Eric D. Colburn, PLS

Professional Land Surveyor News

Geospatial Consortium Implements Land Registry System in Anhui Province, China

BEIJING, CHINA — International Land Systems (ILS), Inc. with the Anhui Agricultural Commission held a commencement meeting for the China Rural Land Certification and Registration Program, a technical assistance pilot project funded by the United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA).

The project aims to allow Chinese residents in Anhui province’s rural Feidong county to register farm plots and gain land lease certificates.  States Yang Zhao, Vice-Secretary for China’s Center for Rural Development Policy, “The goal is to further protect farmers’ rights by reducing uncertainty pertaining to land ownership, and by providing clearer and more complete information pertaining to designated land rights for farmers.”  The Chinese government has set the policy framework to protect farmers’ rights through the 11th Five Year Plan, but much work remains to survey individual farmers’ plots and document individuals’ ownership status.

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San Diego, November 13, 2009

Aided by the home buyer tax credit, the outlook for housing and the economy appears headed for a sustainable recovery, according to the National Association of Realtors®.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said the projections are enhanced by a tax credit expansion to more home buyers through the middle of 2010. “Given the success of the first-time buyer tax credit to date, and the need for qualified buyers to continue to absorb inventory that will include additional foreclosures over the coming year, we are hopeful about the impact of the expanded tax credit because it will stabilize home prices,” he said. “In fact, the credit is working better than first projected – it now looks like we’ll have 2.3 to 2.4 million first-time buyers this year.”

A large consumer study being released later today, the 2009 National Association of Realtors® Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, shows first-time buyers accounted for a record 47 percent share of home sales over the past year, up from 41 percent in the 2008 survey. The share has risen steadily since a cyclical low of 36 percent in 2006.

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China vows to foster the development of the geographic information industry and boost the “building of Digital China” through the National Geographic Information Summit, which opens in Beijing today, according to Xu Deming, vice-Minister of Land and Resources.

Surveying and mapping has become a fundamental safeguard for the development of the economy, Wang Chunfeng, vice-chief of the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping, said last month.

Professional Land Surveyor Source: China Daily

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ESRI president Jack Dangermond video at the 2009 Where 2.0 Conference in San Jose, California, talking about Realizing Spatial Intelligence on the GeoWeb. Covered in his talk is:

• GeoWeb.
• WebGIS
• Cartographic Knowledge
• Geographic Knowledge Created in GIS Environments.
• Data and Web Services.
• Sharing of Geographic Knowledge.
• Spatially Integrated Thinking to a Broader Society
• Leveraging Investments Developing Basemaps.
• Leveraging Investments Developing Thematic Datasets.
• Leveraging Investments Developing other Spatial Assets.

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USGS Geography: The National Map.

Credit: U.S. Geological Survey
Department of the Interior/USGS
U.S. Geological Survey