Quantifying space for the accommodation of stratified property
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Geodezy, UNIWERSYTET ROLNICZY IM. HUGONA KOŁŁĄTAJA W KRAKOWIE
Balicka 253c, 30-198 Kraków, Poland
Submission date: 2025-11-01
Final revision date: 2026-02-28
Acceptance date: 2026-03-04
Publication date: 2026-09-25
Corresponding author
Szczepan Budkowski
Geodezy, UNIWERSYTET ROLNICZY IM. HUGONA KOŁŁĄTAJA W KRAKOWIE
Balicka 253c, 30-198 Kraków, Balicka 253c, 30-198 Kraków, Kraków, Poland
Archives of Civil Engineering 2026;72(3):351-368
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ABSTRACT
The transformation of cadastral systems from a flat projection paradigm to multidimensional registration is not merely a technological issue, but primarily an epistemic one —it concerns the conceptualization of property as an entity extending in space and time. This article attempts to answer the question of how a system based on the Roman principle of superficies solo cedit can be adapted to a reality in which ownership relations do not overlap hierarchically but interpenetrate vertically, hybridly, and dynamically. The author argues that the problem concerns not only the registration of bridges, tunnels, or underground infrastructure, but also the redefinition of the unit of legal space itself. The proposed algorithm for quantifying areas, therefore, does not serve solely the selection of pilot areas but serves as a tool for diagnosing the "structural resistance" of space to the prevailing cadastral model. The results of analyses conducted within Krakow's city center demonstrate that the boundary between what is legally possible and what is spatially necessary is shifting. The article postulates that the implementation of a layered cadastre should be understood not as a reform of the register, but as a change in the ontology of ownership – from surface to volumetric, from permanent to time -space, from single-purpose to relational.