A Least Squares-Based Method for Adjusting the Boundaries of Area Objects

Xiaohua Tong, Wenzhong Shi, and Dajie Liu

Abstract
In this paper a least squares-based method is proposed for adjusting the boundaries of area objects in a GIS that is designed particularly for solving inconsistencies between the areas of digitized and registered land parcels. The principle of this approach is taking the size of the registered area of a land parcel as its true value and to adjust the geometric position of the boundaries of the digitized parcel. First, a generic area adjustment model is derived by incorporating the following two categories of constraints: (a) attribute constraint: the size of the true area of the parcel, and (b) geometric constraints: such as, straight lines, right angles and certain distances. Second, the methods used to adjust the areas of the parcels for different cases are presented. Third, the implementation of the proposed model is illustrated using several case studies. The results of the application and the corresponding analysis demonstrate that the proposed approach is able to maintain a consistency between the areas of the digitized and registered parcels. This study has solved one of the most critical problems in developing a land/cadastral information system, and this solution has been adopted in the processing of real world cadastral data in Shanghai and other cities in China.

Introduction
The area, location and ownership of a land parcel are often the most important elements to be recorded in a land or cadastral information system. Of these elements, the area, more specifically the registered area of a parcel, is a key attribute and has legal authorization. Spatially, the area is closely related to the geometric position of the parcel. In developing a land information system, map digitization, including both manual and scanning digitization, is still a major method for capturing data (Tong et al., 2002). However, in cadastral parcel digitization, errors, such as systematic and random errors, are not unavoidable. Errors in the coordinates of the boundaries of a digitized parcel will be propagated to the area of the corresponding parcel. As a result, the area of a parcel from digitization (called the digitized area of a parcel) calculated from the composed coordinates is not equal to the registered area that is stored in the database as an attribute with legal authorization. The inconsistency between the digitized and registered area is a critical problem, as both position and attribute uncertainties

in the spatial data will exist during the establishment of a land information system. This problem may lead to legal, financial, and technical issues in the application of the land information system. The aim of this study is to propose a solution for the inconsistencies between the digitized and registered area of land parcels by adjusting the geometric position of the boundaries of the parcel within an acceptable extent, and taking the attributes of the registered area as true values. Theoretically, the proposed solution will contribute to studies on spatial data position and attribute errors which are considered major research issues in a geographic information system (GIS) (NCGIA, 1989; UCGIS, 1996). Different from previous studies on upgrading cadastral data, which mainly focused on geometric constraints, this study incorporates both attribute and geometric constraints. Practically, the proposed solution has been widely adopted in establishing land information in Shanghai, China which ensures the healthy development of land information in the real world. Many efforts have been made to investigate the characteristics and processing of errors in map digitization (Burrough, 1986; Keefer and Smith, 1988; Bolstad et al., 1990; Thapa and Bossler, 1992; Caspary and Scheuring, 1993; Tong et al., 2000; Tong and Zhou, 2003). Chrisman and Yandell (1988, 1989) derived a statistical model for variances in area based on the assumption that the nodes of a polygon possess errors. They discussed the correlation of the nodes in calculations of errors involving area. However, how to process the error in area is an open question that needs further investigation. Najeh and Burkhard (1995) presented a methodology to create a digital cadastral overlay by upgrading digitized cadastral data. Tong et al. (1998) derived the conditional adjustment models for digitized data and the iterative calculation method. Merrit and Masters (1999) explored the parametric adjustment approach implemented in the Spatial Adjustment Engine (SAE) to improve the accuracy of the digital cadastral databases. Lu and Shih (2002) proposed a method to identify the boundaries of parcels using the least squares method of adjustment with a cadastral overlay. In these previous studies, angle, distance, and direction were used as the observations and formed the constraints in the digitization of the parcel. After adjustment, constraints such as straight lines, parallel lines, and right angles were met, while the condition of the area was normally not maintained. In fact, area is one of the most essential attributes with the legal effect on the cadastre. In addition to geometric constraints, it is therefore very important to develop a

Xiaohua Tong and Dajie Liu are with the Department of Surveying and Geo-informatics, Tongji University, 1239 Siping Road, Shanghai, China, 200092 (tongxhtj@yeah.net). Wenzhong Shi is with the Advanced Research Centre for Spatial Information Technology, Department of Land Surveying and Geo-informatics, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong.
PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING

Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing Vol. 71, No. 2, February 2005, pp. 189195. 0099-1112/05/71020189/$3.00/0 2005 American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing
February 2005 189

method of processing data to ensure the correctness of the attribute for area. Thus, this study focuses on putting forward a method of processing the boundaries of land parcels in a land information system to adjust for inconsistencies between the measured and registered area, while at the same time, meeting other geometric constraints such as the need for a straight line, parallel line, and right angle. In the following sections, the processing of errors of area in the digitized cadastral parcel will be discussed further. The mathematical models for adjusting the digitized boundary coordinates of the parcel will first be derived in which the registered area in the attribute database is regarded as the true value. A method of processing errors of area in the parcel will then be presented according to different kinds of circumstances. The implementation of the models and methodologies will be illustrated through several case studies. The results will be analyzed and conclusions will be drawn at the end of this paper.

Least Squares-Based Area Adjustment Method

The digitized coordinates of the boundaries of a parcel can be treated as observations (Liu et al., 1999). The known registered area, the rectangular angles, the known distances, and circular arcs constitute the constraints of the digitized coordinates of a parcel. With more correlated parcels, we will have more constraints. As a result, we have enough redundant observations in the digitization of parcels. Adjustment for data processing becomes possible, and is thus proposed in this study. In this case, the area conditional equation for a polygon, the rectangular conditional equation for right angles and the area conditional equation for a polygon with arcs in a parcel are derived. Based on these relationships, a generic model for adjustments to the area are proposed. The Area Conditional Equation for a Polygon As discussed above in cadastral map digitization, a parcel is treated as a closed polygon whose vertexes are digitized, and the coordinates of the vertexes are obtained. Therefore, the coordinates of these vertexes can be regarded as digitized observations. Furthermore, the known area, rectangular angles, and arcs in the parcel constitute the constraints of these coordinates. Thus, it is pertinent to adopt a conditional adjustment model to construct these constraints. Assume that (xi, yi) (i 1, 2, . . . , n) are the digitized coordinates of the vertexes in a parcel boundary, and that the corresponding adjustment values and corrective values i, y i) and (vxi , vyi ), and are (x i xi vxi x i yi vyi y (i 1, 2 p , n). (1)

Figure 1. An arbitrary polygon parcel.

and the linearized form of the above conditional equation is expressed by

n i1 n

a ai vxi a bi vyi v 0
i1

(4)

where ai (yi1 yi1) bi

digitized coordinates.

1 n xi (yi1 yi1) and S is the parcel area calculated by the 2a i 1

1 2

1 (xi 1 xi1) v S S0 S 2

Figure 1 shows an arbitrary polygon parcel whose vertexes are denoted as Pi (i 1, 2, . . . n). Assuming that the registered area of the parcel is known as S0, we have the relation between the registered area and the digitized coordinates as follows: 1 n i (y i 1 y i1) S0 a x 2 i1 (2)

The Rectangular Conditional Equation for Right Angles From Figure 1, we can see that there are right angles in the parcel polygon, for example, vertexes P2, P3 and P4; P3, P4 and P5 constitute two right angles. Hence, these vertexes should obey the rectangular constraint. Assume that an angle defined as is composed of three vertexes, denoted as i, j and k. Therefore, a rectangular conditional equation between these three vertexes is ik a ij b a (5)

where P0 Pn Pn1 P1 i.e., x0 xn, y0 yn; and xn1 x1, yn1 y1. Thus, the area conditional equation that is obtained is 1 n i ( y i1 y i1) S0 0 ax 2i 1
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ik, a ij are the estimators of the azimuths in directions where a ik and ij, and i j y y i k y y ik arctan ij arctan . a , a i i k x j x x x Therefore, the linearized form of the above conditional equation is aik vxk bik vyk (aik aij) vxi (bik bij) vyi aij vxj bij vyj vi 0 (6)

(3)

PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING

where aij

sin aij

sij sij cos aik bik sik sij 1(xj xi)2 (yj yi)2

bij

cos aij

aik

sin aik sik

sik 1(xk xi)2 (yk yi)2 yj yi yk yi vi arctan arctan b xk xi xj xi and ikij is computed by observations of the digitized coordinates. p 3p It is easy to see that if the angle satisfies b 1 or 2, 2 2 Equation 6 is a rectangular conditional equation, and if , Equation 6 is a straight-line conditional equation. The Area Conditional Equation with Arcs in a Parcel Polygon If a parcel polygon has several arcs as shown in Figure 2, the area of the parcel is then the sum of the area of the polygon whose vertexes are P0, P1, . . . , Pn and of the arc whose vertexes are Pn, P0, P1. Assuming that the radius of the arc is known as R, and taking the center point P0 (x0, y0) of the arc as the unknown parameters, we have the following area conditional equation: 1 1 n i ( y i1 y i1) R2a S0 0 ax 2i 2 0 where P1 Pn Pn1 P0, i.e., x1 xn, y1 yn; xn1 x0, yn1 y0; and is the central angle of the arc and calculated by sin a 1 2 x 1)2 (y 2 y 1)2. 1(x 2 2R (8) (7)

sin a12, w a0 2 1 n 1 2 0 0 is the approximate a xi (yi 1 yi1) R a S0, a 2 i0 2 value of . In support, at least three points including its two endpoints should be digitized to determine an arc. Therefore, we have the following relation between each pair of digitized coordinates and the radius in an arc: 2 cos a 2
0

where c1

cos a12, d1

2 cos

0)2 (y ri y 0)2 R2 0 ri x (x

(10)

where (xri , yri ) is any pair of digitized coordinates in the arc, (x0, y0) is the pair of coordinates of the center point and R is the radius of the arc. By linearization Equation 10, we have the following conditional equation with unknown parameters: 0 y0i dy 0 w 0 (11) x0ivxri y0ivyri x0i dx 1 0 0 0 2 where x0i xri x0 ; y0i yri y0 ; w [( xri x0 ) 2 0 (yri y0)2 R2]. Supposing that there are a total of m arcs in a parcel polygon and that the radius of each arc is Ri (i 1, 2, . . . , m), we have following conditional equation:
i0 n n m 1 2 0 i v 0 a aivxi a bivyi a 2 Ri ai da i0 i1

(12)

where the positive or negative sign () in the above equation is determined by the shape of the arcs in the polygon. If the arc is convex, the sign is positive (); otherwise the sign is negative (). i is calculated by the endpoints and radius of the arc according to Equation 8, and v
m Ri 1 n xi (yi1 yi1) a ai S0. a 2 i0 2 i1 2

Linearizing Equation 8 and substituting it into Equation 7, we have

n i0 i Z 1,2 n i0 i Z 1,2

aaivxi a bivyi (a1 c1)vx1 (b1 d1)vy1 (a2 c1)vx2 (b1 d1)vy2 w 0 (9)

The Generic Model for Adjusting the Area Usually, the areas of the parcels are adjusted within a region that is a block or composed of several blocks. The conditions of adjustment include both the attribute constraint (area, and geometric constraints) such as, being right angles, straight-lines, distances, and arcs. Therefore, a generic model for the areas of parcels that covers these two categories of constraints should be designed and derived. Assuming that the digitized coordinate observation is denoted as a vector L, and that a corresponding co-variance matrix is denoted as a matrix Q, the corrective value of the observation is denoted as a vector V. Therefore, Equations 4, 6, 9, 11 and 12 can be represented by following generalized form: w0 AV Ax dX (13)

where coefficients in A, Ax and w are calculated based on is the unknown parameEquations 4, 6, 9, 11, and 12, and dX ter matrix. Based on the least squares theory, the corresponding normal equation is obtained (Mikhail and Ackermann, 1976) as follows: c AQAT AT x Ax K w d c d c d 0 0 dX 0 (14)

where K is a Lagrange multiplier. and K are calculated by Thus, dX Figure 2. A parcel polygon with an arc. K AQAT c d c dX AT x Ax 1 w d c d. 0 0
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(15)

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191

The adjustment values of the digitized coordinates of the parcels are obtained by L V L QATK. L (16)

The variance-covariance matrixes of the adjusted coordinates are obtained as

T T 1 T 1 1 QL Q QA (AQA ) (I Ax (Ax (AQA ) Ax) Ax (AQAT)1)AQ (17) , 2 Q DL s 0 L T T

and, the estimator of the unit root mean square error is represented by: 2 s 0 VTPV r (18)

where r is the number of the redundancy. The number of r is determined as follows. First, the parcel j has one area condition. Second, assuming that there are mj rectangular angles in the parcel, there will be mj rectangular conditions; while if all of the angles in the polygon are right angles, the conditions become (mj 1). Third, assuming that there are nj arcs in the parcel and that the digitized points in each arc are ki (ki 3), the total number of conditions in this parcel is a 1 mj a (ki 3) b . Therefore, for a block with
i1 nj

Figure 3. The case in which neighboring parcels share common boundaries.

M parcels, there are total of a a a 1 mj a (ki 3) b b i1 j1 redundancies. This number is also used to determine the conditional equation number when adjusting for area.

nj

Methods of Adjusting for Area for Various Cases

In this section, we will further extend the area adjustment model for various possible cases and come up with methods of adjusting for area that can be used to handle different possible cases in real world cadastral data sets. Based our analysis of the large amounts of area in the land parcels in the land information system, the cases for which the areas of parcels need to be adjusted may include the following five categories: a single parcel, a parcel with holes, multiple parcels, multiple parcels with fixed points and parcels, and the sequential adjustment of multiple parcels with large volumes of data. In the following, we will discuss in detail methods of adjusting the areas of parcels for all possible cases. Furthermore, the concept of error limit is proposed to ensure that the adjustment of area is conducted within an acceptable level, and the corresponding values for error limit are derived for five cases. The Five Different Cases for Adjusting the Areas of Parcels In a cadastral map, a parcel belongs to a particular block. A block is normally composed of many parcels without slices among them, and a block is a relatively independent unit of region. Theoretically, the area of a block is always equal to the sum of the areas of all of the parcels within this block. Blocks are normally separated by streets or other geographic features. Thus, it is pertinent to regard a single block as a basic unit of processing in adjusting the area of the parcel. Many parcels may exist within a block, and they can be relevant to each other. Correspondingly, many constraints may exist. Therefore, if the parcels are adjusted separately without considering the correlation among them, the boundaries among these parcels may finally overlap. For example, Figure 3 shows three adjacent parcels that share several common boundaries. If we adjust the parcels one by one, as illustrated in Figure 4, the common boundaries of the
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Figure 4. Examples of parcels that overlap around a common boundary region if the parcels, are adjusted separately.

adjusted parcels will overlap and be inconsistent with each other. Here, although we solve the problem of inconsistency between the measured and registered area of each parcel, at the same time, we generate another inconsistency: overlap between the adjacent parcels. This overlap is not acceptable. Our target is to solve the inconsistency between the digitized and registered area and, at the same time, not generate overlap between the adjacent parcels. Within a block, there are many cases in terms of parcels and their relationships which we classified into five different cases. For each case, we propose a corresponding method of solving for adjustments to the areas of parcels.
PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING

Case 1: Adjustment of the Area of a Single Parcel A single parcel that needs to be adjusted and is independent of others is the simplest case. This type of example can be seen from the parcels in Figures 1 and 2. The conditional adjustment equations are derived based on Equations 6, 11, and 12. Case 2: Adjustment of the Area of a Parcel with Holes In this case, a parcel is located inside another parcel. Therefore, two conditions for area should be considered: one for the area of the hole parcel and the other for the area of the parcel containing the hole. These two parcels should be adjusted simultaneously. Case 3: Adjustment of an Area with Multiple Parcels This is the most popular case. In this case, many parcels of land are located within one block, as shown in Figure 3. Where the volume of the data of a block is within a certain limit, multiple parcels within a block should be adjusted integrally and simultaneously. For example, in most of the practical cases, the total numbers of parcels is less than 300, and total number of digitized vertexes within one block is less than 6,000. Here, the key problem is to ensure that the shared vertexes and boundaries among interrelated parcels are moved simultaneously, if needed. Therefore, the topologies between parcel polygons remain unchanged. Case 4: Adjustment of an Area with Multiple Parcels with Fixed Points and Parcels This case occurs when there are some higher accuracy points or parcels whose vertexes are measured using more advanced methods. These points and parcels should not be moved when adjusting the area of the parcel. These points are called fixed points, and the parcels are called fixed parcels. These fixed points can be described using following conditional equations: vxi 0 f (i 1, 2, p , n0) vyi 0 where n0 is the numbers of fixed points. Case 5: Sequential Adjustment of Multiple Parcels with a Large Volume of Data When the volume of data of the adjusted parcels and blocks is very large, it is proposed that a method of sequential adjustment for multiple parcels be used. This method is further developed based on the solutions for Cases 2 and 3. The algorithm is detailed as follows: (19)

necessary to give an error limit for process of adjusting the area of the parcel to ensure that the adjusted coordinates of the parcel are within an acceptable level. If the difference is less than the error limit, adjustments to the area of the parcel can be carried out. Otherwise, further efforts should be made to check the reason for the difference. In the following, we will derive the error limit based on the assumption that the root mean square error of the digitized coordinate is 7 cm (Tong et al., 1998). According to Equation 2, we have the variance in area
T s2 s ADz A

(20)

where A [a1 b1 a2 a2 . . . an bn]; [x1 y1 x2 y2 . . . xn yn]T, s is the variance in area, D is a diagonal matrix representing the variances of the digitized coordinates, and D diag{0.49, 0.49, . . . , 0.49}2n2n. From the above equation, we can see that the variance in area is related to the number of the vertexes and the number of sides of the parcels. Therefore, we usually choose 2s and 3s as the error limit of the area.

Experimental Studies and Analysis

Based on the above theoretical development, an experimental study was conducted to illustrate the feasibility of the models and the methodologies with a thorough analysis of the results. Taking the parcels included in a block shown in Figure 5 as an example, the adjustment of area was applied to these parcels. In this block, there were a total 101 parcels, 662 vertexes, and 139 right angles. Thus, the dimensions of the coefficient matrix in the condition equations are 240 rows and 1,324 columns. Here, we set 5 cm as a prior root mean square error for a digitized coordinate, and 2s as the error limit of the area. Table 1 shows portion of data for the registered area of the parcels, the digitized area, and the difference between them. It also shows the relative errors and the error limits of the areas. Based on the methods in Cases 3 and 4 previously presented, the areas of the parcels are adjusted integrally. After several iterative calculations (usually two), the digitized coordinates of the parcels are moved, and the area of each parcel is calculated using adjusted coordinates that are equal to the corresponding registered areas of the parcels. The unit weight root mean square error, after the adjustment, is 0.081 m. Table 2 shows the statistical results of the

Adjusting the outer boundaries of the parcels: First, the outer boundaries of the parcels are formed; then, the coordinates of the boundaries are adjusted. As a result, these adjusted points will be used as the fixed points for the follow-up process. Dividing the adjusted region into several parts: Based on the fixed points obtained from adjusting the outer boundaries, we can select some routes beginning at a fixed point and ending in another fixed point. Then, the middle points of the routes are adjusted simultaneously and become the fixed points. The whole region is then subdivided by these routes into several smaller parts. Adjusting the inner parcels in each part. Taking each part as a processing unit, the parcels in each part are then further adjusted integrally according to the method used for Case 4.

Error Limit for Adjusting the Area of the Parcel Sometimes, in practice, the difference between the registered and digitized area for a parcel can be very large. This may be because the error of digitization is too large or because the value of the registered area is doubtful. Therefore, it is
PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING

Figure 5. Many parcels are located within one block.

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TABLE 1. Registered Area (m2) 2521.000 5516.000 44938.000 110.000 2857.000 2748.000 1873.000 4144.000 2704.000 5183.000 107.000 579.000 483.000 2197.000 142.000

THE RESULT

OF

CALCULATING

THE

AREAS

OF

SOME

OF THE

PARCELS Error Limit (m2) 23 38 115 4 24 26 18 39 26 36 7 11 10 21 6

Digitized Area (m2) 2516.165 5513.318 44945.702 108.962 2857.780 2750.091 1873.226 4141.147 2709.042 5182.701 106.667 582.477 483.818 2199.293 144.048

Difference (m2) 4.835 2.682 7.702 1.038 0.780 2.091 0.226 2.853 5.042 0.299 0.333 3.477 0.818 2.293 2.048

Relative Error (%) 2 0.5 0.2 9 0.3 0.8 0.1 0.7 2 0.1 3 6 2 1 1.5

TABLE 2. Range Number Vx Vy

THE STATISTICAL RESULTS

OF THE

CORRECTED VALUES

OF

DIGITIZED COORDINATES

IN THE X- AND

y-DIRECTIONS

15 |v| 20 cm 3 3

10 |v| 15 cm 7 21

5 |v| 10 cm 96 83

1 |v| 5 cm 297 273

|v| 1 cm 259 282

corrected values of the digitized coordinates in the x and y directions. Table 3 shows part of the corrected value, the adjustment value, root mean square error, and positional error of the digitized coordinates of the parcels. From an analysis of the results of the experimental studies, we can conclude that differences between the registered and digitized areas of parcels always exist, and that the range of the relative errors are from 0.1 percent to 10 percent. However, after adjusting the area of the parcel, these two area values become equal. From Table 1, we can also see that the error limits of the area of a parcel are closely related to the size of the parcel and to the number of vertexes of the parcel. Therefore, the relative errors of the areas of parcels of a smaller size or with fewer vertexes are much larger. The chance of this case being larger than the error limits is thus higher.
TABLE 3. THE CORRECTED VALUES
AND

From Table 2, we can see that corrected values of between 10 cm and 20 cm are fewest in number, between 5 cm and 10 cm relatively less, and corrected values of less than 5 cm are greatest in number. Meanwhile, from Table 3, we can see that the range of the root mean square error values of the digitized coordinates of the vertexes in the parcels is between 0 cm and 9 cm, and the positional error is about 10 cm. These results indicate that within the error limit of the area, it is feasible to move the coordinates of the vertexes of the parcel boundaries to adjust errors in the area of the parcels. The results show that the approach presented in this paper can incorporate attribute constraints (area constraints; and geometric constraints) straight lines, parallel lines, and right angle constraints. This work is a further development on existing methods where only geometric constraints are considered.
OF THE

ROOT MEAN SQUARE ERRORS

DIGITIZED COORDINATES (PARTS) Root Mean Square Error (m) Mx 0.078 0.081 0.081 0.079 0.080 0.079 0.069 0.075 0.070 0.080 0.079 0.079 0.080 0.079 0.081 0.080 0.072 My 0.079 0.080 0.081 0.080 0.077 0.078 0.062 0.077 0.078 0.076 0.061 0.067 0.073 0.067 0.081 0.071 0.072 Mp 0.111 0.114 0.114 0.113 0.111 0.111 0.093 0.108 0.105 0.110 0.100 0.104 0.108 0.104 0.114 0.107 0.101

Observations (m) No. 1 2 3 6 7 8 9 10 26 27 28 29 100 101 104 114 115 X 4031.721 4045.869 4046.093 4059.650 4069.340 4096.320 3972.550 3949.428 3887.501 3896.566 3913.806 3966.947 3856.698 3868.918 3883.033 3835.784 3854.112 Y 257.794 261.965 261.289 260.785 235.548 246.240 105.050 131.123 340.667 343.083 347.217 365.094 406.364 410.284 370.586 445.370 414.408

Adjustment Values (m) X 4031.694 4045.872 4046.093 4059.633 4069.329 4096.297 3972.529 3949.451 3887.568 3896.555 3913.781 3966.924 3856.681 3868.892 3883.040 3835.794 3854.172 Y 257.773 261.953 261.287 260.770 235.520 246.207 105.139 131.140 340.697 343.126 347.291 365.159 406.426 410.362 370.589 445.325 414.346

Corrective Values (m) X 0.027 0.003 0.000 0.017 0.011 0.023 0.021 0.023 0.068 0.011 0.024 0.023 0.017 0.026 0.007 0.010 0.060 Y 0.022 0.011 0.002 0.015 0.028 0.033 0.089 0.017 0.030 0.044 0.075 0.065 0.062 0.078 0.004 0.044 0.061

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Conclusions
It is critical to address the issue of inconsistencies between the area of the digitized parcel area and the registered area in developing a land information system. In this paper, one approach used to adjusting the geometric position of the boundaries of parcels was to take the attributes of the registered area in the database as the true value. Inconsistencies between the digitized and registered area in the parcels of land can be resolved. A generic area adjustment model was proposed and derived. Methods to adjust the boundaries and areas of parcels were then introduced for dealing with different cases. The implementation solutions of applying the developed methods are demonstrated through an experimental study. The unique feature of the methods proposed in this paper is that we simultaneously considering both attribute constraints: area constraints with legal authorization and geometric constraints (straight lines, parallel lines, and right angles) Existing methods mainly consider only one of these two constraints. Considering geometric conditions as straight lines, parallel lines, and right angles will usually not satisfy the conditions of an area. Considering the constraint of area described in this paper will not damage the other constraints and will ensure the legal authorization of the registered area of the parcel. Furthermore, the adjustment of area is conducted on the condition that the difference between the digitized and registered area is within the error limit, which guarantees the accuracy of the digitization of the parcel. For parcels with errors larger than the limit, warnings are given to further check if the registered area is correct. The method that has been developed has been used successfully to establish cadastral databases in land information systems in Shanghai, China as a practical quality-control measure.

Acknowledgments
The work described in this paper was substantially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project Numbers: 40301043 and 40171078), grants from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (Project No. G-T478), and by funds from the National Laboratory for Information Engineering in Surveying, Mapping, and Remote Sensing, Wuhan University, China (Project Number WKL (03) 0301).

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