Case Study: SIGTIERRAS achieves sub-meter accuracy and 25% cost savings in national land mapping with Trimble

GNSS Helps Save Time, Money in National Land Management Initiative

SIGTIERRAS, a national land‑management program run by Ecuador’s Ministry of Agriculture, set out to map and register rural land parcels nationwide to support property rights, taxation and access to credit. The challenge was to produce consistent, accurate cadastral data across diverse terrain for an estimated three million parcels while training municipal teams and creating a repeatable system for ongoing updates.

SIGTIERRAS ran a pilot in eight counties using aerial orthophotos combined with Trimble GNSS hardware and software (GeoXT handhelds, GPS Pathfinder receivers, NetR9 reference stations and post‑processing tools) so field crews could quickly collect and differentially correct parcel corners. The project delivered sub‑meter to decimeter‑level accuracy, captured ~200,000 parcels (~7% of the country), met accuracy targets, established an efficient repeatable workflow, saved hundreds of field man‑hours, and cut project costs by at least 25% while feeding data into a national GIS for municipal maintenance.

SIGTIERRAS

Johnny Hidalgo

Executive Director