Human Systems Data Description

Restoration Planning: Makes it easier to find who owns land near a proposed project so all potentially affected landowners can be contacted.

Data Description: The Montana Cadastral Mapping Project is a public-private sector partnership to create, maintain, and disseminate a digital GIS land ownership (cadastral) map database of the entire state. Parcels and real property are mapped and maintained by state and county cartographers. Interactive maps and descriptive data are available on this site for each parcel. Descriptive data are derived from the Montana Department of Revenue CAMA  (Computer Assisted Mass Appraisal) database. Project status and techniques can also be found here as well as an FTP site to download raw data files.  Users can identify parcels of land from a clickable map, and is then provided with info on landowner & the property. Or users can specify a county and a landowner name and is shown parcels owned by that landowner in that county (as well as info on that property). 

Location of sample sites/areas assessed:  The database will cover the entire state; but not all counties are currently complete. In the Upper Clark Fork River Basin, only Powell County is complete. Missoula and Silver Bow County mapping have begun; Granite & Deer Lodge have not begun.

Nature of location info in database: ArcInfo data

Time frame: Database is still under development

Available Information: Geocode, township/range, legal description, school districts, appraised value, land use data & trends, irrigation data. 

Quality of data: The mapped data on this site does not constitute a legal survey; inaccuracies exist with both the mapped data and the CAMA data; when seeking the definitive description of real property, consult the deed recorded at the local county courthouse.

Relevant references: Bacino, Craig, 1999. Automating the Parcel Mapping Process:  The Montana Cadastral Project   Surveying and Land Information Systems, Volume 59, Number 3, pp. 165-168. (available on the web site).

Responsible party contact info: Natural Resource Information System - Duane Lund.

Website: http://nris.mt.gov/nsdi/cadastral/  

Recommendations for making the info more useful: Completing the mapping & CAMA data gathering on the Clark Fork basin.

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Restoration Planning: This information could be used to keep track of lands within the basin that are held in conservation easements or other stewardship designations.  Time comparisons between the present and future would allow land managers to monitor progress within the basin.  This information could be used in conjunction with other land information such as habitat types to plan for long-term land use.

Data Description: The Montana Natural Heritage Program's land stewardship layer is available via the NRIS digital atlas . "Ownership data, plus data on conservation easements and special land-management designations, are all incorporated into this single, "stewardship" layer which is continuously updated by the Heritage Program." 

"Much of the public lands ownership information was originally digitized by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) from 1:100,000 scale BLM maps. Additional information, corrections and updates (especially for tribal lands and private lands) were added by the University of Montana, Wildlife Spatial Analysis Unit, during 1996-1998.   Since 1998, the Montana Natural Heritage Program (MTNHP) has made and continues to make numerous updates and corrections, based on data supplied by the various public agencies. The data have not been verified against county or Montana Department of Revenue records."

"The base scale for the data is 1:100,000, though many of the recent edits incorporate data digitized from 1:24,000 scale quads or survey data. The NRIS thematic mapper allows the user to perform a variety of geographic queries and then view three different 'views' of this data layer; Ownership, Easements, and Special Designations.  The Mapper also computes summary statistics for each view, on the fly, for the area chosen." (Information provided by NRIS) 

Contact person:  Cedron Jones, at NRIS  (406) 444-2817.

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Data Description:  (The following description is from the NRIS Site)

Census Block Groups are the regions for which data is available from the long questionnaire sent to 1/6th of the people in the 1990 and 2000 Census. 

Available as a down-loadable shape file for GIS applications.

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Data Description:  (The following description is from the NRIS Site)

Landuse Detailed Summary. This report provides a detailed breakdown of land use categories. Data is from Montana 1:250,000 scale Land Use/Land Cover. Derived from USGS GIRAS files, some provided by the U.S. Bureau of Mines, others downloaded from the USGS World Wide Web server. GIRAS is the U.S. Geological Survey's Geographic Information Retrieval and Analysis System. The U.S.G.S. digitized the data from 1:250,000 scale maps, which it created through field surveys and aerial photo interpretation. The minimum size of regions to be classified was 10 acres in urban areas, 40 acres in rural areas, linear manmade features at least 660 feet wide, and linear natural features at least 1320 feet wide.

Available as a down-loadable shape file for GIS applications.

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Data Description:  (The following description is from the NRIS Site)

Data was obtained from the National Inventory of Dams (NID) maintained by the Corps of Engineers. See this page. A data dictionary is available here.  The NRIS data listing includes information on ID number, dam name, river, year constructed, owner name, dam height, storage, and dam type.

Available as a down-loadable shape file for GIS applications.

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Data Description:  (The following description is from the NRIS Site)

This list shows summary information from the Corps of Engineers RAMS (Regulatory Analysis and Mananagment System) for all SITES that have been issued a 404 permit since 1990. Individual projects (or action id's) can have more than one site. Data is from the Corps of Engineers Helena office. Specific data questions can be directed to Jean Ramer at (406) 441-1375. This data was last updated on January 25, 2002 and will be updated on a quarterly basis (Mar 31, Jun 30, Sep 30, Dec 31).

Available as a down-loadable shape file for GIS applications.

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Data Description:  (The following description is from the NRIS Site)

Identities of public water system sources were obtained from current database of regulated public water systems maintained by DEQ. Locations by latitude and longitude were obtained by several methods. Copies of 24K USGS topographic maps annotated with well locations from DEQ public water system inspection reports were used when available. Latitudes and longitudes were obtained from these maps using electronic digital raster graphics of the 24 K USGS topographic maps and an ArcView application developed by the National Resource Information System (NRIS). When maps were not available locations were obtained from data in the DEQ database obtained using GPS instruments. Otherwise, locations were obtained by address matching or assigned to the nearest place name from a GIS coverage available from NRIS. These data are only for public water systems and sources that are listed as active in the DEQ database.  The data was provided by Joe Meek of the MT Dept. of Environmental Quality and was last updated on February 15, 2002

Available as a down-loadable shape file for GIS applications.

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Data Description:  (The following description is from the NRIS Site)

This data set contains point locations and selected attributes for water wells within Montana abstracted from databases maintained at the Ground-Water Information Center (GWIC) at the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology. Original data sources include water rights filings, water well logs, visits to water wells, and publications of the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology, the U.S. Geological Survey, and others. NRIS mapping is color-coded to show wells with water quality data available. The databases are maintained at the Ground-Water Information Center. Ground-water site locations and selected fields are forwarded quarterly to NRIS. Fields provided in this data set are a subset of the fields available in the database at the GWIC. Additional data for ground-water resources in Montana can be obtained from the GWIC website at http://mbmggwic.mtech.edu   Further description of this database is available here.

Well locations are available as a down-loadable shape file for GIS applications.

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Data Description:  (The following description is from the NRIS Site)

Montana highways, showing length, selected by the Montana State Library from US Census Bureau 1:100,000 scale TIGER files. Location and estimated 1990 population of 624 towns in Montana, with number of schools and estimated percent minority population. Montana County boundaries, selected from U.S. Census Bureau 1:100,000 scale TIGER files.

Available as a down-loadable shape file for GIS applications.

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