About the GIS Inventory

The GIS Inventory system is maintained by the National States' Geographic Information Council (NSGIC) as a tool for states and their partners. Its primary purpose is to track the status of GIS in US state and local government to aid the planning and building of Spatial Data Infrastructures. It is designed to work in concert with the Geospatial One-Stop Portal.

This website was originally created in 2006 by NSGIC under award NA04NOS4730011 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce. The Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have all provided additional resources to maintain and improve the GIS Inventory. In addition, they provide resources that help NSGIC offer training opportunities and produce outreach materials. The statements, findings, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce, Federal Emergency Management Agency, or Department of Homeland Security.

The GIS Inventory was expanded in October 2009 to include an all new system for the National Cadastral Inventory. The Cadastral Subcommittee of the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) completed the first National Cadastral Inventory in 2002. The early phases of the cadastral inventory simply focused on collecting information on contacts and web sites related to cadastral data. The Subcommittee launched its first national cadastral status inventory in 2005 that was followed with a second survey in 2007 and a third, which was completed in 2009. The purpose of these surveys is to track trends and progress toward the completion of the National Cadastral Spatial Data Infrastructure (NCSDI). The NCSDI is a set of standardized parcel data from county and other local government sources that is assembled and published through state data services for use in government to government (G2G) data sharing. More information about the National Cadastral Spatial Data Infrastructure can be found at the FGDC Cadastral Subcommittee's Web Page.

The original state survey was expanded to include an inventory of local governments in 2005 as the Subcommittee worked with the US Forest Service to acquire and compile data for thirteen western states. The methodology, data structure and interface is used to support the wildland fire project and has been readily adaptable to other business operations such as hurricane response and support for state cadastral business programs.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) provided the funding in FY 2009 to complete the merger of these two systems that differ slightly in the way that the information is gathered and presented. The GIS Inventory is maintained by individual users that document their own organizational information and data holdings. The National Cadastral Inventory is maintained by key cadastral contacts in each state to support their unique business requirements. The long-term goal is to merge both systems to provide even better services and features for their users.

Credits

GIS Inventory application development by runskip.com

Project design, requirements assessment and management by BurGIS, LLC, Saligoe-Simmel, LLC, A.J. Wortley and Fairview Industries

Special thanks to Minnesota Department of Administration for their help with MapServer and PHPMapscript.