Administration of Spaces - A Primer of GIS: Fundamental Geographic and Cartographic Concepts - page 235

States very hard to navigate. Resolving overlapping jurisdictional responsibil-
ities has become an important obstacle in addressing many issues in the
United States, most recently homeland security.

The Cadastre: Recording Land Ownership and More

Capitalist economies rely on the cadastre, which makes it one of the more
important administrative divisions of spaces. The cadastre, a term that origi-
nated in Latin, refers to the registry of land ownership. In most places today
the cadastre is fundamental to determining the rights and responsibilities of
landowners and land users.
The cadastre consists of two parts. One part records the ownership of
land in the form of a legal title, which also defines the land property. The
second part describes the boundaries of the land property. The two parts are
usually separately maintained—opening the door to substantial differences.
This means that the land shown in a cadastral map need not match the land
described by a cadastral title.
As a formal record of landownership, the cadastre is an important tool
in both governmental administration and private enterprise. It serves to help

The boundaries of 293 public administration units in the Minnesota Twin Cities

area.
Courtesy of MetroGIS, St. Paul, Minnesota.