Incorporating Adjacent Free Space (AFS) for marine spatial unit in 3D marine cadastre data model based on LADM

Rapid development and various needs to protect owners’ interests impose high demands on land management. Land policies (e.g., the National Land Code of 1965 for Peninsular Malaysia) support the growth of a country by defining the rights, requirements for accessibility, and owners of land properties among the parties that participate in municipal, state, and regional planning. The land policy, such as the National Land Code (NLC) of 1965, determines the types of land tenure—freehold, leasehold, customary, and agricultural. The land code clearly defines the shoreline domain as well as the foreshore and seabed regions. To improve the conservation and sustainable use of oceans and their resources as indicated in the Goal 14 of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), development in the coastal area requires careful spatial planning for managing properties in the maritime domain. Human activities can be managed through an effective marine administration and development where a marine cadastre would be applied. This marine cadastre supports marine spatial rights, responsibilities, and restrictions (RRRs) for marine spatial units. In coastal and marine environments, overlapping rights in the airspace, water surface, water column, seabed surface and subsoil are frequent, along with technical, legal, and stakeholder management issues. Overlapping marine spatial units such as pipeline and fish cage projects involve multiple jurisdictions (e.g., state department, private company) regarding RRRs. Three-dimensional representation for the marine domain is needed for clear RRRs on marine spatial units, and a 3D marine cadastre may benefit the coastal and marine administration and information systems by depicting precise rights representations. Defining the boundaries of marine spatial units is a challenge given the marine dynamic factor. Natural phenomena such as tides, currents, and waves affect the spaces of marine spatial units move at certain distance (threshold). This paper discusses the issues of “moving–marine spatial units” where the dynamic aspects of vertical and planimetric dimensions require proper attention to be handled, with a Peninsular Malaysia marine-based resort as a case study. Hence, this paper generally proposes the Adjacent Free Space (AFS) approach for handling of this “moving” phenomenon in the maritime domain and extending the 3D marine cadastre data model based on the Land Administration Domain Model (LADM).