What Is The Best Free Source To Get County GIS?

[Neptuno8881]

What is the best free source to get county GIS? I do a lot deed mosaic and I usually overlay the deed mosaic to the county GIS to get it close, so the crew can get roughly to state grid. We don't have GIS for every county and sometime the deed descriptions are hard to read or they are badly described and I don't know what the property looks like. We have county property tax map books, but is not the same. They are not 100% accurate.

Thanks.

Neptuno8881

[Anonymous]

National Map from USGS

[Neilw_05]

Usually you have to obtain cadastral GIS data (parcels) from your local government agency. It is very rare to find anything in the public domain.

[Neptuno8881]

I did go to that web site, but all I got is a pdf. I'm looking for in a way I can bring it or open it with C3D. I don't know if I'm missing something here, since that was my first time to National Map (USGS).

[Anonymous]

You go to National Map, then you download the Viewer, then when you are inside the viewer there is a button on the upper left that says download data, from there you can choose elevations orthographic maps and lots of stuff, but choose what you want, and then it will offer different kinds of that data and I usually choose the first one, then you add it to a cart, then imput your email address, and then from there you can download the data...so when I download elevation data remember it is NED data so you will create a surface then under that surface add DEM points and the file you are looking for is w001001.adf then put it under the coordinate system LL83 and it should work, but your elevations will be in meters but horizontal data will be in feet.

[BrianHailey]

Google.

If you are in a city, search Google for "<insert city name> GIS".

If you are in a county, search Google for "<insert county name> GIS".

Some places let you download anything they have at no charge, others may charge you for it, and others might not have any.

Examples: Denver, Colorado - You can get it all for free including high resolution images - DENVER, CO

Greeley, Colorado - Has a bunch of GIS data but you have to pay for it - GREELEY, CO (see page 2 for prices)

Casper, Wyoming - I couldn't find anything CASPER, WY

[Anonymous]

County GIS Data is not always accurate, especially parcel Data, believe me I know.  You can always call and ask.  We get calls for our data all the time and have no problems passing out data that belong to everyone anyway.

[gccdaemon]

Well number one, what state is it for? GIS parcel data is never accurate because of earth curvature. The best places to look are the city (Assuming it is a well populated area), The counties do carry parcel information, but like cities, if they're not well populated, they won't have funds to digitize their information. The last place to look will be whatever state agency handles floodplain mapping. For Texas that would be TNRIS http://www.tnris.org/get-data?quicktabs_2=1. Each state will handle their own, and generally combine Lidar, mapping, floodplain, and parcel data in the same place.

[Neptuno8881]

I'm in Maryland. All county here have GIS data for everything but we have to pay for it. I'm trying to download or get GIS data for the counties that we don't have GIS,data. We don't use for desing, just to get an apporximate area when we send the field survey crew to do the job. We also use it, when we need a quick sketch nothing fancy.

Thanks.

Neptuno8881

[AllenJessup]

A couple of quick guesses from a quick Google search.

• Ramona, a critical component of the national GIS Inventory
• State Highway Administration Download Center
• Department of Natural Resources Data Download
• Department of Planning Data Center 
• Maryland Open Data Portal

The last seems to have a lot.

Allen Jessup

[Neilw_05]

Hi Neptuno,

FYI, GIS (Geographic Information System) data is a generic term that can include MANY types of data such as streets, property lines, corporate boundaries, digital terrain models, trails, hydrography, imagery, etc. You might get more helpful replies if you specify what types of data you are looking for.

It seems you are looking for property lines. I have yet to find property lines that are available for free download on a public data server. I won't say there are none out there, but likely you'll have to acquire the data from a local agency or consultant if any of have it in digital form. If none are available you may have to map the properties yourself from legal descriptions.

[Anonymous]

National Map can do all of this Wesley Davis Engineering Technician Koochiching County Highway Department 715 4th St. International Falls, MN 56649 work: 218-283-7080 http://www.co.koochiching.mn.us/

[wfberry]

For the last few years I have been working in two counties, each bordering the Ohio River on the south side.  These two counties are one county apart, approx. 25 miles.

About 2 weeks ago I began playing with the National Map Viewer and was pleasantly surprised at the amount of data that I was getting on my home county.  I moved to the other county to test it on an area and was just as surprised as before because there was practically nothing that was useful.

It appears that this is a work in progress.  There are also maps available on this website showing what may be available and where.

Bill