Susan Nichols

Professor Emerita

PhD; P.Eng.

Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering

Fredericton

nichols@unb.ca



Research Interests

  • Land Tenure and Land Policy: understanding the evolving legal, economic,and cultural relationships people have with the land and natural resources with special interests in customary tenure, indigenous tenure, and women's access to land.
  • Land Registration and Administration: evaluating, designing, and implementing systems and institutional arrangements to manage land tenure with special interests in land reform in Eastern Europe/Central Asia and in aboriginal self-government.
  • Ocean Governance and Marine Cadastre: development of information management systems for property, administrative, and jurisdictional boundaries in coastal and offshore areas, including Law of the Sea.

Recent Major Projects

  • land registration in Kazakstan (World Bank) and other former Soviet countries (CIDA, USAID, Euroconsult)
  • requirements for the property layer of the Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure (NSERC)
  • ocean governance - the use and value of marine boundary information (GEOIDE)
  • evaluation of and capacity building in land administration organizations (Canada, Mozambique, Kazakstan, Russia, Moldova)
  • women's access to land - project guidelines (Sida/Swedesurvey)

Recent Offices

  • UN Visiting Scholar (1998-99) on land registration and women's access to land, Land Tenure Service, FAO, Rome
  • Member and Past-President (1996-97), Canadian Institute of Geomatics (CIG)
  • Chair, Canadian Institute of Geomatics (CIG) National Committee for Fédération International des Géomètres (FIG) (93-00)
  • Canadian Representative to Fédération International des Géomètres (FIG) Commission 7 on Cadastre and Land Management (1986-2000)
  • Member, International Association of Geodesy (IAG) Subcommission on Geodetic Aspects of the Law of the Sea (GALOS) (93- )
  • Examiner and Member, Atlantic Provinces Board of Examiners for Land Surveyors (APBELS)
  • External Examiner, University of West Indies (1995-2000)
  • Member, National Advisory Committee for the Minister of Natural Resources and Energy Canada (1997-1999)
  • Founding Member, Centre for Property Studies, UNB