This session will focus on basic principles associated with creation of a digital parcel data base. We will look at data sources, including existing hard copy maps, legal descriptions, plats and certified surveys, orthophotos, and other public records from the perspective data quality and potential for conversion. Methods for data automation including table digitizing, heads-up digitizing, scan digitizing, coordinate geometry (COGO), and CAD conversion will be compared. Management of parcel data and associated data bases will be reviewed.
Stephen J. Ventura is a Professor of Environmental Studies and Soil Science at University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is Chair of the Department of Soil Science, Principal Investigator of the Consortium for Rural Geospatial Innovations (RGIS), and Director of the Land Information and Computer Graphics Facility, a geographic information system (GIS) research and technology transfer laboratory. Research interests include the implementation of multi-purpose land information systems, GIS and related information technologies for land use planning and management, and land records modernization. He has also worked on applications of GIS in environmental and resource management models such as non-point source pollution, groundwater contamination, precision agriculture, vegetation mapping, habitat evaluation, and invasion of exotic species.