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Digitalization is now entering the realm of municipal land administration. Widespread use of digital technologies within Chișinău’s municipal structures has become a key priority and an integral part of implementing the “Chișinău Smart City” Digital Strategy.

It is natural that land management activities are not exempt from this digital transformation. The creation of a sustainable land administration system—one that improves rights management efficiency, enhances obligation records, grants access to information, and facilitates task fulfillment for citizens and economic actors—has long been a pressing priority for Chișinău City Hall.

Traditional methods of municipal land organization and management have been successfully replaced with innovative digital tools within the Land Affairs Department of the General Directorate of Architecture and Urbanism and Land Relations (DGAURF). Accordingly, at the beginning of 2025, the informational system eSuperficia was developed and launched—a foundational module for the future electronic land registry within DGAURF.

As noted by Svetlana Dogotaru, digital land management goes beyond technical implementation, encompassing a broad array of domains including land property regulation and territorial planning. The objective of digitalization has been to build an innovative land management system that integrates multiple data sources and provides users with convenient services to make qualitative decisions, using comprehensive analysis of data stored in the solution and consuming various national digital resources.

In this context, the eSuperficia system was designed and developed as a digital counterpart to the traditional land registry system. As a result, it constitutes the basis for its subsequent transformation into a user‑oriented digital service model, providing an electronic landholder cabinet.

The specifics of digital land management within eSuperficia are defined as an integrated approach to managing land resources. Modern information technologies enhance the efficiency of obligation record‑keeping, provide transparency and access to information regarding municipal land usage, and support sustainable urban development.

Emphasis on workflow processes within the solution was tied to the necessity of ensuring data accuracy, transparency, and availability of land resources—which in the initial phase included land parcels, constructions, superficies, and their holders. The operational activities covered include managing land parcels and superficies relationships, submitting permits, invoicing obligations, tracking payments, and recording them. Currently, the system registers approximately 20,900 land parcels managed by DGAURF, over 8,200 rights holders (individuals and legal entities), and 3,200 superficies subject to annual rent collection.

The eSuperficia system is an integrated digital solution designed to automate the management processes of royalties applicable for the use of municipal land owned by the public authority. Through this system, Chișinău City Hall gains an efficient tool for tracking rent-based income, reducing the risk of unpaid fees, and improving transparency in municipal land administration. During its design phase, a fundamentally new managerial and technological approach was adopted, defining the process globally as digital land management, where geospatial data usage is mandatory to support informed management decisions and objective geographic information visualization within the solution.

The system is a web‑accessible platform that supports land rent and superficies object tracking workflows. Its architecture is built using open‑source web development platforms, enabling easy expansion of new functionalities without additional licensing costs. The system interfaces via API with multiple government services and comprises over 20 software modules for record‑keeping, registration, automation, revenue calculation and monitoring, obligation and debt traceability, and user management. eSuperficia consists of two main components: a Public Portal (Rights Holder Cabinet) and a Management Portal (Public Officer Cabinet)—the latter dedicated to DGAURF officials managing functional processes. The system’s intuitive interface enables efficient data collection, storage, and processing, presenting information in an easy‑to‑use format. Thus, the digitized workflows within eSuperficia significantly improve land management quality and support more informed managerial decisions.

The project’s realization and innovation integration have also been made possible with support from INFOERA—a strategic partner in Chișinău’s digital transformation and the development of DGAURF’s integrated digital infrastructure. During the project, interoperability with other state information systems was ensured, and gradual construction of an integrated Digital Twin system—the foundational element of the digital infrastructure eventually transforming into Chișinău’s Dynamic Urban Plan—was initiated.

Hence, we can conclude that eSuperficia serves as an informational and operational support tool for the high‑quality and responsible management of municipal assets, enabling consolidation of diverse and dispersed information to support tactical decision‑making by specialized officials. Its use establishes a fundamentally new direction in the modern transformation of municipal land management.