Application of Surveying and GIS in Land Management: A Case Study of Abia State, Nigeria

Abstract

The establishment of foundations for protecting property rights, facilitating land and infrastructure investment, bolstering agricultural output, and encouraging sustainable urban design are all examples of how effective land management is essential for socioeconomic growth. Effective land management guarantees personal safety and promotes development, while land serves as a buffer for its owner against potential calamities. This study aims to examine the role and application of surveying techniques in effective land management. However, ineffective and unsustainable land management techniques plague many nations, including Nigeria. The country of Nigeria is facing a scarcity of skilled workers in the surveying field. This contributes to the nation's current land administration chaos. The necessity for a better system of land administration and management procedures is justified by the rapid expansion, which has made manual record-keeping ineffective, time-consuming, and vulnerable to abuse. Efficient and effective land administration appears to be hampered by issues such as complex land tenure arrangements, corruption, poor paperwork, and governance weaknesses. For the nation's land resources to be managed and used effectively, these problems must be resolved. In this study, the viability of Southeast Nigeria's current land administration system is assessed, and the possibility of surveying in land management to remedy the issues is investigated. The study evaluates the effectiveness of the current system and pinpoints the main obstacles to its sustainability using a mixed methods approach, emphasising the necessity of a paradigm shift toward more contemporary, integrated, and sustainable land management systems.