ArcGIS® for Land Records An Esri® White Paper July 2012

Copyright © 2012 Esri All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. The information contained in this document is the exclusive property of Esri. This work is protected under United States copyright law and other international copyright treaties and conventions. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except as expressly permitted in writing by Esri. All requests should be sent to Attention: Contracts and Legal Services Manager, Esri, 380 New York Street, Redlands, CA 92373-8100 USA. The information contained in this document is subject to change without notice. Esri, the Esri globe logo, ArcGIS, esri.com, and @esri.com are trademarks, service marks, or registered marks of Esri in the United States, the European Community, or certain other jurisdictions. Other companies and products or services mentioned herein may be trademarks, service marks, or registered marks of their respective mark owners.

J10138

Esri White Paper i

ArcGIS for Land Records

An Esri White Paper Contents Page

Introduction ........................................................................................... 1 Background ..................................................................................... 1 Challenges in Land Records ........................................................... 1 Standards and Data Models ............................................................ 2

ArcGIS for Land Records ..................................................................... 3 Efficient Data Management Tools .................................................. 4

Duplicate, Disparate Data—The Need for Enterprise Solutions ................................................................................ 4

Data Sharing.............................................................................. 5 Benefits of ArcGIS Online ........................................................ 5 GIS and CAMA Integration ...................................................... 6

Spatial Analysis .............................................................................. 6 Data Access in the Field—Efficient Field Management

Tools ............................................................................................ 6 Executive Dashboards ..................................................................... 7 Citizen Communication .................................................................. 7

Communicating with Maps ....................................................... 8

Achieving Enterprise GIS ..................................................................... 8

Delivering Ongoing Benefits ................................................................ 8

Conclusion ............................................................................................ 9

J10138

Esri White Paper

ArcGIS for Land Records

Introduction

Background Managing land records thoroughly and efficiently yields many downstream financial, organizational, and cross-organizational benefits. While assessors work toward the goal of complete and efficient management, they face the added struggle to meet citizens' and officials' ever-increasing expectations of quality and transparency of and access to information. Add to that the reality of tight budgets and reduced available staff. By using appropriate, purpose-built technology, such as Esri's ArcGIS® for Land Records, assessors and land records staff achieve essential efficiencies and enjoy many new capabilities. Departments throughout local governments increasingly rely on assessors' authoritative data. This is evolving the role and challenges of the assessor's office and creating new challenges and opportunities. Assessors are becoming the data manager for essential data in local government. With this responsibility, new efficiencies are needed. Governments are looking for sustainable solutions that grow and evolve with changing needs. No longer can we build data systems from scratch. Standards-based, supported, purpose-built systems are required for the assessor. ArcGIS for Land Records, a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) solution, offers a reliable, efficient path to better land records management. With a COTS solution, assessors are able to speed deployment, lessen reliance on internal and third-party application development, deploy new releases of core technology as they become available, and get standardized technical support and training. By using ArcGIS standards and data models, each jurisdiction no longer needs to invest scarce time and money in costly customization. Out-of-the-box, comprehensive capabilities and rich geographic data available in ArcGISSM Online, Esri's cloud environment, enable effective management of all types of geospatial data such as imagery, basemaps, and parcels. The ArcGIS solution includes analysis capabilities for understanding valuation patterns and trends that help assessors predict future valuation and assist in reducing appeals. This complete solution contains an executive dashboard to provide real-time information on valuation, sales, appeals, and status of work inside an organization. ArcGIS for Land Records has online and smartphone and tablet applications that can be used by citizens to locate a property's official assessment or access other public information.

Challenges in Land Records

There are many challenges that come with keeping land record data current, complete, and accurate. The decline of property values has led to tightened budgets and reduced staff, while citizens and officials continue to hold high expectations for quality information. Complex, highly customized workflows that rely on specific software versions are cumbersome, costly, and less efficient. Reliance on third-party service providers can be costly and can inhibit technology capacity development within an organization. More efficient processes and systems are needed. Assessors need a way to

ArcGIS for Land Records

J10138

July 2012 2

eliminate duplicated efforts and data, share information across the organization, and access data from anywhere. Public access applications are a priority in every land records organization. Many existing public access applications are outdated and fail to deliver the capabilities expected by today's information user. Even casual Internet users can now find nonauthoritative values and assessments through online data aggregators and real estate services. However, there are many inaccuracies in an automated interpretation of value and real estate sales data. This creates an environment for increased valuation and tax appeals. Appeals can be reduced when authoritative, accurate, accessible, and timely data and valuation information are provided. Demands for data quality go beyond the land records and assessor's office. New information products are requested and desired by a broader user base. Coordination with the many downstream data users—including those in public works, engineering, and utilities—requires timely and accurate information, often more accurate and current than the traditional mandate of assessors. Fulfilling these demands with limited resources places additional strains on an assessor. Clear, accessible, and easy-to-use information from government websites and modernized workflows, combined with e-government initiatives and increased citizen expectations from technology, give land records professionals new challenges as well as new opportunities to provide better resources for citizens and officials. Assessors need a framework for deploying specific maps and applications to citizens, real estate brokers, and knowledge workers for use on the web, smartphones, and tablets. ArcGIS provides a comprehensive land records system to address these challenges. Geographic information system (GIS) technology has been an essential component of assessor operations for many years. Esri developed ArcGIS for Land Records to provide a complete system for addressing today's ongoing demands. Easy web map publishing provides quick and simplified access to authoritative data. Advanced analytical and visualization capabilities allow assessors to efficiently defend appeals. New, defined parcel workflows allow internal standardization and resource tracking. Online data sharing and viewing capabilities reduce queries in the office and deliver transparency to other organizations as well as the public. All these benefits come from a single system, specifically built for assessors and their operations.

Standards and Data Models

Local government offices throughout the United States operate a bit differently from one another but perform similar mandated functions. The common patterns provide an opportunity to improve work efficiencies and meet new demands in maintaining land records. Esri has developed standard data models based on these fundamental common patterns and uses. The data models are useful, time-tested, and extensible—which means users can extend the contents of the data model without redesigning the core elements. Extensibility is important because it gives the user access to the capabilities of COTS solutions without costly software development and customization. COTS solution applications, such as those created with ArcGIS technology, are configurable and require no software development. ArcGIS for Land Records—with its standard data models, applications, and maps—offers many user benefits. New releases, capabilities, and data are attainable with software

ArcGIS for Land Records

J10138

Esri White Paper 3

version upgrades. Standard data models allow users to configure workflows to meet a particular environment. An example of a standard data model is the parcel fabric, which is designed specifically for managing parcels and to power improvements and efficiencies in parcel workflows. With the parcel fabric, parcels are managed in a contiguous, topologically correct dataset. Workflows improve data integrity by providing specific tools for parcel operations such as merging new parcels and entering subdivisions within existing data. Built-in history tracking maintains the historic parcel data, both legal data and system data. The ArcGIS Resource Center for land records, a valuable set of resources for local government GIS users, hosts end-user data and applications such as those for web map viewing, value and revenue analysis, mobile phone map viewing, and basemaps. Data models and applications for land records are part of the Local Government Information Model and designed to be used with other data models and resources—such as elections, infrastructure, planning and development, and public safety—available at the ArcGIS for Local Government Resource Center. An additional benefit of ArcGIS for Land Records is the COTS solution, ArcGIS Workflow Manager, which enables organization-specific workflows to be created and managed. ArcGIS Workflow Manager also provides standard out-of-the-box benefits such as job tracking, QA/QC reporting, data reviewing, and efficiency analysis, while offering management an executive view into the status of work throughout the organization.

ArcGIS for Land Records

ArcGIS for Land Records is a complete solution for land records management. New, open, standards-based data models provide the backbone for the implementation of modern, cost-effective solutions to common local government challenges. Through ArcGIS, assessors and their staff members gain access to many valuable resources to assist with managing data, performing spatial analysis, accessing data in the field, monitoring work progress, and communicating with citizens. ArcGIS is the system supporting local government functions, including many outside of land records such as public works, planning, and engineering. ArcGIS provides tools, data, and applications for cost-effective, efficient land records management. Esri's local government data models are compatible with each other and designed to work together as a foundation for deploying ArcGIS across the enterprise. New applications continue to be developed by Esri and Esri partners on standard data models to deliver new capabilities and ongoing return on the ArcGIS investment without costly custom programming. Efficient licensing models such as enterprise license agreements (ELAs) provide cross-departmental access to ArcGIS and simplify the tasks of planning, deployment, and budgeting. Local entities within the United States have the responsibility to inventory legal records and assess property. Land records information has always been a vital part of many local government operations, though it has been historically undervalued and underutilized. To address this, Esri developed the ArcGIS for Land Records solution, which uses the common implementation patterns that, combined, form a complete GIS system. For land records, these patterns include efficient data management, spatial analytical tools for value analysis, data access in the field, executive dashboards for decision making, and communication of information to citizens.

ArcGIS for Land Records

J10138

July 2012 4

Efficient Data Management Tools

ArcGIS provides a comprehensive set of data management tools for all types of geospatial data, including imagery, basemaps, and parcels. Parcel data is critical in local government and is used by many organizations outside the land records office including those that support disaster response, public safety, engineering, and public works as well as assessors, planners, real estate professionals, and developers. As local governments strive to support other organizations, they are charged to provide authoritative data that includes timely, accurate parcel information. Landowners themselves are important users of parcel information. With information available publicly 24 hours a day, citizens are scrutinizing online property data. There are new expectations. The data on local government GIS sites is generally accepted as authoritative when compared to other aggregated online mapping data. For department credibility, it has become important to maintain property characteristics and positional accuracy that overlay correctly on high-quality basemaps. Esri provides a land records solution as a core part of the ArcGIS platform to help users produce web maps from a variety of ArcGIS data sources available online, implement efficient data management workflows, and incorporate best practices from the land records industry. The parcel maintenance solution included in ArcGIS helps users improve the integrity of parcel data and increase its usefulness throughout the organization. The parcel maintenance solution has three key parts: ■ Parcel Editor toolbar: Contains the tools to edit and manage parcel data ■ Parcel Fabric Data Model: Provides the spatial and topological relationships specific

and unique to parcels ■ Tax Parcel Editing template: Supports local government workflows and provides a

multiscale editing map that organizes subdivisions, lots, and tax parcels ArcGIS for Land Records supports the use of all types of georeferenced imagery. Current, low-cost oblique imagery, orthophotography, and satellite imagery and workflows to manage imagery are all core to ArcGIS technology. Assessors find the use of imagery can prove valuable for creating basemaps and new datasets. Imagery can be particularly valuable for reviewing site-specific conditions to identify unmapped improvements.

Duplicate, Disparate Data—The Need for Enterprise Solutions

In local government there are many legacy systems that contain duplicate data and are maintained in multiple places. This is costly and time-consuming. For example, in many organizations, addresses are maintained in several locations and in different formats following various standards. An enterprise-wide ArcGIS system, with a central data repository, helps to eliminate duplication and resultant inefficiencies and provides broad access to geospatial data and applications throughout the organization. The advantages to deploying ArcGIS across the enterprise include the following: ■ A platform for building and deploying applications and web maps

ArcGIS for Land Records

J10138

Esri White Paper 5

■ Extended geospatial capabilities and data access to all of local government ■ Enhancement of other enterprise systems by leveraging the value of geographic

information ■ Increased overall operating efficiency using GIS across local government When ArcGIS is deployed across the enterprise, the GIS professionals maintain control of the information and applications, yet productivity increases throughout the entire organization as more users have access to the authoritative information and can eliminate maintaining duplicate data. Geospatial information can also be integrated with other enterprise applications, such as tax billing and collection. ArcGIS capabilities can be leveraged in e-government applications to enable executive analysis and decision-support systems. The creation and maintenance of an effective enterprise ArcGIS system ensures that geospatial capabilities can be distributed throughout many departments, including police for crime analysis, public safety for emergency dispatch, and public works for asset management. All use a common basemap and basic data, including addresses and parcels. By managing the common information in one place, a local government is able to eliminate the redundancy that typically occurs when each department uses its own data and applications.

Data Sharing The increased types and volume of data used by assessors—including parcels, assessment information, orthophotography, satellite imagery, oblique imagery, and digital photographs—put a strain on IT department resources by requiring costly storage and computing infrastructure. This is compounded when outside departments rely on the assessor's office to provide accessible maps and data online. Esri's cloud environment, ArcGIS Online, delivers cost-effective, fast access to data from the field, in the office, via the web, or on mobile devices. This data can be shared across departments and with the public. ArcGIS Online combines cloud computing and data storage with a wide selection of basemaps and mapping services, thereby enhancing system value to government and the public. Through Esri's Community Basemaps Program, organizations can contribute local geographic content to become part of a community map that Esri publishes and hosts online. Each contributor's data is integrated with data from other providers and then published through ArcGIS Online as a map service. This program is available to any Esri user organization and other geographic data providers interested in making data content broadly available.

Benefits of ArcGIS Online

■ Users inside and outside the assessor's office, including the local business community and the general public, will be able to use the online maps and services to access current, authoritative tax and assessment information and other local government data. Users will be able to use this data inside applications without maintaining their own GIS infrastructure.

■ Costs associated with making data widely available are reduced.

ArcGIS for Land Records

J10138

July 2012 6

■ Map data is hosted and maintained by Esri at one or more data centers in the United States to ensure high availability, performance, and security.

■ Each organization retains all ownership of its data. ■ Access to map data is available through online maps and applications. ■ ArcGIS Online is included with enterprise license agreements.

GIS and CAMA Integration

Computer-assisted mass appraisal (CAMA) is the standard technology used for managing property characteristics, tracking sales, and calculating fair and equitable valuations. The integration of GIS and CAMA enables the tax assessment function to be concurrent with spatial data that is relevant to the tax valuation model; supports the creation and maintenance of a more accurate land records basemap using the tools and functions of ArcGIS; and provides a single repository for parcel geometry and descriptive data to support workflow, updates, and mass appraisal input. GIS adds value to CAMA systems by providing advanced spatial analysis capabilities for identifying valuation trends, overlaying demographics with other data, analyzing neighborhoods, and performing better QA/QC. Visualization capabilities in ArcGIS give assessors the ability to see on a map any assessment anomalies that would otherwise go undetected and result in increased appeals. ArcGIS enables local assessment staff and officials to work as efficiently as possible and ensures that work results in a defendable value at the most reasonable effort and cost by government.

Spatial Analysis How much tax revenue will be produced next year? How can we reduce the number of appeals? How do we identify trends in valuation and detect assessment anomalies? These are questions often asked of assessors. Spatial analysis with ArcGIS provides the ability to visualize trends and patterns in assessment data. Advanced capabilities, such as overlaying demographic data with assessment data, can reveal trends in valuation. Understanding these trends helps assessors provide accurate, defendable assessments. Public officials are constantly challenged to provide quality data. By using spatial analysis and visualization to identify anomalies and outliers, officials can help improve the accuracy and quality of that data. The ability to visualize trends helps officials and assessors understand the year-to-year changes and answer the toughest questions. ArcGIS Online provides the assessor with access to rich online geographic and demographic data. This data can be simply overlaid while reviewing assessments, neighborhoods, and comparable sales, or it can be incorporated into detailed analytics and spatial analysis. Additionally, this information can be shared easily throughout local government or with the public.

Data Access in the Field—Efficient

Field Management Tools

Field verification of assessment data is an ongoing requirement. Many jurisdictions require that staff physically visit property. By efficiently routing field staff and providing field-workers with accurate, up-to-date information in real time, assessors can ease the effort of mandated field inspections. Many organizations have realized efficiency gains of up to 40 percent by implementing ArcGIS to help logistically organize this work.

ArcGIS for Land Records

J10138

Esri White Paper 7

It can be difficult to access data in the field and efficiently update data in the office. ArcGIS for Windows Mobile provides the capabilities to send data, including digital photos and forms, directly from the field to the office and from the office to the field, using a variety of mobile devices. Office workers can have immediate access to data collected in the field. This eliminates the need for paper maps in the field and improves the accuracy of data as well as the speed at which data is incorporated into the GIS. By employing standard data models and applications, users can take advantage of new mobile GIS advances without obtaining costly custom applications.

Executive Dashboards

Executive dashboards provide real-time and historical information including valuation trends, comparable sales (comps), appeals status, and status of work inside the organization such as parcel editing backlog and field inspection scheduling. Assessors who have implemented a dashboard consult it each morning and throughout the day to make decisions on allocating resources and reporting status. The Value Analysis Dashboard, part of ArcGIS for Land Records, provides up-to-date information on the impact of property sales, foreclosures, and assessment appeals on real estate values and tax revenue. Custom dashboards can be easily created using standard Flex or Silverlight for a quick overview of the status of work, location of areas of concern, and general organizational data.

Citizen Communication

According to the US Office of Management and Budget, more than 60 percent of all Internet users interact with government websites. E-government will save governments significant amounts of money and add value as taxpayer needs are better met. Citizens interact with government websites daily by looking at parcels and assessment information. Public access to land records information is an essential element in the goal of government transparency. ArcGIS supports web standards and is the most common technology used in government portals. ArcGIS is used by citizens for applications designed to help locate polling places, reserve a campsite, report on traffic conditions, locate a property for lease or sale, record crime statistics, identify planned development, and show the location and community impact of emergency events. The Internet has introduced the citizenry to a whole new way to interact with government. ArcGIS makes that interaction more powerful and presents data in a format that makes viewing and understanding easier. Governments are increasingly using ArcGIS as a platform to build mapping applications that engage citizens, deliver transparency, and enhance policy making. ArcGIS integrates geospatial services in the cloud, real-time data, citizen-generated content, mobile applications, and social networks to promote open government practices that leaders and citizens expect. This is known as Gov 2.0. Gov 2.0 engages citizens and helps improve data and services. For example, citizens can easily overlay new, accurate imagery with parcels and locate any discrepancies in the parcel data and communicate that back to the office. Another example of Gov 2.0 citizen engagement is the Community Addressing application, which allows the general public to contribute missing site address locations and provide citizen contact information for current addresses. This interactive web application includes a simple tool to review existing addresses and submit new address and contact information.

ArcGIS for Land Records

J10138

July 2012 8

Communicating with Maps

Maps help assessors quickly communicate large amounts of complex information to public officials and citizens. Maps showing specific analysis, such as valuation trends, public facilities, or tax exempt property, can provide citizens with access to information and reduce counter traffic in the office. ArcGIS for Land Records enables assessors to generate and publish maps in many ways. Standard maps, such as tax maps, can be created using the Map Book Generator included in the solution. Additionally, ad hoc and self-service mapping is supported online or at custom kiosks. Esri® Maps for Office provides new mapping capabilities for all of local government. With ArcGIS Online (included in an ELA), Microsoft Office users have access to mapping capabilities that leverage the content and capabilities of ArcGIS Online while using Excel and PowerPoint.

Achieving Enterprise GIS

New software licensing models are available for local government. ELAs from Esri are an efficient and effective way to manage enterprise software deployment. Essentially, for an annual fixed fee, the ELA ensures that an organization can have nearly unlimited access to the ArcGIS system including all desktop, server, online, and mobile technologies. Bundled with an ELA is access to many types of geospatial data useful to local government, including basemaps, demographics, and imagery. The ability to use as much software as needed delivers considerable flexibility. For example, additional assessment value analysis may be required toward the end of the tax year, which would call for more GIS analysis capabilities than are needed during the rest of the year. Or, in another example, a new web viewer with advanced capabilities may become available midyear and can be obtained at the fixed cost of software. The ELA simplifies budgeting and planning. Hundreds of communities across the country have implemented ArcGIS across the enterprise using the ELA licensing model. There are different paths that organizations take to implement the ArcGIS for Land Records solution. You need to start by examining your organization's business needs and then determine the applications that will provide the greatest value. Begin by reviewing the content on the resource center; preview the applications, read the blogs, watch the videos, and so forth. When you are ready to begin implementing the ArcGIS for Land Records solution, have a plan for working through this organizational shift. There are additional resources available to help with this process: white papers for loading data into the parcel data model; Esri Professional Services, which has various packages available to assist in the process; and Esri partners that have experience and expertise in this area.

Delivering Ongoing Benefits

GIS implementations often begin with a return on investment (ROI) analysis. Many communities have a minimum ROI that must be achieved to authorize and fund technology implementations such as GIS. ROI can be accurately calculated with GIS (see The Business Benefits of GIS), but GIS doesn't stop with the initial implementation. GIS has countless uses, and new applications are developed daily. Organizations can implement new GIS applications to deliver ongoing ROI and additional benefits. New applications that leverage standard data models, and which are available to all ArcGIS users, are posted often to the ArcGIS Resource Center. These new, free applications empower the organization and its GIS to deliver ongoing benefits with demonstrated ROI.

ArcGIS for Land Records

J10138

Esri White Paper 9

Conclusion In summary, ArcGIS is a system for land records management that includes the following: ■ Tools and workflows that support your editing environment and the analysis you

need to perform to make effective decisions ■ A growing collection of applications that are easy to implement and use to meet your

business requirements ■ Online resources delivered as ready-to-use content and services ■ A platform for collaboration and sharing geographic information ■ Flexible deployment options

Printed in USA

Contact Esri

380 New York Street Redlands, California 92373-8100 usa

1 800 447 9778 t 909 793 2853 f 909 793 5953 info@esri.com esri.com

Offices worldwide esri.com/locations

Esri inspires and enables people to positively impact their future through a deeper, geographic understanding of the changing world around them.

Governments, industry leaders, academics, and nongovernmental

organizations trust us to connect them with the analytic knowledge

they need to make the critical decisions that shape the planet. For

more than 40 years, Esri has cultivated collaborative relationships

with partners who share our commitment to solving earth’s most

pressing challenges with geographic expertise and rational resolve.

Today, we believe that geography is at the heart of a more resilient

and sustainable future. Creating responsible products and solutions

drives our passion for improving quality of life everywhere.