Transition from Paper to Digital

For centuries, land administration in North Cyprus - an area of 3,355km(2) - has been based on paper maps and registers. Properties in the 246 villages/neighbourhoods are registered in 1.5 million paper records and on paper maps. In 1998 an initiative was launched to transfer the paper-based system to a modern digital system. The project progressed slowly. By 2009, only approximately 20,000 of the 550,000 parcels, i.e. less than 5%, had been captured. To speed up the process, a project was started in 2013 to renew 129,962 parcels within one year. To date, 61 villages amounting to 900km(2) have been completed. The authors describe the efforts underlying the success so far and also identify deficiencies which require the authorities' attention.