I love maps — especially the new-fangled, interactive, online ones based on geographic information systems. Click a box and roads appear. Click another box and you get city boundaries, and so on.
Bainbridge Island this week announced its new online mapping application, which allows anyone to build a map to his or her own specifications. For those focused on water issues, it’s an easy way to locate streams, wetlands and watersheds. I do wish, however, that the streams were named on the map.
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UPDATE: April 13, 2010
In a story in today’s Kitsap Sun, reporter Tristan Baurick says the mapping system will save city staff time and improve their efficiency.
He quoted Gretchen Robinson, a geographic information systems
specialist, as saying, “A lot of people call just to find the
elevation of their property. This mapping application will answer
that.”
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I congratulate Bainbridge Island along with other local governments throughout Puget Sound who have developed this way of building maps without downloading special software.
Thurston County was one of the first and is still one of the best to build these maps and continue to upgrade its online mapping system.
Mason County uses the same mapping application, with plenty of information included.
King and Snohomish county maps work pretty well. I’m a little less impressed with Pierce County’s, possibly because I have not used it enough to understand its quirks.
I don’t believe Kitsap County has an interactive map of this kind, except for its parcel-search map, which works well for auditor, assessor and treasurer information but does not include natural resource data.
Awesome! Interactive mapping is the best, and you mentioned the Kitsap County Parcel Search system. There is absolutely no reason why every county in this state should not be integrating their natural resource data from their Comprehensive Land Use Management Plans with their Parcel Search systems for more informative, effective searches – aimed primarily at the potential landowner, and current landowner. Other members of this audience include legal, agencies, consultants and academia.
BTW – looking for some wetland data? Check out the new National Wetland Inventory BETA mapper at:
Not fully functional yet, but coming soon…
http://www.fws.gov/wetlands/
UPDATE: April 13, 2010
In a story in today’s Kitsap Sun, reporter Tristan Baurick says the mapping system will save city staff time and improve their efficiency.
He quoted Gretchen Robinson, a geographic information systems specialist, as saying, “A lot of people call just to find the elevation of their property. This mapping application will answer that.”