Developing a Paperless Land Administration Strategy for Sustainable Peacebuilding and Reconstruction in Post-conflict Syria

Land is an essential factor in the rise of civilisations and underpinning human activity. It frequently plays a vital role during conflicts and land-related issues that emerge in many violent disputes worldwide. For ten years, the ongoing violent conflict in SyriaSyria has caused human and physical destructionDestruction besides extensive damage to properties, land registry offices, and loss of most ownership proofing documents. In general, the chaos of war often conceals the proliferation of laws that push warring parties to deprive some people of their property rights and access to land. The difficulties in the property restitutionRestitution process in post-conflictPost-conflict Syria will be immense because of the war dynamics and the vast displacement of residents. The settled communityCommunity manages land to satisfy the population’s requirements to secure tenureTenure, enhance peace, and provide sustainableSustainable social, economic, and environmental developmentDevelopment solutions. The land administrationLand administration system facilitates the implementation of land-related policies and plans. In addition, a multipurpose cadastreCadastre is a central component in the land administrationLand administration system to achieve spatialSpatial integrity and precisely describe and identify each parcel property. Developing a paperless land administrationLand administration system based on information and communication technologyTechnology will bring different socio-economic benefits. The primary purpose of this chapter is to present the challenges of reconstructing the paperless land administrationLand administration system in war-torn Syria to be in tune with modern technologyTechnology.