Current Land-Use and Development Database for the Texas Hill Country

Project ManagerAja Davidson

Assistant Project ManagerClint Carpenter

Web MasterJan Schneider

GIS DevelopersWesley Poehlmann

Derek Smith

•Non-profit organization whose purpose is to preserve the natural resources and heritage of the Central Texas Hill Country.

oRaise public awarenessoBuild community support

•Focuses on seventeen counties.

•Formed in response to escalating challenges brought by rapid development.•Resource for elected officials at state and local levels.

•Collaborate with land trusts, groundwater districts, government groups

and landowners.

• Texas Hill Countryo One of the fastest growing regions in the

countryo Popular tourist destinationo Currently no comprehensive sustainable

development plan• Political Boundaries often do not follow

environmental boundaries.• An updatable and expandable

geodatabase is needed in order to further the purpose of public and private participation in sustainable development.

• Austin City Connection “2003 Land Use Inventory Overview and Methodology”

• Jagadish, K.S. Sudhira, H.S. and Ramachandra, T.V., “Urban Sprawl Recognition and Modeling Using GIS”

• Fitzpatrick, T., “Sharing Interactive Maps”

• City of Chicago Department of Zoning, Interactive Map.

• ESRI• TCEQ• TWDB• U.S. Census Bureau• City of Chicago Zoning

Department• Medina County

Appraisal District• Gillespie County

Appraisal District

• Bexar County Information Services• Kerr County Central Appraisal

District• Kendall County 911 Addressing• Comal County Engineers Office• Comal County Subdivision Regulation Department• Hays County GIS/911 Addressing Division• Bandera GIS operator• Austin City Connection• Burnet County City Planner

• HCA Counties • Federal Lands• Cities• Railroads• Rail terminals• Water• Sewer• City limits

• Groundwater Conservation Districts• Municipal Utility Districts• Parks• Census Block Groups• Parcel data: Medina, Bexar,

Kerr, Kendall, Comal, Hays, Bandera, Travis, Gillespie and Burnet

• All layers were projected in:NAD 1983 GCS UTM Zone 14N

• MetadataMetadata updated to help the understanding, use, and management of the data we obtained.

• ArcGIS Suite 9.2• Macromedia Dreamweaver• Smart FTP• Manifold

Procedure

• Acquired Layers covering all counties• Acquired County by County layers such as

parcels, ETJs and Subdivisions. Various other data was acquired but not used in project due to irrelevance.

• Combined data with aquaKESKA into one database for the Manifold IMS, which was then linked to our individual group websites.

http://geo-305577.evans.txstate.edu/HCA/default.asp

We were able to acquire parcel data for 10 of the 17 counties, these counties are:

TravisMedinaBexarKerrKendall

ComalHaysBanderaGillespieBurnet

• Cannot guarantee quality, content, accuracy or completeness of information.

• HCA retains right to change content on website

• Data should not be used for professional advice

• TerraCorps, aquaKESKA and HCA assume no liability for misuse of data.

Data acquisition:

• Difficulty to contacting individuals• Encountered disinterest and apathy• Suspicion• Lack of digitized data• Amount of useless data• Accuracy and Completeness of Data

The IMS• No pan feature• Place and feature names not displayed• All layers selected at start up• Search operation nonfunctional• Menu doesn’t scroll

This project is unique in that nothing of this kind has been done for this size study area.

All of the data collected has been available, but has never been compiled in this way.

Hopefully this will encourage other students and professionals to follow suit and expand upon the idea of public participation.

• Detailed final report which includes an interactive website• Professional display poster• Project website containing:

PowerPoint presentationProject documentsRelated links

• CD containing:All dataProposalProgress ReportDigital Copy of Poster in PDF formatFinal PaperFinal Presentation

What we gained by doing this project:• Communication skills• An awareness of the region• New knowledge of government

hierarchy structure.• An appreciation for good time

management skills.

• Help the Hill Country Alliance preserve the uniqueness of the Hill Country

• Help encourage responsible growth and development.

• Encourage use and development of GIS in county and city governments.

Any questions? Comments?Concerns?