The RRR Toolbox: a Conceptual Model for Improving Spatial Data Management in SDIs

Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI) aim to link people with spatial services and data. Increasingly, SDI initiatives are focusing on a particular type of data: large-scale people relevant data. Examples include the ownership parcel layer and built environment information. To improve the management of these essential SDI layers, consideration of land parcels and their administration is needed. In particular, the complex array of rights, restrictions and responsibilities (RRRs) applying to land needs to be understood. Moreover, the contemporary models of RRRs management must also be understood. To this end, this article introduces the RRR Toolbox, a holistic framework for understanding, creating and managing land interests. The nature and design of RRRs are discussed along with their problematic management. This leads to a description of the development and components of the RRR Toolbox. The dualism of RRRs, being both spatial and land based, makes the RRR Toolbox highly applicable to SDI. Indeed, seven of the model’s eight components are found to be relevant in the SDI context.