Department of Finance & Administration
Mark Emkes, Commissioner

March 6, 2008

As our agency moves into the performance planning season, I thought it would be an appropriate time for me to provide an update to the Director’s Corner.

Our primary focus for 2008 is to maximize the use of the Tennessee Base Mapping Program (TNBMP) data through the development and optimization of the State’s enterprise GIS portal called the “Tennessee Map” or TNMap.  We are currently in the process of developing an application that will provide public access to digital parcel data for the majority of the State.  The application will provide a link from the TNMap to the State’s property assessment (CAAS) web application.  Users will have the ability to search for property based on owner’s name, address, or parcel-id and view the results in a digital map.  Public access to this information will be valuable for fee appraisers, real estate developers, planners, and prospective home buyers to name a few.  The digital map will include ortho imagery, streets, and other spatial data layers.

In addition to providing public access to TNBMP parcel data, we are expanding the scope of our enterprise GIS data library.  Working with the USGS and several State agencies, OIR GIS Services is in the process of developing an enhanced set of hydrography features.  Specifically, we are creating a local resolution National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) for Tennessee.  With stakeholders in the Department of Environment and Conservation, Wildlife Resources, Agriculture, and Transportation, the local res. NHD working group has completed a pilot project in Anderson, Tipton, and Shelby counties to conflate attributes from the 1:24K NHD dataset to the TNBMP 1:4800 set of hydrography.  The results will provide the stakeholder groups with a much richer set of features and attributes that will be beneficial for water pollution control, watershed assessment, stream restoration, stream bank analysis, wildlife habitat monitoring, and transportation planning.  Statewide production efforts of the local res. NHD will continue through 2008.  Working with USGS, the long term goal is to identify a State agency steward for data maintenance.

Maintenance of the digital ortho imagery continues to be a significant priority at the State.  OIR GIS Services is in the final year of a five year contract with TGI.  Current production efforts are focused in East Tennessee.  In all, 13 counties will be flown this spring.  OIR GIS is currently developing local partnerships and will be hosting the new imagery in the TNMap.  Long term, OIR GIS is working with the Department of Transportation to develop a sustained approach for digital ortho updates.  The first phase of this partnership is developing updated ortho imagery for all of west Tennessee (TDOT region 4).  The following link provides a detailed map of the current production efforts:  Current Status Map (PDF Format)

Stayed tuned, as we’ll have more updates to the TNMap as they become available!

-- Dennis Pedersen, Director OIR-GIS Services