Abstract:
Evaluating any new system and application before feasible and meaning full action have been taken is a very important concept that should be considered. This study was conducted to evaluate whether the currently under use hand held GPS is suitable for second level land certification in terms of correctly indicating the area, boundary and spouse name of the holders. In order to do this, two method data have been collected. These are socio economic and the field survey. For the socio-economic data 92 land holders were selected by using Chocrhan formula of 1977 from three kebeles, 15 experts of the land administration of the study woreda for questionnaires and interview respectively. The result of the response indicates that, majority of the land holders are not accepting the second level land certificates produced by HHGPS. The field test also made using HHGPS and total station to evaluate the accuracy of the used instrument; the result indicates that there exists a variation at point position level between the both instruments from -12m to 20m in Easting and from -17to 27m in Northing, on average from 4m to 5.5m in easting and northing respectively. Finally the result indicates that a RMSE of 4.245m and 5.759m in easting and northing respectively. Concerning the area, the result indicates that there exists a variation between the measurements of the two instruments from -1249.26m2 to 1519.27m2 in a total average area of 279055m2 of the surveyed area and the total area difference between the instruments became 41.822m2. Depending on the findings, it is recommended that first to replace the low accuracy of HHGPS by other surveying instruments like RTK GPS or total station, second to evaluate the whole second level land certification and correct the past mistakes by updating program and the government officials and policy makers should consider about using the correct and accurate instrument.
Key words: cadastral, second level land certification, HHGPS, total station, point level position difference, area difference