Cadastral survey interface and data model

The origins of the official cadastral survey interface go back to the Swiss Cadastral Reform Project at the beginning of the 1990s. An important feature of this reform was the introduction of free choice of methods for the cadastral survey, which led - among other results - to the opening up of the market for many different software providers. In order to guarantee the exchange of geographical data despite the resulting wide variety of software, the official cadastral survey interface was defined and introduced as a neutral and independent system.

The official cadastral survey interface (AVS) is prescribed in the Technical Ordinance on Official Cadastral Surveying. It consists of the cadastral survey data model which lays down the structure of the data and the corresponding transfer format constituted by the architecture of the file containing the geographical data to be transferred.

It is also legally specified that the IT systems used within the official cadastral survey must both guarantee the import and export of data to and from the cadastral survey and conform to the description of the data model in the INTERLIS data description language. The official cadastral survey interface was the first application of INTERLIS, which has today become a recognised standard in the world of geographical information.

The INTERLIS geographical data description language allows the modelling and integration of geographical data and thus enables the exchange of data between different geographical information systems. For this reason INTERLIS is independent of the software and computer systems used.

INTERLIS was first published in 1991, and since 1998 it has been an official Swiss Standard (SN 612030) which is legally prescribed for data transfer within the official cadastral survey. However, INTERLIS is also suitable for the exchange and documentation of geographical data in many other applications such as development planning or environmental protection.