Résumé en anglais

A cadastral database may be described as part of a corporate Geographic Information System (GIS), which stores spatially defined cadastral and related information in a database such as the extent, value, ownership and many other land information within a district. Lots of land may change over time. However, users may need to have access to historical cadastral information, such as the owner of a lot 1 year back or the reason for the split of a lot. Current cadastral databases are static; i.e., they represent a snapshot of the modeled administrative area. This paper focuses on the issue of cadastral databases related to the representation of the evolution of lots of land using a novel approach called the Documented Spatiotemporal Maps, DSM. This approach, based on a multiversion database, helps to represent the history of lots, handling in the same database all the cadastral data including the cadastral plans and the change information concerning the evolution of the lots such as the reason of a change, the persons responsible for the change, the way a change has been performed and so on. The French cadastre is used here as a case study.