The earth's surface can be structured according to different criteria, for example the surface cover (forests, water, fields, streets, buildings, etc.), or administrative units (municipalities, cantons), or land use or planning (zones), or real estate (land plots). Depending on the type of structure, they are classified into physical or judicial land objects. There are boundaries between two land objects (e.g. vegetation, municipal or real estate boundaries).
Such land objects are methodically captured in a cadastre, administered and made available to the public. This information is official and legally binding. The government is liable for any damage resulting from false in formation contained in the cadastre.
The Swiss cadastral system consists of three pillars:
- the Land Register,
- the Cadastral Survey and
- the Cadastre of Public Restrictions on Landownership Rights.
This cadastral system is used to administer, preserve and publish judicial land objects. For example:
- private real estate;
- zones with special traditional rights (e.g. commons);
- administrative units such as cantons, districts and municipalities;
- protected areas (water pollution control, nature conservation, noise emission, environmental protection);
- land use and zone plans.
In addition, mortgage loans taken out for real estate are documented and secured, thus providing transparency in the real estate market and creating the premises for investment and economic development.
Furthermore, the spatial data of the cadastral system serve as the geometric basis for other geographic data sets and for the National Spatial Data Infrastructure.
The technical tools for documenting cadastral information are geographic information systems (GIS). In the scope of e-government, different web technologies are implemented for publishing this information.