The Land Survey Office will likely provide state maps for free as open data

Prague - The Geodetic Office, which manages state maps and database information, will apparently provide this information free of charge as open data. Limited access to them will only be due to the protection of critical infrastructure according to the crisis law. A government amendment to the geodetic law, which was approved by the Chamber today, will bring this change. The draft, which will be received by senators for consideration, will also establish the professional Czech Chamber of Surveyors. The Chamber will grant authorizations for verifying building plans or state maps.

According to the approved amendment of the Agricultural Committee, the Surveying Chamber will grant authorization for verifying the results of surveying activities used for the management of the land register, especially geometric plans or documentation on the marking of land boundaries, activities utilized in construction, and for state maps. It will issue the designation of "authorized geodetic engineer".

According to the proposal, surveyors will obtain authorization after at least five years of practice and passing an exam; the chamber would register them in the register of authorized geodetic engineers. The Chamber, based in Prague, will be led by a board elected by its assembly, and it will have a supervisory and authorization council. For disciplinary violations, the chamber could impose, among other things, a fine of up to 50,000 crowns or revoke authorization.

The establishment of the chamber was initiated by the Association of Entrepreneurs in Geomatics with the support of the Czech Chamber of Architects, the Road and Motorway Directorate of the Czech Republic, and the Railway Administration. The creation of the new professional organization was supported by the Ministry for Regional Development.

The government amendment assumes that henceforth all public authority bodies will provide geographic data to the office, and conversely, all these institutions will have free access to them. "The goal is to create the conditions for further development of geographically oriented information systems in public administration," the justification states.

According to the explanatory report, the Geodetic Office is expected to lose approximately five million crowns annually. The state expects compensation from the benefits it should gain, for example, by taxing the activities of private individuals, where the use of geospatial information will positively reflect on their income. Costs will also be reduced by the fact that the office will not have to manage this data separately for other offices.

The government amendment is almost identical to the draft prepared by the cabinet of Andrej Babiš (ANO) in September 2020. However, the Chamber did not have time to discuss this amendment in the previous electoral term.