineator, as well as sharing and publishing land information via geocloud services. The solutions are based on specific needs, market opportunities, and readiness of end-users. Moreover, aiming in scaling up broader governance implications are examined. During the project lifetime, the main technical tasks included tool development, prototyping, and demonstration of the tools to local, regional, national, and international users and stakeholders. Furthermore, equal emphasis was placed on needs assessment, governance, capacity, and business modeling. The current paper presents the unique its4land land administration toolbox in which the key exploitable results of the project are integrated in a joint used case in Rwanda. Keywords: Fit-for-Purpose; Land Tenure; UAV; Boundary Delineation; Land

During the past years, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) gained importance as a tool to quickly collect high-resolution imagery as base data for cadastral mapping. However, the fact that UAV-derived geospatial information supports decision-making processes involving people's land rights ultimately raises questions about data quality and accuracy. In this vein, this paper investigates different flight configurations to give guidance for efficient and reliable UAV data acquisition. Imagery from six study areas across Europe and Africa provide the basis for an integrated quality assessment including three main aspects: (1) the impact of land cover on the number of tie-points as an indication on how well bundle block adjustment can be performed, (2) the impact of the number of ground control points (GCPs) on the final geometric accuracy, and (3) the impact of different flight plans on the extractability of cadastral features. The results suggest that scene context, flight configuration, and GCP setup significantly impact the final data quality and subsequent automatic delineation of visual cadastral boundaries. Moreover, even though the root mean square error of checkpoint residuals as a commonly accepted error measure is within a range of few centimeters in all datasets, this study reveals large discrepancies of the accuracy and the completeness of automatically detected cadastral features for orthophotos generated from different flight plans. With its unique combination of methods and integration of various study sites, the results and recommendations presented in this paper can help land professionals and bottom-up initiatives alike to optimize existing and future UAV data collection workflows.

There exists a demand for effective land administration systems that can support the protection of unrecorded land rights, thereby assisting to reduce poverty and support national development-in alignment with target 1.4 of UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It is estimated that only 30% of the world's population has documented land rights recorded within a formal land administration system. In response, we developed, adapted, applied, and tested innovative remote sensing methodologies to support land rights mapping, including (1) a unique ontological analysis approach using smart sketch maps (SmartSkeMa); (2) unmanned aerial vehicle application (UAV); and (3) automatic boundary extraction (ABE) techniques, based on the acquired UAV images. To assess the applicability of the remote sensing methodologies several aspects were studied: (1) user needs, (2) the proposed methodologies responses to those needs, and (3) examine broader governance implications related to scaling the suggested approaches. The case location of Kajiado, Kenya is selected. A combination of quantitative and qualitative results resulted from fieldwork and workshops, taking into account both social and technical aspects. The results show that SmartSkeMa was potentially a versatile and community-responsive land data acquisition tool requiring little expertise to be used, UAVs were identified as having a high potential for creating up-to-date base maps able to support the current land administration system, and automatic boundary extraction is an effective method to demarcate physical and visible boundaries compared to traditional methodologies and manual delineation for land tenure mapping activities.

There is a clear demand for effective land administration systems that can support the protection of unrecorded land rights, thereby assisting to reduce poverty and support national development. Within the framework of the its4land project, we developed and tested innovative remote sensing applications to support land rights mapping in response to local needs in Kenya. We applied Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) and developed a method for an automated delineation of visible boundaries based on the acquired UAV images (Figure 1 and 2). For our test areas in Kenya, UAVs were identified as having a high potential for creating up‐to‐date base maps that can support various current land administration tasks. The automated boundary delineation was found to be useful to simplify the digitization of visible cadastral boundaries.

In the domain of land administration, UAV-based orthophotos are gaining in importance as base data to support the extraction of cadastral boundaries and further visual interpretation, manual digitization, or automated feature detection procedures. However, the fact that UAV-derived geographical information can support decision-making processes that involve people’s land rights ultimately raises questions about the quality of the respective data. Especially geometric accuracy and radiometry can be negatively influenced by poor flight planning, densely populated areas, and adverse meteorological conditions. Thus, this paper takes a closer look at optimal workflows to minimize the need for ground truthing by presenting an experimental assessment of flight parameters and ground truth methods. More than 40 datasets entail the representative basis to investigate the impact on the absolute geometric accuracy of derived UAV-based orthomosaics. Results suggest that UAV data acquisition workflows can cover a wide range of data quality depending on UAV equipment, flight planning parameters and ground truthing strategies. Ultimately, this paper can help to determine the best approach to provide a high-quality data product that satisfies end user and supports the provision of reliable base data for automated or manual extraction of cadastral boundaries.

Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) are emerging as a tool for alternative land tenure data acquisition. Even though UAS appear to represent a promising technology, it remains unclear to what extent they match the needs of communities and governments in the land sector. This paper responds to this question by undertaking a socio-technical study in Rwanda, aiming to determine the match between stakeholders’ needs and the characteristics of the UAS data acquisition workflow and its final products as valuable spatial data for land administration and spatial planning. A needs assessment enabled the expression of a range of land information needs across multiple levels and stakeholder sectors. Next to the social study, three different UAS were flown to test not only the quality of data but the possibilities of the use of this technology within the current institutional environment. A priority list of needs for cadastral and non-cadastral information as well as insights into operational challenges and data quality measures of UAS-based data products are presented. It can be concluded that UAS can have a significant contribution to match most of the prioritized needs in Rwanda. However, the results also reveal that structural and capacity conditions currently undermine this potential.

Technical report and manual on key flight scenarios for land tenure recording in East Africa including main impact factors on final product quality. Project Number: 687828 Work Package: 4 Lead: University of Twente Type: DEM Ref. Ares(2018)2788401 30/05/2018

Since the past two years, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are evolving as a mapping tool in African countries. However, conditions for flying, controlling and referencing respective data are more complex than in Europe and are often underestimated. Especially geometric accuracy and radiometry are negatively influenced by densely populated areas and adverse meteorological conditions. More than 40 datasets from 8 UAV field campaigns and demonstrations in Zanzibar, Rwanda and Kenya are used to conclude findings on opportunities and challenges to achieve high levels of data quality. The research is associated with the EU H2020 project “its4land”

Guide to regulatory practice on UAVs for land tenure recording Project Number: 687828 Work Package: 1 Lead: University of Twente Type: Report Dissemination: Public Delivery Date: January 31 2017 Actual Delivery Date Version 1.7: 13 February 2017 Actual Delivery Date Version 2.0: 29 June 2017 Contributors: Claudia Stöcker, Rohan Bennett, Francesco Nex, Markus Gerke, Connie Schmidt, Tarek Zein Its 4 Land Hengelosestraat 99 Enschede 7500AE Netherlands Phone: +31534874532 www.its4land.com H2020 its4land 687828 D4.1 UAVs for Land Tenure – Guide on Regulations 2 This communication reflects only the author’s view and the Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains. In addition, content from this document is extracted, compiled and submitted in scientific manuscript format for review in 'Remote Sensing’ journal as of February 2017 Copyright © 2017 by the its4land consortium The its4land consortium consists of the following partners: University of Twente (UT) KU Leuven (KUL) Westfaelische Wilhelms-Universitaet Muenster (WWU) Hansa Luftbild AG (HL) Institut d'Enseignement Supérieur de Ruhengeri (INES) Bahir Dar University (BDU) Technical University of Kenya (TUK) esri Rwanda (ESRI). Its 4 Land Hengelosestraat 99 Enschede 7500AE Netherlands Phone: +31534874532 www.its4land.com H2020 its4land 687828 D4.1 UAVs for Land Tenure – Guide on Regulations

Within the past years, the development of high-quality Inertial Measurement Units (IMU) and GNSS technology and dedicated RTK (Real Time Kinematic) and PPK (Post-Processing Kinematic) solutions for UAVs promise accurate measurements of the exterior orientation (EO) parameters which allow to georeference the images. Whereas the positive impact of known precise GNSS coordinates of camera positions is already well studied, the influence of the angular observations have not been studied in depth so far. Challenges include accuracies of GNSS/IMU observations, excessive angular motion and time synchronization problems during the flight. Thus, this study assesses the final geometric accuracy using direct georeferencing with high-quality post-processed IMU/GNSS and PPK corrections. A comparison of different data processing scenarios including indirect georeferencing, integrated solutions as well as direct georeferencing provides guidance on the workability of UAV mapping approaches that require a high level of positional accuracy. In the current research the results show, that the use of the post-processed APX-15 GNSS and IMU data was particularly beneficial to enhance the image orientation quality. Horizontal accuracies within the pixel level (2.8cm) could be achieved. However, it was also shown, that the angular EO parameters are still too inaccurate to be assigned with a high weight during the image orientation process. Furthermore, detailed investigations of the EO parameters unveil that systematic sensor misalignments and offsets of the image block can be reduced by the introduction of four GCPs. In this regard, the use of PPK corrections reduces the time consuming field work to measure high quantities of GCPs and makes large-scale UAV mapping a more feasible solution for practitioners that require high geometric accuracies.

In large parts of sub Saharan Africa it remains an ongoing challenging to map millions of unrecognized land rights. Existing approaches for recognizing these rights have proven inappropriate in many cases. A new generation of tools needs to be developed to support faster, cheaper, easier, and more responsible land rights mapping. This is the main goal of its4land, an European Commission Horizon 2020 project that aims to develop innovative tools inspired by the continuum of land rights, fit-for-purpose land administration, and cadastral intelligence. its4land is using strategic collaboration between the EU and East Africa to deliver innovative, scalable, and transferrable ICT solutions. The innovation process incorporates a broad range of stakeholders and emergent geospatial technologies, including smart sketchmaps, UAVs, automated feature extraction, as well as geocloud services. The aim is to combine innovative technologies, capture the specific needs, market opportunities and readiness of end-users in the domain of land tenure information recording in Eastern Africa. The project consists of a four year work plan, € 3.9M funding, and eight consortium partners collaborating with stakeholders from six case study locations in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Rwanda. The major tasks include tool development, prototyping, and demonstration for local, national, regional, and international interest groups. The case locations cover different land uses such as: urban, peri-urban, rural smallholder, and (former) pastoralist. This paper describes the project’s activities within the first 18 months and covers barriers discovered, lessons learned and results achieved.

The realm of land administration is currently being challenged: conventional western-oriented land administration systems have mostly failed to supply their expected results in developing countries. Amongst others, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are evolving as a tool for alternative land tenure data acquisition approaches. However, major bottlenecks such as regulatory frameworks and time-consuming ground truthing are issues currently hindering large-scale implementation. This study sheds light into the design process of UAV-based data acquisition workflows and reveals results of initial field tests in Rwanda and Germany. Insights of operational challenges and data quality measures will be presented. The research is associated with the EU H2020 project “its4land”.