Tasks at a glance
The development of the surveying and cadastre sector into a modern geoinformation system is a process that was accompanied by comprehensive reforms. The key to modernising the administrative procedures of the mapping and cadastre authorities in the Laender is the opening of the administrative bodies to adjacent areas in order to provide the groundwork for infrastructural and spatial planning policy in the network.
The surveying and geoinformation administrations are attached to various ministries in the individual Laender, with the Interior Ministry being the most frequently represented. Structural changes have been made in many authorities. In certain Laender, the real estate cadastral authorities and in some cases also the regional development / land consolidation authorities are now integrated into the higher-level geoinformation authorities. In other Laender, local areas of responsibility have been expanded by the amalgamation of real estate cadastral authorities. The key aspects of the geoinform tion system – management of the real estate cadastre and geotopography as well as land surveying including the provision of official reference systems – are the responsibility of the Laender. The original services offered include:
- the nationwide provision of spatial reference data via reference networks in the Authoritative Control Point
Information System (AFIS®), based firstly on terrestrial control points and their documentation, secondly, on
the satellite positioning service of the German national surveying agency SAPOS®, - maintaining a nationwide image of the surface of the earth through geotopographic products in the Authoritative
Topographic-Cartographic Information System (ATKIS®) using landscape and terrain models, official
topographic cartography and orthophotos, - the nationwide digital documentation of buildings and approx. 64 million cadastral parcels for the property
rights in the real estate cadastre, which will be managed throughout the Federal Republic using the Authoritative
Real Estate Cadastre Information System (ALKIS®), - the harmonisation of the real estate cadastre and surveying and mapping data.