1. WLIA Feb 23, 2005 Moving to a Shared Parcel Data Model Eric Damkot - Washington County GIS Manager Mat Dvorachek - City of West Bend GIS Analyst

2. WLIA Feb 23, 2005 Presentation Outline Background Developing the model Migrating data Integrating with external non-spatial data Roll-out What’s next? Summary Questions

3. WLIA Feb 23, 2005 Washington County 432 Square Miles Population  120,000 13 Townships, 5 Villages and 2 Cities (Plus 1 City of Milwaukee Parcel) Maintains Parcel Data for all municipalities except City of West Bend.  44,000 Parcels

4. WLIA Feb 23, 2005 City of West Bend Largest Municipality in Washington County  14.3 Square Miles Population  29,000 Maintains parcel data for the City  10,500 Parcels

5. WLIA Feb 23, 2005 Previous Mapping Environment Washington County –Intergraph MGE/Bentley Microstation –Design file format (.dgn) City of West Bend –ESRI ArcInfo 7 –Coverage format Data were shared by exchanging shape files. Although the data were compatible, nomenclature and formatting varied. A countywide analysis involving parcels typically required the analysis to be run independently for each data set and the results merged.

6. WLIA Feb 23, 2005 Independently... Washington County decides to change GIS software vendors and implement ArcGIS and ArcSDE City of West Bend decides to upgrade to ArcGIS and migrate parcel data to a personal GeoDatabase Instead of working on parallel projects independently, technical staff from the City and County agreed to work together and attempt to design a single parcel data model.

7. WLIA Feb 23, 2005 Goals for the Data Model Maintain all existing functionality Add desired functionality that was missing from existing systems Streamline data maintenance procedures Simplify data exchange Simplify data analysis Eliminate the need to map overlapping areas

8. WLIA Feb 23, 2005 Procedure at a glance Inventory all existing data. Inventory all existing data. Identify other needs Identify other needs Identify areas in common and areas of difference Determine the scope of cooperation Load Data and Test Load Data and Test Revise Data Model REPEAT County Step City Step Joint Step Create Draft Data Model

9. WLIA Feb 23, 2005 Areas where we could cooperate... PLSS Monuments PLSS Townships PLSS Township Annotation PLSS Sections PLSS Section Annotation PLSS Quarter Sections PLSS Quarter Section Annotation PLSS Government Lots PLSS Government Lot Annotation PLSS Lines Municipality Municipality Annotation Platted Land Platted Land Annotation Subdivision Blocks Subdivision Block Annotation Subdivision/CSM Lots Subdivision/CSM Lot Annotation Parcels Parcel Tax Key Annotation Parcel Acreage Annotation Parcel Dimension Annotation Right of Way Right of Way Name Annotation Right of Way Dimension Annotation Construction Lines Features Topology Rules Naming Conventions Division of Mapping Responsibility Most Attributes Domains

10. WLIA Feb 23, 2005 Areas where we couldn’t Annotation sizes, fonts, placement, etc… Features needed for hard copy map production (I.e. leader lines, curve tangent markers etc…) Unique attribute requirements (Some attributes are used by only the City OR the County) Some legacy digitizing rules (I.e. Extend parcels into the right of way or not)

11. WLIA Feb 23, 2005 Where to Start... You don’t need to start from scratch –http://support.esri.com/index.cfm?fa=downloads.dataModels.gateway Visio diagrams, repositories, sample pGDB, White papers, posters, user forums, case studies, etc… –Peers –Consultants It was a lot easier for us to start with something others had already developed then it would have been if we started with a blank page!

12. WLIA Feb 23, 2005 On the other hand Everyone has unique requirements when it comes to parcel mapping. Recognize those differences and design your data model to best address your needs. Don’t be afraid to make changes to whatever model you decide to use as a starting point.

13. WLIA Feb 23, 2005 Decision Points What area features do you also need to maintain as lines? What needs to be it’s own feature class and what should be a subtype? What annotation should be feature linked? How will you model Condominiums? How are your features related? What topology rules, relationship classes, etc… will you need to enforce these relationships?

14. WLIA Feb 23, 2005 Creating Topologies All features that participate in a topology must be in the same feature dataset. This limitation may dictate how data are organized in the GeoDatabase. Topology - Rules and properties of the spatial relationships between features. Provides an environment for editing coincident geometry with editing tools. Based on the defined cluster tolerance, validating topology will add, delete, and move the vertices of participating features. Use this to your advantage But don’t hurt yourself!

15. WLIA Feb 23, 2005 Goals for the Data Model Maintain all existing functionality Add desired functionality that was missing from existing systems Streamline data maintenance procedures Simplify data exchange Simplify data analysis Eliminate the need to map overlapping areas WE DID IT!

16. WLIA Feb 23, 2005 New Mapping Environment A common data model to house cadastral related data –City of West Bend uses a personal Geodatabase and maintains data within the Cities’ corporate limit –Washington County maps the remainder of the County in ArcSDE/MS SQL 2000 –Small portions of the model are only used by one mapping agency Data are shared and appended in personal Geodatabases with plans to automate the process using model builder.

17. WLIA Feb 23, 2005 Importing Data (County) Washington County imported data from a CAD based environment into the new data model Process Recreate county-wide PLSS dataset. Edge match, clean and reformat data in native environment Import polygon features into appropriate feature classes (MGE/Microstation - GeoMedia - ArcGIS) Import line and annotation features into appropriate feature classes (MGE/Microstation - ArcGIS) Calculated subtypes based on imported CAD attributes Validate topology and fix errors Rule of Thumb - Complete as much data reformatting and cleaning as possible before importing into the GDB. Use ArcGIS and topology to perform fine tuning and final data validation.

18. WLIA Feb 23, 2005 Importing Data (City) City imported data from a coverage-based environment into new data model. Process Replace City’s PLSS dataset with county-wide dataset. Pre-process coverage datasets to facilitate subsequent import. –calculate Domain and Subtype codes –remedy field definition issues Imported existing vector data into the appropriate feature classes. Create Block and Lot features in pilot area (City hadn’t modeled these.) Copied existing GDB annotation feature classes into the model. Validated topology and corrected errors.

19. WLIA Feb 23, 2005 Data Maintenance Workflow remained essentially the same. Update Procedures 1.Receive Plat, CSM, etc. 2.Enter exterior boundary into Construction_Line layer as Two-Point Line Features using the Traverse tool. 3.Adjust Traverse 4.Reconcile with surrounding features 5.Proportion Lines 6.Add interior lot lines 7.Use Construct Features tool to create Parcels, Lots, Blocks, Plat, ROW, etc. from Construction_Line features. 8.Attribute Data

20. WLIA Feb 23, 2005 Data Maintenance Cont. Relationship Classes –Organization of Data –Integrity of Data –Maintenance of Data Subtypes Annotation

21. WLIA Feb 23, 2005 The Good and the Bad Bad –Topology is sometimes difficult to work with. –Polygons don’t always behave themselves. –Other quirks Good –Maintenance is quicker –Data Integrity –Display in ArcMap provides versatility

22. WLIA Feb 23, 2005 Useful Add-ins GeoDatabase Diagrammer (Requires Visio) –http://arcscripts.esri.com/details.asp?dbid=13616 –ArcCatalog command that will create a Visio diagram of your geodatabase. The diagram will replicate the look and feel of the standard ESRI data model posters –You will have to move things around and add descriptive text. –We found it very helpful to visually see the model to better understand and model data relationships.

23. WLIA Feb 23, 2005 Useful Add-ins Parcel Extension –http://arcscripts.esri.com/details.asp?dbid=13589 –ArcMap command that includes an additional toolset specific to parcel mapping. –We’ve found the annotation placement tools to be the most useful. Specially, the tool provides an enhanced method to create cartographic annotation in one feature from the COGO attributes of our construction line features.

24. WLIA Feb 23, 2005 Integrating with External Tax Data Tax roll data is stored in an AS400/DB2 database. Using the data natively in the GIS is difficult because: –Very flat –Cryptic naming conventions –Some attributes not even used –Not all portions of the table are updated at the same time of the year –Unique tax key stored as two attributes (municipal code and PID) –Access speed

25. WLIA Feb 23, 2005 Integrating with External Tax Data In Microsoft SQL Server Create Data Transformation Service (DTS) Package –Import Data from AS400 –Create a new attribute with a concatenated version of municipal code and Parcel Identification Number –Reformat various other attributes for more convenient use in the GIS –Parcel out the data from the Tax Master table into newly created, logically organized user tables. These DTS packages are scheduled to run during non- peak hours The resulting system provides data from the tax database that is available in the GIS near real- time and is more convenient to use.

26. WLIA Feb 23, 2005 Getting Buy-In From The Users Remember - changing mapping environments may create a larger task for the people using the data then for the people actually doing the migration and parcel mapping. These users could have hundreds of maps pointing to the old data and may not be the most technical staff in your organization. Be patient!

27. WLIA Feb 23, 2005 How to Ease the Transition Give many warnings well in advance of the cut-over Explain that you are not making the change because you enjoy seeing them suffer Provide specific examples to help them migrate maps and work flows. Continue to provide access to the old data for an extended period of time, but make sure they understand it is no longer being updated.

28. WLIA Feb 23, 2005 Where Do We Go From Here? MAN - Washington County will soon be connected to the City of West Bend’s Municipal Area Network. –The City should be able to view County ArcSDE data live! –It would be technically possible for the City to store and edit their parcel data in the County’s ArcSDE database, but the politics of this arrangement maybe a challenge. –County will gain better access to City data Work cooperatively to create models for other commonly maintained data. Road centerlines is the next likely target.

29. WLIA Feb 23, 2005 Summary Coordination between organizations is sometimes easiest if left to technical staff. Creating a new parcel data model and migrating data and work flows can seem like a daunting task. There are, however, many available resources and it can be done. The migration should be designed to improve efficiency and address inadequacies in existing systems. Don’t underestimate the impact the change will have on your organization. Prepare for it.

30. WLIA Feb 23, 2005 Questions