From The American Surveyor Magazine, an article Written by Esri Canada & Martin Newby Consulting Ltd.
Alberta, Canada has a long history of providing reliable, accurate and high-quality digital mapping data that has been achieved through the province’s commitment to an advanced cadastral mapping system. Since its inception more than 20 years ago, the system has flourished, leading to the creation of many new datasets and products that promote the efficient delivery of government services.
Alberta’s forward-thinking approach to cadastral mapping was born out of the same challenges that are faced by many provinces across the country–the survey information fabric used to be manually updated and stored in antiquated filing systems–often in paper or hard copy. Land titles could sometimes be inconsistent with parcel mapping and the process of updating data lacked efficiency; updates to the map representations and base datasets could often take anywhere from 3 to 8 months from the time changes were submitted.
These inconsistencies led to high costs and did not provide a solid basis for strategic planning. As a result, the province recognized a clear need for a spatially-referenced cadastral fabric that could be updated and managed through streamlined, automated processes.
Building a Robust, Spatially-Referenced Cadastral Fabric
The Government of Alberta established an independent and entrepreneurial entity to manage the provincial mapping data. Spatial Data Warehouse (SDW) is a not-for-profit corporation that’s the first of its kind in Canada; its core purpose is to maintain and promote the broadest possible distribution of provincial digital mapping to meet the immediate needs of the Alberta marketplace, while preserving the mapping system over the long term. SDW works to reduce redundant data collection and maintenance, promote regulatory requirements and develop products and services that support a digital mapping infrastructure.
Serving as the operating agent for SDW is AltaLIS–a joint venture comprised of three Alberta-based consulting companies– Martin Newby Consulting Ltd., North West Geomatics Ltd. and The Silvacom Group. Responsible for the day-to-day activities related to Alberta’s base mapping infrastructure, the organization reengineers and updates provincial base, terrain and property data. It has also developed a number of customized, online surveying tools that help surveyors improve the quality of the plans of survey that are submitted to the Land Titles office.
With an aim to make Alberta’s base mapping infrastructure more available, accurate and affordable, AltaLIS has succeeded in transforming the province’s mapping program into a low-cost, selfsustaining initiative, helping to save the province millions of dollars annually. Through their work, spatial information has become centrally stored, efficiently managed and readily available in both CAD and GIS formats, to better support users.
Continue reading the article in full HERE
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