Creating the Washington State Parcel Database
Preliminary information about the creation of the Washington State Parcel Database is provided below. As the project progresses, we will add more information regarding the status of data acqusition, documentation, process, and more. Please visit this site regularly and provide suggestions, thoughts, and concerns via the contact us page.
Overview
Parcel Data is Critical. Digital parcel data, stored in a geographic information system (GIS), is a critical source of information for resource land managers, community development needs, infrastructure maintenance, research, homeland security, business development, public safety, and more.
Redundant Efforts are Costly. Currently, there is not a single source of GIS-based parcel information for Washington State. Efforts to collect, store, and manage county, state and federal parcel data are often redundant at all levels of government. Each public or private entity must request data directly from over forty different entities; data which arrives in a myriad of formats and differing attribute schemes. Many counties have data license agreements that prohibit-or severely restrict-the ability of one user to share parcel data with other users, making cross-agency or interdisciplinary research difficult, expensive, and variable since no two groups are using the same data.
Thus, this project aims to provide simplified access to parcel data, while increasing data quality and decreasing redundancy.
Goals
- Survey current and potential parcel data users to identify what components of parcel data are important to their business needs.
- Establish relationships with Washington's counties, state and federal agencies to understand their parcel data needs.
- Identify derivative products that are currently produced from parcel data and develop the capability to share those data.
- Develop a master license agreement to allow parcel data to be shared with other partner entities.
- Collect parcel data from Washington's 39 counties, state and federal agencies.
- Develop a common statewide parcel data format that meets the needs of project participants.
- Work with each parcel data producer to develop a protocol for transformation of local parcel data into a common statewide format.
- Transform Washington State parcel data into a common statewide format, documenting procedures and protocols for future updates.
- Implement a collaborative parcel data distribution and update service.
- Identify long-term funding sources for improving the quantity and quality of parcel GIS data in the State.
- Identify long-term funding sources for support personnel, updates to the database, and maintenance of hardware.
Participants
- Washington State's 39 Counties
- State and Federal Agencies
- University of Washington, College of Forest Resources, Rural Technology Initiative
- Family Forest Foundation and Washington Farm Forestry Association
- Washington State Parcel Working Group
History
Since 2001, the Rural Technology Initiative-in partnership with Washington State government, conservation organizations, and forestry foundations- has been seeking an understanding of the geography and demographics of forest lands and forest landowners in Washington State.
In 2001, RTI produced the Small Forest Landowner Database for the Washington Department of Natural Resources Small Forest Landowner Office. This was a quasi-spatial tabular database, and a first attempt at quantifying the presence and magnitude of small forest landowners in Washington.
Between 2001 and 2007, RTI continued to work towards more accurately and efficiently capturing the variety of forest landowners in Washington and providing agencies and other groups with valuable forest landowner presence and environmental attribute information. The following is a sample of projects completed over the six years:
- Washington DNR 20-Acre Forest land Parcel Study (2004)
- Lower Columbia Fish Recovery Board Small Forest Landowner Parcel Identification and County GIS Data Compilation for WRIAs 25 thru 29 (2004)
- Washington DNR Small Forest Landowner Parcel Identification and County GIS Data Compilation for WRIAs 23 & 49 (2005)
- Washington DNR Small Forest Landowner Parcel Identification and County GIS Data Compilation for Clallam and Jefferson Counties (2005)
- Washington DNR Small Forest Landowner Parcel Identification and County GIS Data Compilation for Pacific and Grays Harbor Counties (2006)
In 2006, the Rural Technology Initiative, the Family Forest Foundation, and the Washington Farm Forestry Association, with funding from the USDA Forest Service, began working on creating a statewide, spatially explicit, parcel-based forest land database. Enabled by GIS technologies, it is anticipated that the Washington State Family Forest Database will set the foundation for analysis of the family forest demographic through the development of an interactive database of forested lands. Such a dataset will facilitate the assessment of family forest impacts on local and state economies, and provide information on potential challenges and opportunities that family forest owners face in marketing their forest products and environmental services.
However, in order to make this dataset relevant now and in the future, it was recognized that a concerted effort was needed to produce a comprehensive, consistent, and updatable statewide parcel database.
In response to this need, the Family Forest Database project expanded its objectives to assist in the creation of a statewide parcel database (the Washington State Parcel Database) and the subsequent production of the Family Forest Database from the parcel database.
Timeline
| Task | Timeline |
|---|---|
| Encourage the use and need for a statewide parcel database | On-going |
| Form the Parcel Working Group | Fall 2006 |
| Invite project participants | On-going |
| Conduct a user survey | Winter 2007 |
| Conduct a needs assessment | Summer 2007 |
| Document dervivative works | Summer 2007 |
| Collect currently published parcel data | Late Summer 2007 |
| Document similarities and differences | Fall 2007 |
| Identify greatest common attributes | Winter 2008 |
| Normalize attribute and geometry data | Winter 2008 |
| Create seamless parcel layer | Spring 2008 |
| Publish Washington State Parcel Database | Summer 2008 |
| Begin Phase II | Summer 2008 |
Process
Learn about the process of creating a statewide parcel database by clicking on the image below.
Statewide Parcel Database Participation Status
Documentation
To keep this process as transparent as possible the project team has taken extrordinary efforts to document the data collection process, transofrmation and integration of data, and dissemination of that data to project participants. The status of each data providers GIS, acquisition protocol, data attributes and contacts can be found on the Parcel GIS Data Producers page.
Technical information about the database structure, hardware and software can be found on the technical documentation page.
Frequently Asked Questions
