Multipurpose Territorial Cadastre Governance: Lessons from Cotia’s Experience in Light of LADM Principles in the Brazilian Context

Resumo

The modernization of land administration systems in developing countries, such as Brazil, faces the dual challenge of overcoming the complexity of legacy systems and resource constraints. This paper analyzes the experience of modernizing the Multipurpose Technical Cadastre (CTM) in the municipality of Cotia, São Paulo, as a case study on the pragmatic application of international principles in a context of high socio-spatial complexity. The methodology involved integrating historical data with high-resolution geospatial inputs, such as orthophotos (10 cm GSD) and mobile mapping imagery, on a web-based GIS platform. The main result was the creation of a unified database for approximately 115,000 properties, with functional interoperability with the municipal tax system. An analysis of the solution reveals a strong conceptual convergence with the Spatial, Administrative, and Source packages of the Land Administration Domain Model (LADM - ISO 19152), even without a formal adoption of the standard. It is concluded that a fit-for-purpose approach is a viable path for cadastral modernization, and that the greatest value of standards like the LADM may lie in their function as a "conceptual map" that guides incremental, problem-driven implementations. This experience offers valuable lessons for land governance and the promotion of social inclusion in Brazil.