A contemporary review of land administration, from the perspective of systems maintenance, is provided. A special emphasis is placed on emerging fit-for-purpose land administration solutions. The research synthesis uses reputable sources from the contemporary era. Results show the challenges of maintaining land administration systems and the data held are long recognized. The 1970s–1980s gave the issue impetus as data and processes moved from paper-based and manual to digital and automated. The 1990s recognized concerns on maintenance, albeit as a secondary issue: system establishment was the primary concern. The 2000s placed more emphasis on more holistic sociotechnical systems but, again maintenance was supplementary. The fit-for-purpose era deliveres a vast range of new social and technological innovations; however, scaled and sustainable implementations still struggle with system maintenance. From the findings, a consolidated model for analyzing maintenance problems and solutions at jurisdictional level is developed. Maintenance of a land administration system can be understood by identifying the level of change, method for change, components to change, and options for what to change to. The United Nations-endorsed Framework for Effective Land Administration is then used to identify specific maintenance challenges and available solutions. It is suggested that due to the scope and size of what can be considered maintenance issues, there exists no single solution—instead the country should identify its persistant maintenance problems, and the most appropriate solution set from the suite of available options. Emerging solutions and challenges include ensuring interlinkage to maintenance of spatial planning, land valuation, and marine administration; exploiting survey data ‘back capture’ initiatives; supporting grassroots IT; and giving serious attention to cybersecurity concerns.

This study illustrates the linkages between the ISO’s Land Administration Domain Model (LADM) and the UN’s sustainable development goals (SDGs), highlighting the role of the LADM in promoting effective land administration suitable for efficient computation of land/water (space)-related SDG indicators. The main contribution of this study is the formalization of SDG indicators by using the ISO standard LADM. This paper proposes several SDG-indicator-related extensions to the multi-part LADM standard that is currently under revision. These extensions encompass the introduction of new procedures for calculating indicators, the integration of blueprints for external classes to fulfil additional information needs and the design of interface classes for presenting indicator values across specific countries and reporting years. In an innovative approach, this paper introduces the Four-Step Method—a powerful framework designed to formalize SDG indicators within the LADM framework. Detailed attention is devoted to specific indicators, including 1.4.2 (secure land rights), 5.a.1 (women’s agricultural land rights), 14.5.1 (protected marine areas) and 11.5.2 (valuation as a basis for direct economic loss). In short, the Four-Step Method is pivotal in eliminating ambiguities, enhancing the efficiency of indicator computation and securing more accurate indicator values that more truly reflect the progress towards SDG realization. This approach is also expected to work with other (ISO) standards for other SDG indicators.