1. Use of cadastral data in the Rural Support Service
Juris Griņevičs Rural Support Service Deputy director of the Control department Head of Land parcel register division
Valsts zemes dienesta 20 gadu jubilejas konference
„Kadastra izaicinājumi digitālajā laikmetā”

2. Rural Support Service
The Rural Support Service is responsible for implementation of a unified state and European Union (EU) support policy in the sector of agriculture, forestry, fisheries and rural development; it supervises compliance of the sector with the laws and regulations and fulfills other functions connected with agriculture and implementation of rural support policy
The Rural Support Service is a state administration institution. It was established on 1 January 2000, and operates under the supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture in accordance with the Law on Rural Support Service
In the framework of its competence, the Rural Support Service administers the EU and state support for rural areas, agriculture, forestry and fisheries:
Accepts and assesses project applications;
Makes decisions on allocation or rejecting of financing;
Keeps records of the granted financing and controls the use of it.
The Rural Support Service consists of the central office located in Riga and of territorial structural units – 9 regional agricultural departments

3. Land parcel identification system
Land parcel identification system (LPIS) was developed in the framework of the Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS)
IACS is used to administer the EU and national direct payments including less favored areas (LFA) and the support of AEM
In order to obtain timely and accurate information of the agricultural land, its area and also to be able to identify those areas spatially, LPIS is set up as a geographical information system (GIS)
LPIS production environment is based on ESRI ArcGIS 10 software products

4. LPIS technologies
Spatial data is maintained in a central Oracle 11g database using ArcSDE connection
Data backups are performed (once a week full data copy, daily incremental backup) and editing history of important data is maintained into source layers
For publication of data on the intranet ArcGIS Server REST-driven applications are used, but for public web the ArcIMS solution is used.
Users have ArcGIS Desktop licenses (ArcInfo, ArcEditor and ArcView)
Also specialized applications developed and being used in ArcGIS Desktop environment for more convenient everyday work

5. Spatial data available
Reference parcel layers (for editing, with history, with IACS data)
Control with remote sensing (CwRS) parcel layers starting from 2005
4 cycles of orthophoto maps ( , , , ) from Latvian Geospatial Information Agency (LGIA)
Topographical map 1: from LGIA
Cadastral data ( ) from State Land Service
VHR imagery for CwRS campaigns ( ) from European Commission
GNSS measurements from on the spot controls
Biologically valued grasslands
Annual agricultural land survey results
Forest data from State Forest Service
Afforested land from Latvia’s State Forests
Agricultural land drainage data
Data from Nature Conservation Bureau for cross-compliance requirements

6. Main map services Public Web map http://karte.lad.gov.lv
RSS intranet map

7. Availability of Cadastral data
We are using Cadastre IS data since year 2003 then we carried out RSS client pre-registration process (to identify owners and users of agricultural land)
In the past land boundary plan copies (‘paper data’) there submitted by farmers to get agricultural subsidies for cultivated land
Now we are receiving Cadastral data (graphical and textual part) twice a year (February and August)

8. Use of Cadastral data
To locate spatially the place and information by cadastre number
To print individual maps for RSS clients by reference parcel numbers and also by cadastre numbers
For splitting of large reference parcels with measured cadastral boundaries if it is necessary
Use of cadastral data in property rights clearance
Annual agricultural land survey is based on cadastral data
Cadastral information is used in aided project evaluation
Often use marker boards in order to visually identify the land survey boundaries and easements, which help distinguish the tracks in the meadows from the actual roads

9. Graphical/textual part of Cadastre
SLS is now maintaining separately graphical part of Cadastre and textual part of Cadastre. Linking these both parts of data there is a risk that some of the data may be 'lost' if the identifiers do not match. Especially in cases where the text data and graphic part is exported on various dates
Graphical part of Cadastre consists of points (cadastre number), lines (property borderlines) and polygons (also borderlines). To use the data in practice we have to regenerate all boundary data as lines (for map symbology purposes) and also to the polygons with the cadastre number as main attribute to them (to identify the location, for printing the map)

10. Unmeasured cadastral boundaries
The situation with unmeasured cadastral boundaries in the countryside is gradually improving (see picture), but still there are a lot of cases then communication with our clients is very difficult because of these unmeasured boundaries of property

11. Types of land use in explications
It is impossible to visually identify land use areas, which we can read in explication of cadastral data (textual part)
Land use areas often contain outdated, incorrect information
Frequently in explication as OTHER_LANDS we can see forested areas, agricultural land – areas that should be calculated into other already defined data fields (see picture)

12. Suggestions
Go for the Cadastral GIS, where the spatial and attribute information is updated at the same time (no more separate graphical and textual parts)
Update and refine land use information of cadastral data explications
Be spatially more accessible to the public sector (let them use your resources to publish their property data)

13. Thank you for your attention!