Dr. Shivangi Somvanshi as Panelist at National Conference on Land Administration & Disaster Management

Dr. Shivangi Somvanshi represented the Center for Applied Geomatics, CRDF at the National Conference on Land Administration & Disaster Management, organized by the Government of Gujarat in collaboration with the Department of Land Resources (MoRD, GoI). The panel discussion focused on “Creation and Updating of Urban Land Records.”

The session was chaired by Mr. Kunal Satyarthi (IFS), Joint Secretary, DoLR, and moderated by Ms. Kshipra Agre (IAS), Collector, Navsari. The discussion brought together senior officials from Gujarat, Haryana, and Tamil Nadu, enabling a rich exchange of perspectives on strengthening urban land governance.

Key deliberations covered capturing and legally recognizing vertical rights in multi-storey developments, mapping informal settlements while ensuring tenure security, improving inter-departmental coordination for updating land data, and identifying appropriate technology stacks for modern urban land record systems.

The discussion also highlighted emerging global trends such as 3D Cadastre, Digital Twins, Blockchain, and AI/ML, along with the importance of standards and implementation frameworks. International best practices from leading land administration agencies were referenced to contextualize pathways for India.

The conference provided a valuable platform to emphasize the role of academia and research institutions in supporting governments through technology advisory, development of SOPs, and structured implementation frameworks for national initiatives—contributing to the future of urban land governance in India.