Abstract

Creating a Spatial Database of Flood Control District Easements
Track: Water, Wastewater, and Stormwater
Authors: Laurie Williams

Knowing where our easements are located is critical to the Marin County Flood Control District's mission. However, our paper easement files were incomplete, and the spatial data were hardcopy Assessor maps with mylar overlays.

Our initial goal was to find the deeds for each easement shown in the binders, but we found many additional documents. These were entered into a Microsoft Access database. The paper map easements were digitized and rectified to the county parcel feature class in ArcMap. New easements were drawn from coordinate geometry or by parcel. Each easement links to records in the Access database by a unique ID.

The geodatabase and Access database were used to verify each other and to improve overall knowledge of the easements. The process for locating information about our easements is much more efficient. Initial tests of using the data in ArcGIS Online on smartphones in the field have been well-received.