This article reports on the first 3D cadastral registration in The Netherlands, accomplished in March 2016. The solution was sought within the current cadastral, organisational, and technical frameworks to obtain a deeper knowledge on the optimal way of implementing 3D registration, while avoiding discussions between experts from different domains. The article presents the developed methodology to represent legal volumes in an interactive 3D visualisation that can be registered in the land registers. The source data is the 3D Building Information Model (BIM). The methodology is applied to two cases: (1) the case of the railway station in Delft, resulting in the actual 3D registration in 2016; and (2) a building complex in Amsterdam, improving the Delft-case and providing the possibility to describe a general workflow from design data to a legal document. An evaluation provides insights for an improved cadastral registration of multi-level property rights. The main conclusion is that in specific situations, a 3D approach has important advantages for cadastral registration over a 2D approach. Further study is needed to implement the solution in a standardised and uniform way, from registration to querying and updating in the future, and to develop a formal registration process accordingly.

This paper reports on the first 3D cadastral registration of multi-level ownerships rights in the Netherlands, which was accomplished in March 2016. It is the result of a study that was undertaken from 2013 to 2015 to determine how insight about multi-level ownership can be provided in 3D by the cadastral registration. The solution was sought within the existing cadastral and legal framework, with the aim to build a more fundamental solution for 3D cadastral registration in the future, based on practical experience and involving the stakeholders. The 3D cadastral case presented in this paper is the new combined structure of the city hall and underground railway station in the town of Delft. The complex contains the new city hall, the railway station, the underground platforms and railway tunnel, several technical installations as well as the underground bicycle-parking. The paper presents the procedure that was followed to secure the ownership rights before the construction was completed; the translation of ownership described in the deeds into legal volumes based on the architectural drawing of the buildings; and, finally to create the 3D visualisation of the 3D rights involved and to register a deed that contains the 3D visualisation in the interactive 3D PDF format. The paper then evaluates the registration to obtain insights for an improved 3D cadastral registration. The main conclusion is that in some situations a 3D approach has important advantages for cadastral registration over a 2D approach. It requires further study on how to implement the solution in a standardised and uniform way from registration to querying and updating in the future and from an informal to a formal (i.e. legally binding) registration process.