News in 2025
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Colourful celebration at first-ever FIG
event held in Brazil on LADM/3D
LA
3-5 November 2025, Florianópolis, Brazil
Brazil is known for its warmth, creativity, and hospitality, and the
first-ever FIG event in Brazil was no exception. At the FIG Joint
Land Administration Conference 2025 in Florianópolis, there was
live music between sessions, bright lights, colour, and a lot of energy.
The joint event, held from 3–5 November 2025 at the Federal University
of Santa Catarina, included:
-
FIG Commission 7 (Cadastre and Land Management)
Annual Meeting,
-
FIG Commission 8 (Spatial Planning and
Development) Annual Meeting,
-
UN Habitat Social Tenure Domain Model (STDM),
and
-
13th International FIG Workshop on the Land
Administration Domain Model & 3D Land Administration.
Three-way language translation
opening the dialogue
An impressive total of 265 delegates participated in this first event of
its kind including 86 online delegates, representing 63 institutions
from 21 countries. Most of the delegates had submitted full papers. With
a full program running from 8:30am to 6:30pm each day, it was both
lively and productive, culminating in the publication of a three-volume
proceedings set totalling nearly 1,000 pages, all
freely available online.
Innovative features included three-way language
translation (Portuguese, Spanish, and English), which allowed delegates
to interact seamlessly and in real time during sessions. The event was
also streamed fully online with online participants able to pose
questions and get involved. The event also introduced the ‘poster pit’
concept (ultra quick one-minute presentations to attract participants to
the posters), enabling all papers to be presented in a single stream
over the three days.
DuDuring three days of intense programming, the event brought together
researchers, public managers, professionals from the productive sector,
students and representatives from 21 countries, consolidating Brazil as
a protagonist in global discussions on innovation and territorial
governance.
Throughout the conference, the combination of scientific sessions, round
tables, technical activities, networking moments, and the space
dedicated to exhibitors demonstrated the power of integration between
academia, government, and the private sector to build strategic and
sustainable solutions. The hybrid model adopted expanded access to
knowledge, allowing face-to-face and remote participants to share
experiences and contribute to the international debate.
Finding solutions
Brazil’s surveying and land governance landscape is complex with
divisions between federal and state responsibilities, rural and urban
areas, and Indigenous people, public, and private tenures, as well as
differing aims between taxation and registration systems. Yet,
innovation is happening within government, the private sector, and
through collaboration with academia. The shared language of UN-GGIM
FELA, FFPLA, and LADM* frameworks resonated across the event,
transcending linguistic and institutional boundaries and underscoring
the importance of global frameworks in fostering dialogue and developing
practical solutions.p>
The event concluded with a round table discussion addressing the
question: “How do conceptual frameworks interact in favour of climate
georesilience and sustainable development?”. The FIG community provided
valuable input for the 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference
(COP30, Brazil) in the week after. Suggested land administration
contributions included:
-
avoid further increase climate problems by giving the Indigenous
people the rights to manage the forests,
-
use LADM part 5 with the climate change adaptation profile (against
extreme heat, drought, rain, etc.) and LA-DRM (LADM extension for
disaster risk management),
-
hahave checking mechanisms in place (from humans as sensors to satellite
data with AI) and reporting via SDG land related indicators based on
LADM.
A celebration of knowledge
The FIG Joint Land Administration Conference 2025 left a significant
legacy of strengthened connections, new research paths, rapprochement
between institutions, and the renewed commitment to advance in the
construction of more integrated, modern, and inclusive cadastral
systems. May the discussions, experiences and partnerships established
here continue to drive the development of the sector and inspire future
editions of the FIG and other collaborative initiatives. It was more
than an event; it was a meeting of purposes, a celebration of knowledge
and an important step towards a more efficient, transparent and common
good-oriented territorial management.
The FIG conference in Brazil
represented a milestone for the national and international community
dedicated to land administration, land registry and geotechnologies.
Read the full report o on the FIG Joint Land Administration Conference
2025 in Brazil.
Photo gallery
*UN-GGIM FELA = United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management –
Framework for Effective Land Administrationr
FFPLA = Fit-For-Purpose Land Administration
LADM = Land Administration Domain Model
Rohan Bennett and Peter van Oosterom – FIG
Commission 7 / FIG Office
Published 3 December 2025
