ArcGIS for Land Records

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

2. Copyright © 2012 Esri
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
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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

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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 ArcGIS
SM
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

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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

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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.

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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

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■ 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.

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■ 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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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