ILRIS: surveyor benefits

Land surveyors are the last word in accuracy where geospatial geometry is concerned. Metes and bounds information - dimensions of property boundaries measured to, in relevant cases sub-inch increments - is essential for conveyance of property. But most GIS applications do not require data of this accuracy.

Much of the benefit of a statewide, dynamic cadastral datalayer will accrue at planning scales, where land parcel polygons can be quantified, symbolized and characterized according to the metadata attributes attached to each individual geometry.  

But this shouldn't be taken to mean that surveyors do not have a role in a statewide integrated land records information system. The composite of surveys always needs to be available as an ultimate reference frame for orienting the far inferior quality of planning level parcel data. The coverage area comprising this layer will always be variable and patchy, but if most surveys, registered and otherwise, are made part of a persistent and easily accessed repository, and invaluable resource will exist for spatial analysis and legal interrogation.    

If only this single, simple improvement were made - that all registered surveys are anchored and scaled to Maine's UTM Zone 19 NAD83 meters coordinate system then hosted in this shared reference space as a public, transparent and accessible resource - the experience of land records research in Maine would be fundamentally improved.