Land uses are objects of the cadastral database. When carrying out the modernization of the cadastre, their update is necessary, according to the Regulation on the register of land and buildings, applicable in Poland.

The Regulation sets out the principles for assigning land use categories to given land. The manner of land use carries specific consequences for the owner, namely, it is the determinant of the tax rate which, together with the surface area of the land, results in a specified amount of annual tax liabilities. For this reason, defining the type and extent of land use in the real estate cadastre raises intense feelings. Here, the affairs of land owners, who wish to incur the lowest possible costs associated with the possessed property, and of the municipality – the beneficiary of the property tax, are in contradiction.

The article presents the procedure for updating land uses during the modernization of the cadastre. According to the Regulation on the register of land and buildings, a digital description of the contour of land use may be drawn up, based on the results of field measurements, digitization of the analog map or the processed aerial photographs.

In the project, which is the basis of this article, the sources of information on the land uses included the cadastral map in the analog form as well as surveying and cartographic materials from individual surveying tasks. However, the content of the current orthophotomap, prepared for the modernization of the cadastre, and the data from the field surveys were of the greatest importance.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3846/enviro.2017.175