Scott County maintains a GIS database of all section corners within the county. Corner certificates from the Recorder’s Office and tie sheets maintained by the Secondary Roads Department are published to the GIS databases on a regular basis. The GIS data is packaged for use with ESRI’s free ArcReader application.

This update contains corner certificates and tie book sheets through September 30, 2011. The data package and additional information can be accessed here: Scott County Section Corner GIS Data – September 30, 2011

To download the free ESRI ArcReader software, click here.

To look for corner certificates recorded after September 30, 2011 please visit Scott County Land Records Online.

The Scott County 2009 digital orthophotos (aerial photos) can now be used by residents, visitors and businesses in the very popular and familiar Google Map application. By making our imagery available on Google Map we are reaching more users and getting the most out of our investment in local data.

Check out a sample of the aerial photo on Google Map here.

We’ve just released the beat version of the new Scott County website! Please feel free to try it out and contact the GIS office with any questions. This is a work in progress so please share your comments and suggestions.

The web site design team was comprised of several staff members from the Auditor’s Office, County Assessor, City Assessor, Planning & Development, and IT staff from Scott County, Bettendorf and Davenport. The web site is designed to provide fast, easy access to county wide mapping and information including aerial photographs, real estate data, roads and a variety of other resources. Available features include ownership information, assessed values, sales data, property dimensions for each real estate parcel in Scott County. Links provide connections to scanned documents and existing tax and assessor records.

Link: Scott County Iowa GIS Web Service (beta)
The website is hosted by the Sidwell Company.

Screen shot of Beta Scott County Iowa GIS Map Service

Web access to Scott County, Iowa GIS data is just around the corner! Data will soon be published online as the Scott County Iowa GIS Web Service. Currently in development, the Beta release is tentatively scheduled for April 5th. For testing purposes the service may be available sooner but in an unsupported/development role. The web site is being hosted and developed in partnership with The Sidwell Company.

The Scott County Iowa GIS Web Service represents the cap stone of a multi-year data development effort which includes aerial photography, parcels, surveys and related ownership information, addressing, roads and many other reference layers. This effort was supported by the Scott County Board, department heads, elected officials, many staff and vendors including The Schneider Corporation, Midland GIS, and Kucera International.

A Quad City Times article covering the Scott County Iowa GIS Map Service was posted Sunday, March 13th and is viewable here.

The Iowa DNR and Iowa Geologic Survey approached us in the Fall of 2007 to educate us on their geologic mapping program and to ask us for our support to map two USGS quadrangles (Davenport East and Davenport West). We provided a letter of support for that effort and they were subsequently able to secure approval (at no cost to Scott County). They recently completed that project and you can view the resulting maps in PDF format here:

Iowa DNR Geologic Maps for Scott County

We have not yet received the GIS format files, but expect they will be available shortly. This information will be valuable for planning and environmental analysis.

The Iowa DNR and IGS are now hoping to take the next step. They would like to continue mapping the rest of Scott County through the Iowa STATEMAP program! They have again asked us for a letter of support to demonstrate local interest and value. I believe the geologic data will be very useful, particularly to our Health and Planning departments.

Improved geologic data will be useful in a number of county applications. For example, our Health Department is interested in identifying the areas of the county susceptible to groundwater contamination and is investigating the use of sand point wells, nitrate levels and other important factors that contribute to this problem. Septic systems are also a concern.

The Scott County Planning and Development Department has recently updated the Scott County Comprehensive Plan. They can leverage geologic, land use, zoning and other related spatial data in GIS to improve decision making for land use and resource management.

There is potential to use the geologic data in Conservation, Secondary Roads and Solid Waste Management. We anticipate working in partnership with the IGS and Iowa DNR to find other uses for the information as our own local GIS layer development efforts continue and more data is added to the mix.

Scott County maintains a GIS database of all section corners within the county. Corner certificates from the Recorder’s Office and tie sheets maintained by the Secondary Roads Department are published to GIS databases on a quarterly basis. The GIS data is packaged for use with ESRI’s free ArcReader application.

This update contains corner certificates and tie book sheets through September 30, 2009. The data package and additional information can be accessed here: Scott County Section Corner GIS Data – September 30, 2009

To download the free ESRI ArcReader software, click here.

To look for corner certificates recorded after September 30, please visit Scott County Land Records Online.

The 2005 digital orthophotos have been available for some time, but we’ve recently acquired an online storage solution which has allowed us to upload photo tiles and certain mosaic products to the web.

Currently, all 100 scale and 400 scale image tiles are available for dowload. They are organized into folders by tile row. Some mosaic products are available, however we will be working to create smaller mosaic files as the current countywide, Bettendorf and Davenport ones are prohibitively large (countywide sizes are 2GB for the 400 scale mosaic and 4GB for the 100 scale mosaic).

The 2009 flights will be available in late October. Check back as we continue to post more data online. Be sure to view the Scott County Tiling Grid Scheme located in the Planning area of the downloads to determine which tiles you need.

Link to orthophotos: 2005 Orthophotos

The new Scott Emergency Communications Center and consolidated dispatch operation will implement a new dispatching solution from New World Systems that relies more heavily on spatial data. We’re in the process of selecting a firm to create the addressing databases that will feed the new CAD system.

These databases include a new countywide street centerline file, address point features and supporting data layers such as emergency service zones, cell tower coverage areas and others. Combined, this new GIS data will provide SECC and local governments with improved caller locations, better match rates with telephone company records, and new routing capabilities all of which will enhance emergency response and many other location based applications.

We’ve just added an ArcReader document (zipped) to our GIS data downloads page.

Link: Scott County PLSS data

It includes a data bundle with an index containing all of our known recorded corner certificates and the unrecorded Scott County Tie Book sheets maintained by the Secondary Roads Department. The positions of features in the PLSS Index are current to May 31, 2009 and are approximate only.

Also in the data bundle, we have included our 2005 Scott County Control Network GPS monument locations and a collection of over 500 survey grade coordinates of various section and 1/4 section corners. The section corners were collected as part of a survey grade GPS project to support our continued cadastral mapping efforts. Corners were occupied and adjusted to the Scott County Control Network. Complete NSSDA reports and supporting information from the survey is available on request.

We hope that the survey community and others find the data useful in supporting their monument research, reoccupying corner positions in the field and as a source of accurate reference information tied to Iowa State Plane coordinates (IASP South, NAD83 (HARN96), U.S feet).

Just finished up a small bathymetric map for the Scott County Conservation Department. Bathymetric maps are basically underwater elevation contours. While we do have LIDAR data countywide from 2005, it doesn’t penetrate surface water (I believe different frequencies are used for that). So the elevation data came from spot depth checks provided by Conservation staff.

I used ArcGIS 3D Analyst and ArcGIS Spatial Analyst to create contours using mass points (spot depth data), breaklines (they provided some linear depth information, e.g. the lake is 6′ deep at a distance of 25′ from the shoreline from point A to point B), and the lake boundary as a hard clip. Fairly easy, though getting nice looking contours requires a multi-step process; TIN-generated contours are pretty jagged. I like to build a TIN, export to a raster, generate contours and then simplify the results.

I wonder if in the future, we could pair depth finders with GPS equipment to produce a much more dense and accurate underwater survey?