International Land Systems (ILS), Inc. has successfully delivered the Continually Operating Reference Stations (CORS), a key component to upgrade the Mongolian geospatial network and to map suburban areas. On December 2, 2010, the Ministry of Roads, Transportation, Construction and Urban Development and the Millennium Challenge Account – Mongolia presented the Delivery Ceremony of the CORS. ILS was contracted to implement the CORS as part of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC)–funded Property Rights Project (PRP).
The PRP seeks to increase the security and capitalization of land assets held by lower-income Mongolians. Project activities will improve the formal system for recognizing and transferring land rights, and issue fully marketable private land titles to ger (a circular collapsible tent used by nomads in Central Asia) area residents in Ulaanbaatar and 8 Regional Centers.
Transformation from a traditionally nomadic culture to an urban one has presented several unique challenges to the Mongolian Government in terms of land registry and records. In the past 30 years, Ulaanbaatar’s population has nearly tripled in size. ILS Vice President of International Programs, Noel Taylor said, “By upgrading and modernizing their geodetic network and equipment, combined with digitizing from Quickbird satellite imagery, the Mongolian Government will more efficiently survey property boundaries for suburban gers, a critical requirement for granting land titles to Mongolian people.
The CORS and RTK (real time kinetic) units will be used initially in performing cadastral surveys and capturing ground control points for the orthorectification of satellite imagery, which ILS is also using to map 75,000 property plots. Peri-urban plots, known in Mongolian as hashaa plots will then be privatized and registered through additional project activities.
In addition, ILS provided six Trimble NetR8 GPS/GNSS units form the CORS infrastructure, while eight Trimble R5 GPS/GNSS base and rover bundles to provide the Mongolian Agency for Land Affairs, Construction, Geodesy and Cartography (ALACGaC) with much needed capacity for carrying out RTK surveys in regional centers. The CORS infrastructure has been established in the cities of Ulaanbaatar, Darkhan and Erdenet.
The Minister of Roads, Transportation, Construction and Urban Development – Battulga. Kh, Resident Country Director of Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) – Robert Reid, and MCA-Mongolia Property Rights Project Director – D. Odonchimeg attended the event.
