This Act is enacted to establish the complete basic information of land, integrate the administration system of surveying and mapping and geographic names management, enhance the quality of surveying and mapping affairs, and achieve the goal of sharing the resources of surveying and mapping.

The term “competent authority” referred to in this Act means the Ministry of the Interior at the central government level; the special municipal government at the special municipal level, and the county(city) government at the county(city) level.

The definitions of the terms used in this Act are as follows:
1. Surveying and mapping: means the surveying and mapping of land, above or under the sea level.
2. Surveying: means the process of collecting, analyzing, calculating, valuing, integrating, and managing for a land with its geographic information that have the character of spatial layout.
3. Mapping: means the process of displaying specifically the terrain features, surface features, and varieties of natural and human materials according to the result of surveying.
4. Map: means the final work or related result of mapping.
5. Basic survey: means processing a survey as the basic of surveying and mapping for the purpose of establishing a national survey datum and basic control point.
6. Survey datum: the basic datum for land surveying and mapping, including the geodetic datum, the vertical datum, the depth datum and the gravity datum and so forth.
7. Reference system: the system that is built by using the survey datum as the basic control survey references, including the coordinate system, the vertical system, the gravity system and other relevant systems.
8. Basic control survey: the surveying which is conducted by utilizing the information such as the fine calculation of points coordinates, altitude or other relevant data as the basis of surveying and mapping and of which the purpose is to put into consideration the need for a nation-wide overall control surveying.
9. Densified control survey: the sub-control survey that is carried out based on the basic control survey and of which the purpose is for the need to conduct the regional control survey.
10. Applied survey: Any survey conducted for the purpose of specific benefits and advantages. This excludes the basic survey.
11. Survey marks: the control points which are set up to carry out the surveying. The ones that are required to be maintained for good with clear marking are “permanent survey marks”. The ones which are maintained until the completive day of the surveying are temporary survey marks.
12. Surveying and mapping results: the images, data, maps, graphics, information and other relevant results obtained according to the purpose of the surveying and mapping.
13. Basic topographic maps: the topographic maps which are drawn by using surveying and mapping data gathered with the utilization of the basic scale (authorized by the relevant central government agencies). These maps include data such as the main terrain, land features and basic geographic information.
14. Administrative maps: maps that include the administrative borders, location of the governments of such administrative regions and relevant geographic information.
15. Charts: maps with topics related to the submarine topography below the lowest low-water line and hydrological data.
16. Aerial survey photography and remote sensing: operations of which the purpose is to utilize aircrafts or satellites as the platform for equipments such as cameras or sensors to capture images of the surface of the lands and other relevant information.
17. Geographic names: the names of specific locations, regions or geographic entities on the surface of the land, including physical geographic features, administrative regions, settlements, streets or public facilities that serve as landmarks.
18. Standardized geographic names: the geographic names which are pronounced by this Act and used by all the government organizations.
19. Survey industry: the professional engineer offices, companies or professional engineering consulting firms that are engaged in the surveying and mapping business according to this act.

The following items fall within the scope of governance of the central authority concerned:
1. The formulation (drafting) of policies, systems and act and regulations concerning surveying and mapping.
2. The planning, implementation and management of surveying and mapping affairs at the central-governmental level.
3. The communication, coordination, planning and cooperation with respect to international surveying and mapping affairs.
4. The establishment of survey datum and reference system.
5. The registration and management of nation-wide surveying and mapping projects, the results and information.
6. The surveying, mapping and publication of basic topographic maps, administrative maps and charts of the entire nation.
7. The formulation of the nation-wide geographic names survey projects and the geographic names management system.
8. The supervision of surveying, mapping and geographic names affairs carried out by municipal and county (city) governments.
9. The management of the survey industry.
10. The implementation and management of other issues related to nation-wide surveying and mapping.
The central authority concerned are entitled to consign the tasks prescribed in Items 2, 3 and 5 to 10 of　the previous Paragraph to be performed by the sub-agencies, other agencies, institutions, groups or individuals and the authorities concerned of the municipal and the county (city) governments.

The authorities concerned of the municipal and the county (city) governments are in charge of the following tasks with its own jurisdiction:
1. The planning, implementation and management of the encrypted control surveying tasks.
2. The planning, implementation and management of the applied surveying tasks.
3. The registration and management of the surveying and mapping projects, results, data/information and the permanent survey marks.
4. The preparation and publication of the administrative maps and the ones of townships, cities and districts.
5. The implementation and management of issues related to geographic names.
6. The implementation and management of other issues related to surveying and mapping.
The authorities concerned of the municipal and the county (city) governments are entitled to consign the tasks prescribed in Items 1, 2 and 4 to 6 of the previous Paragraph to be performed by the sub-agencies, other agencies, institutions, groups or individuals and the authorities concerned of the township (city and district) offices.

The authorities concerned at all levels shall appoint a specific agency or unit to specifically focus on the planning and coordination of all the affairs related to surveying and mapping.