Incheon City Abandons Japanese Colonial Era Standards, Registers Nation's First International Standard Cadastral Records

Conversion of Over 670,000 Parcels to Global Geodetic System Completed

Incheon City's cadastral records have been changed to the global geodetic system standard for the first time nationwide. Cadastral records are registers and maps that indicate land surveyed through measurements, such as land registers and forest registers, and record owners and other information.

On the 10th, Incheon City announced that by converting the coordinates of the last approximately 90,000 parcels to the global geodetic system standard on the 5th, a total of about 670,000 parcels in the city have been registered in the cadastral records according to international standards.

Korea's cadastral records have been using cadastral (forest) maps registered under the Tokyo geodetic system based on Japanese standards during the Japanese colonial period, which differs by about 365 meters from the international standard. Because of this, there were difficulties in linking and utilizing various spatial information, as it did not match map information from other countries.

The work of converting coordinates to the global geodetic system standard is a national policy project to establish digital cadastral maps that comply with international standards. The location, area, and height of buildings on the map do not change; only the coordinates are altered.

Example of Geodetic Datum Change [Provided by Incheon City]

Incheon City formed a dedicated team of district and county officials in 2021 without outsourcing to external surveying companies, and by directly surveying using location information systems (GPS) and drones, they also achieved a budget reduction of 660 million KRW.

An official from Incheon City stated, "The completion of the global geodetic system conversion signifies the start of eliminating remnants of Japanese colonial rule and building a Korean-style digital cadastral map," adding, "In the future, cadastral records that meet international standards will be utilized in various fields such as drones and autonomous driving."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.