In+ersec+ion for Spatial People

Yesterday, we announced the update and expansion of the parcel coverage available in our ParcelStream™ web service. Our ParcelStream™ customers now have access to over 110 million parcels and we plan to have 120 million parcels by the end of 2010. While many people already understand the value of parcel data, we thought this would be a good time to share some thoughts on parcel boundary data and just why we find it to be such a valuable data set.

To begin, let’s discuss what exactly parcel boundaries are, this will help us understand their importance. Parcel boundaries are the precise GIS coordinates of a piece of property. Overlaid on top of a satellite or aerial image, they show a mapped image of the exact boundaries of a lot. They allow a potential real estate buyer to "walk" the boundaries of a piece of property from an online map, seeing its proximity to streets and highways, distance from neighboring homes, and access to green space, streams and wooded areas.

Parcel boundaries do more than just provide a "bird's eye view" of a piece of property. Once the GIS coordinates of a property are loaded into a map-based platform, they can be combined with additional data sets like school districts, neighborhood demographics and other location information. Governments use parcel data to assess service areas, make predictions and respond to disasters.

Now that we are all on the same page about what parcel boundaries are it’s a good time to discuss why having parcel data in any online mapping application is a must. Parcel data represents the second wave of sophistication for the non-expert spatial technology user. When online maps first became available, looking up an address would take you to the street centerline in front of that address. But today, people who are using online applications to search for real estate to buy or looking at the boundaries of their own property expect more. They want to see the exact boundaries of a property; the size, depth and unique features, and the exact outline of the property. Adding parcel data to your map lets you show users this type of information. In addition, having parcel data in your application can add a layer of interactivity between parcels and other data sets on the map.

As you can see, parcel boundary data is a very critical data set, which is why we strive to continually expand our parcel data coverage and keep it current. If you’re interested in learning more about our expansion or would like to test out parcel data in your own mapping application visit us at www.spatialstream.com/microsite/parcelstreamupdate.html for a free trial and more detailed information.