Integrating Emerging Technologies to Streamline Urban Planning, Cadastral Registration, and Building Approvals

This chapter highlights the fragmented process of land development and examines the potential to develop a framework that interconnects cadastre, urban planning, and building approval processes to streamline land administration comprehensively. These three domains often overlap in functions, processes, regulations, and data requirements; however, they suffer from a lack of coordination due to multiple organisational and disconnected management. Limited attention and a lack of harmonisation have led to redundancies, delays, and inefficiencies within regulatory workflows. We aim to uncover opportunities for integration enhanced through technology-driven solutions. Artificial Intelligence offers capabilities for automating processes and optimising decision-making, while Digital Twin technology provides real-time, three-dimensional representations of physical spaces that can simulate project impacts prior to implementation. Additionally, the Metaverse presents an immersive, secured, and collaborative environment that enables stakeholders to validate, visualise, and interact with proposed developments virtually in real time. This research proposes a framework leveraging these emerging technologies to facilitate data sharing, reduce administrative bottlenecks, automate assessments, and enhance transparency across the entire approval pipeline. This study contributes to the growing discourse on digitalisation and innovation in urban governance to harness emerging technologies in the service of more effective and responsive administration of urban environments.