The Development of the Surveyor's Profession in Italy
by Geom. Gianfranco Morocutti
Abstract
We live in the so-called "post
industrial" era in which there is a shift from the fields of
"manufacturing" towards those of "intellectual
work" - which expand by means of associations or merely by the
proliferation of "knowledge workers", who offer themselves
as service bodies aiming to satisfy the needs of the global market.
The new professional system offers an ever greater
supply of intellectual service networks, with a consequent creation of
circulating capital in regional markets and at an international level.
The client plays an active part in the process of development of new
strategies and services which contribute in a important manner in
determining the qualitative characteristics of the service product and
the characteristics of price with a fair balance between costs and
benefits.
The market therefore tends to turn towards those
professionals who are capable of creatively using the various know-hows
applied to the fields of knowledge and services.
It is then the market which creates the necessary
mechanisms for development of the economic system, making use of the
professional services at various levels.
In the light of the changes and the proposals for
reform which are underway, it will be necessary even for the surveyor
to adjust or model him/herself, possibly according also to the
expectations of the sector - even if it is known that the future model
of the Italian Surveyor will not follow exactly that of the past.
The future of the Italian Surveyor is tied, as is
also that of its European counterpart, to a constant updating of the
knowledge of data and systems which modern society requires for the
management of the country, land property and real estate. The Surveyor
is also required to have the ability to work in exclusive contexts as
well as in interdisciplinary systems.
Real estate, land property and land are in general
subject to measurement, evaluation, protection, transfer and
transformation. It is necessary to add new services to the typical
professional services of the past, since these are requested by the
market in an interdisciplinary and integrated manner in both a social
and professional context - where "partnership" prevails over
"leadership".
Geom. Gianfranco Morocutti
Consiglio Nazionale Geometri
Via Barberini, 68
00187 Roma
ITALY
E-mail: morocutti@tin.it
The Development of the Surveyor's
Profession in Italy
We live in the so-called "post
industrial" era in which there is a shift from the fields of
"manufacturing" towards those of "intellectual
work" - which expand by means of associations or merely by the
proliferation of "knowledge workers", who offer themselves
as service bodies aiming to satisfy the needs of the global market.
The new professional system offers an ever greater
supply of intellectual service networks, with a consequent creation of
circulating capital in regional markets but and at an international
level. The client plays an active part in the process of development
of new strategies and services which contribute in a important manner
in determining the qualitative characteristics of the service product
and the characteristics of price with a fair balance between costs and
benefits.
The market therefore tends to turn towards those
professionals who are capable of creatively using the various know-hows
applied to the fields of knowledge and services.
It is then the market which creates the necessary
mechanisms for development of the economic system, making use of the
professional services at various levels.
In the light of the changes and the proposals for
reform which are underway, it will be necessary even for the Surveyor
to adjust or model himself, possibly according also to the
expectations of the sector - even if in the knowledge that the future
model of the Italian Surveyor will not follow exactly that of the
past.
The future of the Italian Surveyor is tied, as is
also that of its European counterpart, to a constant updating of the
knowledge of data and systems which modern society requires for the
management of the country, landed property and real estate. The
Surveyor is also required to have the ability to work in exclusive
contexts as well as in interdisciplinary systems.
Real estate, landed property and land are in
general subject to measurement, evaluation, protection, transfer and
transformation. It is necessary to add new services to the typical
professional services of the past, since these are requested by the
market in an interdisciplinary and integrated manner in both a social
and professional context - where "partnership" prevails over
"leadership".
PROFESSIONAL CHARTERS IN THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY
The "Service Free Performance" from the
3rd Title, art. 59 of the Rome Treaty is the governing principle of
the EU profession Charters. Only some activities involving certain
public affairs, that are common in all Member States, were dealt by
some specific directives aiming to harmonize the different national
laws. The problems, which the EEC faced in trying to harmonize the
Member State laws, modified the EEC approach which takes now in
account the difference among the national Charters and defines an
unified system of mutual recognition of the national education titles.
The nr. 48/89 and 51/92 EEC Directives, by
introducing the mutual title recognition, were intended to facilitate
the professional people to free circulate throughout the whole EEC
territory. The State Examination (existing in Italy at present) might
be cancelled as restricting the free circulation of the professional
people within the EU area and having to be probably replaced by the so
called Quality Certificate at short terms.
Though the various European Charters show strong
differences among them, their governing principles may be grouped in
two main classes, and namely:
- CHARTERED ACTIVITIES, under the Civil Law, that need special
requirements to be admitted and carried out, such a Professional
Roll entry, a State examination, etc. A chartered activity shall
be under the management and the control of special bodies,
pertaining to the Governments or formally recognised by them; and
- FREE ACTIVITIES, under the Common Law, which everybody may carry
out freely without being member of any professional roll or body,
recognized by the Governments formally.
SCENARIOS
Recently the future of the surveyor activity might
appear as having a high uncertainty level, though the prevailing
opinion seems to confirm the need that this profession has to
continue, not only as it contributed strongly to the Italian
development and growth since 1929 up today, but also a general
agreement exists upon the Italian market requirement for technicians
other than architects or graduated in Civil Engineering.
Another spontaneous question is whether a future
society need exists for a professional character as the surveyor,
specially in the frame of the Italian Government Agencies, where a
number of surveyors are employed, or the present surveyor tasks must
be shared or revised necessarily. In a not too far past, the
prevailing land culture made the surveyor, as a rural physician or a
midwife, a reference character; now, such characters are seen under a
different point of view, due to the changement of the present and
future society requirements, that are addressed to unify and globalize
the markets and the services.
The future of the Surveyor is partly correlated
with the professional Rolls reform which sees bill n° 5092 (Mirone
Art.) submitted to the Chamber of Deputies, since several months ago.
The bill confirms the will to maintain the roll system and revisit it
too in the light of the new requirements.
TYPICAL PROFESSIONAL CHARACTERISTICS
When looking for a model of the next Italian
surveyor, some typical European model, such as the British Surveyors
or the Belgian and French Géomètres, are to be taken in account, as
some their peculiarities shall characterize also the new Italian
surveyor.
According to a sentence of the President of the
Surveyor International Federation (FIG), Peter Dale, at the Brighton
Congress in 1998, - "...The Surveyors are a mechanism able to put
in touch the Public Administration, the firms and the
citizens..."
The same opinion was also expressed by Giuseppe De
Rita, President of the Italian Committee for the Economy and the Work
(CNEL), who observed at the Italian Surveyor Congress in Florence that
"...a surveyor is a technician able to put in touch the Land
Register and the Tax Authorities with the citizens...".
Finally, a surveyor was defined a
"relational" technician both in Europe and in Italy.
In the following the activity fields are listed
within which a surveyor is entitled to perform:
- BUILDING - design and work management, building yard
technical management, works accounting, price analysis, building
management, safety at yards and workplaces, building, urban,
expert and judicial advice;
- CADASTRE-TOPOGRAPHY - land, topography and building surveys,
land and environment management, advice on real estates;
- ESTIMATE - real estate estimates, value analysis, damage from
natural disasters appreciation.
A medium-high training level is required by the
surveyors, who are the "transmission belt" among the various
systems in the frame of the present society, in order to satisfy a
number of requirements.
AUTONOMOUS AND COLLECTIVE OPERATIONS
According to the most common forecasts, the
surveyors shall more and more operate in partnership instead of their
present prevailing autonomous mode.
The last reform in Italy (Bassanini) caused the
professional people of the public sector to be involved in designing
and carrying out projects more than in the past.
DEVELOPMENT
At short term:
- start of a specific "category marketing" towards new
alliances that are opened to innovator markets;
- dealing about "Surveyor, Engineer, Architect" sector
having specified peculiarities;
- at medium term:
establishment of free schools or training centres managed by the
Charters (Rolls and/or Associations), complete with teleconference
systems to be connected with all EU countries.
Geom. Gianfranco Morocutti
Consiglio Nazionale Geometri
E-mail: morocutti@tin.it
28 April 2000
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