Better base mapping management is helping the City of Calgary, Canada share data citywide. Workflow efficiencies have resulted from improvements in data entry, data accuracy, and data availability.

Calgary has been digitally creating and managing spatial information, maps, and government data for more than 15 years. It maintains spatial data for a 280-square-mile area containing more than 300,000 land parcels.

Phenomenal growth has pushed the metropolitan population to nearly 1 million, and last year more than 45,000 lots and 20,000 parcels were added to the digital mapping databases. As the volume of data has grown, managing and sharing information throughout city government has become one of the highest priorities for Calgary’s Land Information & Mapping Business unit.

The unit’s Geomatics Division is responsible for all base mapping within the city’s jurisdiction. The current program to establish base mapping information systems was launched in 1990 as part of a citywide spatial information management initiative. The initiative’s goal was to create a system allowing spatial information to be leveraged throughout city government.