Provided by Prince William County
The Prince William County Geographic Information Systems, or GIS, Office is now offering free information through a new website application that will let people access the county’s robust system of digital data.
“This site data will be available immediately,” said GIS Analyst Drew Wold. “In the past, we’ve had customers send in request forms and there’s been some lag time – generally a few days – to send out data and receive payment. On this website, the data is going to be free and downloads will be available immediately.”
The data, available at pwcgov.org/gisdata, will give people using the site all of the information they need to create maps or perform geographic analysis. Categories people can search include boundaries, education, environment, planning and development, points of interest, property information, public safety, recreation, transportation and utilities.
The application has layers, or individual features, with each layer focusing on parks, schools, libraries, trails, commuter lots, streets or police and fire and rescue stations. People can also locate election precincts and voting places, and see plats for a given property. Choosing layers allows users to make custom maps using map-making software, such as AutoCAD. “It’s basically a build-your-own map based on the individual map that you want.”
Wold said students, surveyors, engineers, lawyers, scientists and anyone else that is interested can all find uses for the most up-to-date information held at the GIS office. “This is going to offer users the most current GIS data the county has.”
Students might use the application in geography classes at school. Lawyers can see property boundaries for use in legal matters. Scientists might be interested in stream locations and watershed information for environmental projects. Wold said surveyors and engineers will be able to use the app to familiarize themselves with parcels before they go to the site. “They’ll overlay parcels and contours to get the lay of the land before they go out and actually survey.”
Wold said that since the price is right, he expects to see an increase in requests for information from the GIS office. “The benefit of this is that it is now publicly available for free.”
