The Smart Cities data and applications need to replicate, as faithfully as possible, the state of the city and to simulate possible alternative futures. In order to do this, the modelling of the city should cover all aspects of the city that are relevant to the problems that require smart solutions. In this context, 2D and 3D spatial data play a key role, in particular 3D city models. One of the methods for collecting data that can be used for developing such 3D city models is Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), a technology that has provided opportunities to generate large-scale 3D city models at relatively low cost. The collected data is further processed to obtain fully developed photorealistic virtual 3D city models. The goal of this research is to develop virtual 3D city model based on airborne LiDAR surveying and to analyze its applicability toward Smart Cities applications. It this paper, we present workflow that goes from data collection by LiDAR, through extract, transform, load (ETL) transformations and data processing to developing 3D virtual city model and finally discuss its future potential usage scenarios in various fields of application such as modern ICT-based urban planning and 3D cadaster. The results are presented on the case study of campus area of the University of Novi Sad.

The origins of digital money and blockchain technology goes back to the 1980s, but in the last decade, the blockchain technology gained large popularity in the financial sector with the appearance of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. However, recently, many other fields of application have been recognized, particularly with the development of smart contracts. Among them is the possible application of blockchain technology in the domain of land administration, mostly as a tool for transparency in the developing countries and means to fight corruption. However, developed countries also find interest in launching pilot projects to test their applicability in land administration domain for reasons such as to increase the speed and reduce costs of the real property transactions through a more secure environment. In this paper, we analyse how transactions are handled in Serbian land administration and how this process may be supported by modern ledger technologies such as blockchain. In order to analyse how blockchain could be implemented to support transactions in land information systems (LIS), it is necessary to understand cadastral processes and transactions in LIS, as well as legislative and organizational aspects of LIS. Transactions in cadastre comprise many actors and utilize both alphanumeric (descriptive or legal) data and geospatial data about property boundaries on the cadastral map. Based on the determined requirements for the blockchain-based LIS, we propose a system architecture for its implementation. Such a system keeps track of transactions in LIS in an immutable and tamper-proof manner to increase the security of the system and consequently increase the speed of transactions, efficiency, and data integrity without a significant impact on the existing laws and regulations. The system is anticipated as a permissioned public blockchain implemented on top of the Ethereum network.

This paper proposes a Serbian cadastral domain model as the country profile for the real estate cadastre, based on the Land Administration Domain Model (LADM), defined within ISO 19152. National laws and other legal acts were analyzed and the incorrect applications of the law are outlined. The national “Strategy of measures and activities for increasing the quality of services in the field of geospatial data and registration of real property rights in the official state records”, which was adopted in 2017, cites the shortcomings of the existing cadastral information system. The proposed profile can solve several problems with the system, such as the lack of interoperability, mismatch of graphic and alphanumeric data, and lack of an integrated cadastral information system. Based on the existing data, the basic concepts of the Serbian cadastre were extracted and the applicability of LADM was tested on an obtained conceptual model. Upon obtaining positive results, a complete country profile was developed according to valid national laws and rulebooks. A table of mappings of LADM classes and country profile classes is presented in this paper, together with an analysis of the conformance level. The proposed Serbian country profile is completely conformant at the medium level and on several high-level classes. LADM also provides support for three-dimensional (3D) representations and 3D registration of rights, so the creation of a country profile for Serbia is a starting point toward a 3D cadastre. Given the existence of buildings with overlapping rights and restrictions in 3D, considering expanding the spatial profile with 3D geometries is necessary. Possible solutions to these situations were analyzed. Since the two-dimensional (2D) cadastre in Serbia is not fully formed, the proposed solution is to use the 2D model for simple right situations, and the 3D model for more complex situations.

The utility network cadastre in Serbia is the main register of utility lines and the rights to them. The Law on State Survey and Cadastre states the necessity for implementing a unified information system of both a real estate and utility network cadastre, but this has not been achieved in practice. The reasons for such a unified information system are to ensure easier maintenance of the rights of both the utilities and properties located above or below them, to ensure more efficient procedures for obtaining the consent for placement, repair, or removal of the utility line, to prevent procedures being executed based on outdated data, to build an information system as the law prescribes, and to facilitate the business processes in the Serbian geodetic authority, since it is responsible for both registers. Therefore, an already-developed LADM (Land Administration Domain Model)-based country profile for Serbia should be extended to include information from the utility network cadastre. An analysis of Serbian legislation showed the necessity of extending the class set of the utility network cadastre by further specialization of the LADM LA_LegalSpaceUtilityNetwork class. Furthermore, such a system will support the maintenance of utility network data. In practice, when there is a change made on utility lines by the right holders, it is necessary to implement the change in the register. In many situations, this is not done, and the actual state does not correspond to the one in the register. Usually, modern technologies, such as ground penetrating radar (GPR) and LIDAR, are used for data acquisition in order to provide an update of the utility network data. Since these technologies produce 3D data, we analyzed how to link that data to the traditional 2D spatial paradigm.

Based on a newly adopted “Rulebook on the records of identified changes on buildings in Serbia” (2020) that regulates the content, establishment, maintenance and use of records on identified changes on buildings, it is expected that the geodetic-cadastral information system will be extended with these records. The records contain data on determined changes of buildings in relation to the reference epoch of aerial or satellite imagery, namely data on buildings: (1) that are not registered in the real estate cadastre; (2) which are registered in the real estate cadastre, and have been changed in terms of the dimensions in relation to the data registered in the real estate cadastre; (3) which are registered in the real estate cadastre, but are removed on the ground. For this purpose, the LADM-based cadastral data model for Serbia is extended to include records on identified changes on buildings. In the year 2020, Republic Geodetic Authority commenced a new satellite acquisition for the purpose of restoration of official buildings registry, as part of a World Bank project for improving land administration in Serbia. Using this satellite imagery and existing cadastral data, we propose a method based on comparison of object-based and pixel-based image analysis approaches to automatically detect newly built, changed or demolished buildings and import these data into extended cadastral records. Our results, using only VHR images containing only RGB and NIR bands, showed object identification accuracy ranging from 84% to 88%, with kappa statistic from 89% to 96%. The accuracy of obtained results is satisfactory for the purpose of developing a register of changes on buildings to keep cadastral records up to date and to support activities related to legalization of illegal buildings, etc.

Well-structured and organised cadastral records and cadastral maps are a prerequisite for improving land administration services. In recent years, numerous problems and issues associated with cadastral data have been encountered in Serbia and attempts to overcome these problems have been made. The integration of land registry data with cadastral data containing land use component usually results in inconsistencies in land administration databases. To address this problem, an appropriate domain model has been developed using the Unified Process methodology and considering the land administration domain model and other ISO 19000 standards. Examples of verifying land administration data integrity in relational and object-oriented data models are presented.