Adopting national vegetation guidelines and the National Vegetation Information System (NVIS) framework in the Northern Territory

Guidelines and core attributes for site-based vegetation surveying and mapping developed for the Northern Territory, are relevant to botanical research, forestry typing, rangeland monitoring and reporting on the extent and condition of native and non-native vegetated landscapes. These initiatives are consistent with national vegetation guidelines and the National Vegetation Information System (NVIS) framework. This paper provides a synopsis of vegetation site data collection, classification and mapping in the Northern Territory, and discusses the benefits of consistency between the guidelines, core attributes and the NVIS framework; both of which has an emphasis on the NVIS hierarchical classification system for describing structural and floristic attributes of vegetation. The long-term aim of the NVIS framework is that national attributes are adopted at regional levels to enable comparability of vegetation information within survey and jurisdictional boundaries in the Northern Territory and across Australia. The guidelines and core attributes are incorporated in current and future vegetation survey and mapping programs in the Northern Territory

Divide and rule: Frontinus and Roman land-surveying

This paper aims to cast new light on one of our main sources for ancient science, Sextus Julius Frontinus; to cast new light on the science of the Graeco-Roman period; and to contribute ancient materials to present discussions on the relations between power and knowledge, and/or science and empire

How incipient colonies create territory: The textual surveys of New Spain, 1520s–1620s

The study of colonial surveying and cartography has become key to understanding the history of European colonialism because of the recognition that land surveys and maps not only represent territory but form part of the process through which territory comes into being. While many studies have therefore focused on the history of instrumental surveying and cartography in New Spain, roughly equivalent to present-day Mexico, between the seventeenth and twentieth century, the textual surveys of the sixteenth century that helped to bring the initial colonial territory into being have gone largely unstudied. Content analysis of textual land surveys included in sixteenth-century viceregal land grants for sheep and cattle ranches demonstrates variation in references to distance, direction, and borders that begins to reveal a process of negotiation among local actors and centralized state power that was contingent on environmental, economic, and demographic differences between highland and lowland landscapes

Letter from the Acting Secretary of the Treasury, transmitting a communication from the Secretary of the Interior submitting an estimate for surveying lands in Indian Territory.

Surveying Lands in Indian Territory. [3425] Appropriation needed to survey the lands of the Five Civilized Tribes

Selling State Borders

Sovereign territory was bought and sold throughout much of American history, and there are good reasons to think that an interstate market for borders could help solve many contemporary economic and political problems. But no such market currently exists. Why not? And could an interstate market for sovereign territory help simplify border disputes, resolve state budget crises, respond to exogenous shocks like river accretion, and improve democratic responsiveness? Focusing on the sale of borders among American states, this Article offers constitutional, political, and ethical answers to the first question, and a qualified yes to the second

An overview of adverse possession in Australia within the framework of the Torrens system of land registration and comment on a related court case

In October 2008, a decision was made in the Land Court of Queensland regarding an appeal against an annual valuation of land pursuant to the Valuation of Land Act 1944 (Qld). Aside from the fundamental issue regarding valuation of the subject land, the case, Tardent v Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Water [2008] QLC also raised issues regarding adverse possession and access by encroachment on land gazetted as a nature conservation reserve. Given that each state and territory adopted the Torrens system of land registration and within the framework of legislation for each state and territory a degree of uniformity of solution could be expected? Surprisingly if the scenario was applied to the other states and territories a wide variety of solutions is possible depending upon individual state legislation. The solutions range from easement creation to adverse possession to revocation of nature conservation reserve which emphasises the need for property law reform within the states and territories. The aim of this paper is to examine state legislation to determine the likely most probable solution for the states and territories given the elements of the case and the conclusion will highlight the desire for standardised state legislation and operation of the Torrens system of land registration