News & Information

SanGIS Data Quality Improvements in 2013 and 2014

SanGIS is continuing projects to provide the best, most reliable, data for the San Diego County region

January 15, 2014

The New Year is typically a time for reflection and resolution and so it is fitting that we should provide this review of what SanGIS has been able to accomplish in the past year and what we are looking forward to in 2014.

In 2013 we made a number or internal improvements in our processes, documentation, and infrastructure to ensure we publish consistent quality products in a timely fashion. While those changes are not readily apparent to users they are important in making sure we provide the best data we can. But we also completed a number of projects that directly affect what you see. Among these:

• One-foot and half-meter aerial imagery flown in 2012 became available in January for anyone that wanted it for the small cost of reproduction. This was a regional effort that we hope to repeat in 2014.
• Working with the County Assessor’s Office we were able to publish additional parcel data for possessory interest and mobile home parks. This resulted in the addition of thousands of parcels to our parcel database.
• In March we published the new Interactive Parcel View. In keeping with our efforts to use regional resources wisely we collaborated with SANDAG to publish the interactive map and make it available from both agencies.
• From June through October we modified processes and datasets to include full road name information instead of the abbreviated “ROAD20” data that has been published for many years. This included changing publication scripts and schemas for almost a dozen data layers.
• August saw the publication of a new, streamlined, road intersection layer that eliminated old, outdated, and unreliable data and resulted in the cleanup of a number of road segments in the county.
• In September we replaced the current ROADS_ALL with a new road layer that had updated 2010 census tracts and blocks, more current law beats, and other jurisidictional information.
• In the last quarter of 2013 (October through December) we’ve continued our internal efforts to improve the quality of our address layer including using a commercial service to verify addresses and identify inconsistencies.

We have plenty of projects already in progress in 2014. Some of those, as in the last year, are internal efforts such as software updates and internal process improvements. Some external-facing projects in progress or planned to be completed this year are:

• Working with other regional agencies and jurisdictions in the County we’ll be acquiring aerial imagery flown in 2014. This data is expected to be available in the public domain in late 2014.
• Within the first quarter of the new year we hope to publish an expanded address point layer that includes more complete data including state codes, postal community names, and US National Grid values.
• We are in the process of reviewing the metadata for all publicly-available layers and are working with other regional agencies to refine the minimum required standards and publication methods. This long term project will include contacting data owners where necessary to bring metadata up to these standards.
• SANDAG and SanGIS continue to work together to offer a single source of regional GIS data. We are already working together on alternative methods of presenting the most requested data layers and updating the shared interactive parcel viewer map.

SanGIS is excited about the projects underway and looking forward to expanding our cooperation with other jurisidictions and agencies in the county to provide the most comprehensive, most reliable, most authoritative regional GIS data warehouse possible. If you have ideas you’d like us to consider just email us at webmaster@sangis.org.

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