Fraser Valley Regional District - Integrated Cadastral Information

Member Stories
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Fraser Valley Regional District
FVRD QUICK FACTS
The Fraser Valley Regional District is a local government that
serves over 280,000 residents living within its member
municipalities and electoral areas. These areas include; the City
of Abbotsford, the City of Chilliwack, the District of Hope, the
District of Kent, the District of Mission and the Village of
Harrison Hot Springs.
Member Municipalities:
City of Abbotsford
City of Chilliwack
The FVRD delivers a wide range of services throughout the
region. Services like water supply, sewer, street lighting,
garbage collection and fire protection are delivered on a
localized level. Other services, such as E911, regional parks,
mosquito control and solid waste management are delivered on
a regional level.
District of Hope
District of Kent
District of Mission
Village of Harrison Hot
Springs
The FVRD is a diverse area with cities, rural communities and
everything in between. The economy of the region is supported
by agriculture, tourism, education, health care, aerospace and
more.
Population: 280,000
www.fvrd.bc.ca
ICIS Member Since 2009
Scenic outdoor venues provide a variety of opportunities for
activities like bird watching, biking, hiking, kayaking, horseback
riding, paragliding, golfing, skiing, snowboarding, snow shoeing
and a water activities like boating, swimming, white-water
rafting, fishing, water skiing, and wind-surfing.
GeoShare Delivery:
Parcels
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Addresses
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Event Host
Board Member
Strategic Advisor
Photo: D.Urban
Funding Organization
Photo: D.Urban
Adam Swartz and Shannon Sigurdson are the GIS Technicians
responsible for the GIS requirements of the FVRD. With 6
member municipalities and 7 electoral areas – some of whom
have their own GIS Departments, the GIS Technicians at the
Regional District are challenged with efficiently obtaining and
maintaining the information needed to support regional systems
like fire dispatch and strategic planning. In 2009, at the urging of
the GIS Technicians, the FVRD became a member of ICIS.
“Participating in ICIS has been very positive,” remarks Adam
Swartz. “It has broken-down data silos and encourages a more
collaborative approach to data acquisition and sharing.”
Recipients of both CivicSpatial and AddressBC Grants, the
Grant Recipient:
busy GIS team at the FVRD have been able to take on new
Parcels
projects to improve the accuracy of their data. For example;
fire dispatch requires accurate address information. The
Addresses
District of Kent is a member of ICIS but their data model does
Data Quality
not match the FVRD’s fire dispatch system. The Regional
District GIS team is able to download Kent’s polygons, pull the
ICIS Labs Participant
address points and merge the data to create a dataset that
fits the FVRD’s fire dispatch data model.
Adam reports that working with ICIS has resulted in improved
efficiency. Responding to requests for data is now much
easier. In the past, data sharing agreements were necessary
for even the simplest pieces of information – now they just
refer the inquiry to ICIS.
“Improving the flow of information between our member
municipalities gives all of us the opportunity to elevate the
level of service provided to our constituents,” says Adam.
Another added benefit to the FVRD is access to the expertise
at ICIS. “Ann Archibald and Steve Mark at ICIS have been a
huge help,” says Adam. “Steve setup an automated script
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Member Stories
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Fraser Valley Regional District
“Participating in ICIS has
been very positive. It
has broken-down data
silos and encourages a
more collaborative
approach to data
acquisition and sharing.”
Adam Swartz
GIS Technician
This image is from an ILMB Parcel Fabric
Section report that compared the FVRD’s
cadastre against ILMB PFS cogoed traverses.
This report identified areas where the FVRD’s
data could be improved and was an
invaluable planning tool for the FVRD’s
Cadastre Fabric Improvement Project.
that identifies errors and inconsistencies in the data we provide
on a weekly basis. This allows us to make corrections in a timely
manner and ensures quality control.”
The biggest internal users of GIS data at the FVRD are planners
followed closely by building inspectors. Utilities are relying on it
more and more to locate services and there’s talk of getting
mobile devices so data can be accessed in the field. The FVRD
also makes its GIS data available to the public through their web
mapping application, the Regional Information Map.
What’s New?
The Fraser Valley Regional District joined ICIS in 2009 and is the
final Regional District to become a member. They represent one
of British Columbia’s fastest growing areas with over 280,000
residents in its member municipalities and electoral areas.
Adam Swartz, working with his colleagues in Abbotsford and
Mission identified a need and saw a solution through ICIS. New
construction that results in changes to roads and the addition or
change to fire hydrant locations needs to be updated as quickly
as possible. If the data isn’t available, fire dispatchers can only
direct emergency personnel to the closest intersection.
“We realized that we needed a more effective way to share
data used for fire dispatch between the Regional District and the
Photo: D.Urban
municipalities,” says Adam. “Historically, this has been a manual
process that is scheduled to happen periodically throughout the
year.”
Working with Steve Mark from ICIS, the group is working on
adding this information to ICIS and through automated scripts,
having the data automatically updated to ICIS and to the
municipalities. This level of automation will result in more
timely and accurate information being available to the
dispatchers and to the systems in the fire trucks.
www.icisociety.ca