Venue: The conference sessions will be held at The Marmara Taksim, while additional events and presentations are scheduled at BİZ Istanbul within the Atatürk Cultural Center
Dates: 28-30 October
Backed by the United Nations, the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG) is the massive global network tying together geomatics, land administration, and spatial data pros across 120-plus countries. It basically acts as the central hub where the industry sets its international standards, shares peer-reviewed tech breakthroughs, and figures out how to adapt traditional surveying to fit modern, data-driven market demands. If you’re trying to scale your career or actually have a say in global land policy.
The Chamber of Geomatics Engineers of Turkey (HKMO) has been the main body for the country’s surveying sector since 1954, and today it represents over 20,000 active professionals. They aren’t just working locally, either. HKMO joined the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG) as a voting member way back in 1969. It’s this long-standing connection that keeps Turkish surveying teams directly tied into global tech updates, modern land management strategies, and international spatial data standards.
The Turkish Chamber of Geomatics Engineers officially threw their hat in the ring to host the next Commission on Cadastre and Land Management meeting, presenting the bid back at the FIG Working Week in Brisbane. This isn’t their first rodeo with large-scale events. The team previously handled the massive 2018 FIG Congress in Istanbul, which brought in thousands of global experts to talk about geospatial maturity. Because they’ve already proven they can manage events on that scale, Turkey’s bid gives the committee a really solid, experienced option for this next cycle.
Turkey passed its first official cadastre law back in 1925, meaning the country just hit a century of modern land registry management. Building that entire national system from scratch took decades, and the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG) played a huge role in making it work. Turkish engineers consistently relied on FIG’s technical frameworks and blueprints to modernize government workflows, update local surveying standards, and align with international best practices. It’s basically a textbook example of how looping in global expertise actually builds better local infrastructure.
If you want a land administration system people actually trust, you have to map the entire country – not just parts of it. Getting total geographic coverage is the only way to genuinely secure property rights and make urban planning work.
Most countries struggle with fragmented land data, but Turkey actually managed to get 100% of its national registry under a single agency roof via TKGM. Rather than just sitting on that achievement, the Chamber of Geomatics Engineers (HKMO) is using this massive, unified dataset to run live test-beds for 3D smart city mapping and digital twin systems.
That proven operational track record is exactly why HKMO is gunning to host the joint FIG Commission 7 & 9 and UNECE WPLA International Conference. For global registry directors and GIS policy professionals, this event offers a rare look at a functioning, nationwide data integration system running at scale.
Modern land administration is failing under traditional, siloed management. If you are a land registrar, surveyor, or urban planner, you already know that a cadastre cannot exist in a vacuum. True tenure security requires a flawless, interconnected loop between legal title security, advanced geospatial tech, and real-world economic valuation.
Recognizing this critical bottleneck, the Chamber of Geomatics Engineers (HKMO) rejected the standard, single-discipline conference model. Instead, they coordinated a direct partnership with the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Working Party on Land Administration (UNECE WPLA) to tackle the engineering and policy challenges of secure, cloud-based digital registries.
Land registries fail when you treat surveying like it’s separate from property valuation and legal titles. Messy spatial data instantly corrupts automated valuation models, which ends up wrecking municipal tax bases and bank collateral. That’s why HKMO forced FIG Commissions 7 and 9 into the same room as the UNECE WPLA for this joint event—they need cadastre managers and mass appraisal folks linking GIS layers directly to fiscal policy.
Conference Themes
Modern land registries face a critical shift as AI-driven automation, data ethics, and cybersecurity redefine digital title chains and 3D cadastre integration. This conference bypasses vague theory to deliver hard, practice-oriented recommendations on linking electronic registers with artificial intelligence-enabled land administration, focusing directly on mass appraisal standards and algorithmic transparency to secure automated valuation models (AVMs).
Legal Security and the Role of the State in Land Registry and Cadastre Systems
- Scope of the principle of strict liability of the State in the land register and current judicial case law
- Protection of the principle of reliance on the land register and damages arising from registry errors
- Insurance mechanisms in the land register: comparative country practices
- Legal, financial, and administrative limits of State liability
- Compensation for damages arising from land registry operations, recourse, and risk sharing
- Chain of responsibility between cadastral procedures and land registry records
- Safeguarding legal security throughout renewal, digitalization, and transformation processes
- Protection of personal data, open data policies, and data ethics in land registry and cadastre data
- Property rights and legal security
Electronic Register and Digital Land Registry and Cadastre Systems
- Legal nature and binding effect of the electronic land register
- Cybersecurity, data integrity, and business continuity in the digitalization process
- Data modelling, standards, and interoperability for electronic registers
- National and international electronic register architectures and examples of good practice
- Legal framework, legislative compliance, and institutional transformation for electronic registers
- Use of smart contracts in land administration
- Transparency, traceability, and public trust in electronic registers
Real Property Valuation and Integration with Cadastre
- Legal and technical foundations of property valuation for taxation purposes
- Mass appraisal systems and the principles of justice, equality, and transparency
- Automated Valuation Models
- Valuation of unregistered areas and informal settlements
- Relationship, consistency, and integration between valuation and cadastral data
- Impacts of three-dimensional cadastre and building registers on valuation
- Use of artificial intelligence and big data in valuation processes
- Ethics, accountability, and auditability in real property valuation
- Impacts of valuation outcomes on public policies and urban transformation
Artificial Intelligence and Smart Land Administration Systems
- Conceptual framework for artificial intelligence applications in land administration
- Artificial intelligence-enabled approaches for:
- Cadastral updating
- Change detection
- Satellite and orthophoto analyses
- Artificial intelligence-based property valuation, risk assessment, and uncertainty analysis
- Legal responsibility, transparency, and explainability in the use of artificial intelligence
- Protection of property rights in algorithmic decision-making processes
- Artificial intelligence, automation, and the human factor in public administration
- Future smart land registry and cadastre systems:
- Digital twins
- Three-dimensional city models
- An integrated land–value–tax ecosystem
Professional Education and Professional Ethics
We are bypassing the usual lecture halls to bring this crucial land governance and data-sharing summit to Istanbul’s historic venues along the Bosphorus Strait – where European and Asian land systems actually meet. Space is incredibly tight due to the nature of these heritage sites. Don’t miss out: reserve your seat now, or email international@hkmo.org.tr to sync your itinerary with global ministry officials.
Conclusion
Tracking land data across separate silos for surveying, property valuation, and legal titles is a broken system. The joint FIG, UNECE WPLA, and HKMO International Conference in Istanbul showcases the ultimate fix: how Turkey’s TKGM merged 100% of its national registry into a unified 3D cadastre and mass appraisal framework. Because our historic Bosphorus venues have strict capacity limits, space for this global land administration summit is incredibly tight. Email international@hkmo.org.tr today to secure your seat and sync itineraries with international ministry officials.
Session updates delivered by:
Benson A. (25+ years in the Geospatial Industry)