Only a few months into its implementation, Madison County’s new Geographic Information System (GIS) plan has already made tides of information accessible through the county’s website.
The service went live in January and is the first phase of a multi-year implementation plan, according to GID Director Chuck Carr.
“During the first phase, significant strides have been made in the area of information sharing, communication, and data management in Madison County (The Central Mississippi Planning and Development District), with the assistance of Kay Little, GIS Administrator, launched a customized web-based application using our virtual server and ArcGIS Server technology,” Carr said.
“This application, accessible through a seamless link on the official Madison County website, uses state-of-the-art programming language to serve up to 26 interactive layers of information.”
Using the Internet based GIS viewing tool, users are able to choose the data layers they wish to view from a menu of available information.
Carr said that the service allows accessibility to numerous state and local data layers such as political boundaries, fire response areas, flood zones, schools, polling locations, parks and much more.
Recently, county deeds on file, as well as a few subdivision plans, were added to the network.
Chancery Clerk Arthur Johnston said that Madison County would be the first in the state to be able to retrieve ownership records on a piece of property through an interactive map.
“There are very few links between the tax numbers, tax data and the land records, but this provides that link in a way that I’m not sure anyone else in Mississippi has or at least that I’ve heard of,” Johnston said.
“I would think that there would be very few county governments in the country that has this type of capability.
“That is, to drill down to the parcel level and not only get parcel numbers and tax data but drill down further to get things like the subdivision plat and the deeds and other records that pertain to that piece of individual property.”
He added, “This is phenomenal, it is really remarkable.”To utilize the GIS network, visit his.cmpdd.org/madison.
