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If you download data from our datalayer description pages you probably didn’t notice anything different; other than that they're faster! You don’t need to do anything different. However, if you have bookmarks or any automated scripts with hard-coded links that point to our wsgw.mass.gov server, those will no longer work after we shut it down.
An example of an old shapefile link: http://wsgw.mass.gov/data/gispub/shape/state/libraries.zip
Its corresponding new link:http://download.massgis.digital.mass.gov/shapefiles/state/libraries.zip
An example of an old geodatabase link: http://wsgw.mass.gov/data/gispub/gdb/townssurvey_gdb.zip
Its corresponding new link: http://download.massgis.digital.mass.gov/gdbs/townssurvey_gdb.zip
For Level 3 parcels, GDB downloads changed as follows:
An example of an old L3 parcel geodatabase link:
http://wsgw.mass.gov/data/gispub/gdb/l3parcels/M101_parcels_sde.gdb.zip
Its corresponding new link:
http://download.massgis.digital.mass.gov.s3.amazonaws.com/gdbs/l3parcels/M101_parcels_gdb.zip
For images, here is an example of an old link: http://wsgw.mass.gov/data/gispub/images/coq2008_30cm_sid/14578885.zip
Its corresponding new link: http://download.massgis.digital.mass.gov/images/coq2008_30cm_sid/14578885.zip
For the most part, this pattern is applicable for new links. Please use this as a friendly reminder to update any links or bookmarks.
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In mid-February, Secretary Daniel Bennett of EOPSS, along with our own EOTSS Secretary Mark Nunnelly, notified the chief executive in every municipality of two new eligibility requirements for the State 911 Department’s Support and Incentive Grants. The new requirements are to:
- Provide MassGIS with an annual update of standardized assessor parcel mapping
- Provide MassGIS with updates of new or changed addresses at least twice per year.
These requirements were added to ensure MassGIS can keep the mapping and address records, relied upon by the recently deployed Next Generation 9-1-1 system, as current as possible.
If a community does not update its parcel maps in a given year, they will still need to provide MassGIS with a current “MassGIS Extract” from their assessing database. This extract is typically available to assessors in the same location as their other standard extracts. Assistance with producing standard extracts is typically available from the customer support staff of the companies that provide assessors with the software they use.
Note that if communities update MassGIS with ongoing submission of new address information, besides helping to ensure 911 calls are routed correctly, it also means municipalities can download high quality and very complete mapping of their address points or an address list from the MassGIS web site.
These requirements take effect with applications for fiscal year 2020 (starts July 1, 2019) grants. Whether or not a municipality is eligible for these grants based on these two requirements will be determined based on what they did in the previous calendar year. Thus fiscal year 2020 eligibility will be based on updates provided to MassGIS in this calendar year.
The NG 9-1-1 system relies on property parcel-based mapping of call-center response areas combined with structure-level mapping of individual address locations to route calls to the correct responding agency. It also dramatically improves map information available to dispatchers, enabling them to more effectively support emergency responders and citizens.
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On May 1, 2018, the Commonwealth became the first state to launch a website containing data about rideshare companies. Informed by data supplied by the Department of Public Utilities, MassGIS staff worked with colleagues in the EOTSS Digital Services group to create maps and other content for the web page. Informative maps were created using both React-d3 (see graphic below) and ArcGIS On-Line. While rideshare use is, not surprisingly, concentrated in more urban areas, use is both much heavier (65 million rides statewide in 2017) and much more widespread than expected.
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MassGIS has updated the data for the state Senate and House districts and the U.S. Congressional districts for Massachusetts. Polygon attributes for the state Senate and House districts data layers have been updated to reflect the results of recent elections and vacancies.
Also, MassGIS made minor edits to boundaries in Boston in all three layers to reflect corrected data from the City of Boston. At present, these boundary changes have not been incorporated into U.S. Census geography that forms the basis for these layers.
See these pages for metadata and links to free data downloads and online legislative maps:
These layers are in the ‘Political Boundaries’ folder in Oliver and the ArcMap Data Viewer.
MassGIS is continuing to incorporate updates into its standardized parcels database. “Level 3” Assessor Parcel Data have been updated for 72 cities and towns, with most being fiscal year 2018 or 2019. For full metadata and links to the free data download, please visit: https://docs.digital.mass.gov/dataset/massgis-data-standardized-assessors-parcels).
View and query parcels statewide in the Massachusetts Interactive Property Map. The cached tiled web service that appears in Oliver, and that is also available in ArcGIS Online, includes these latest updates:
- March 2018: 24 municipalities: Ashfield, Boxborough, Chelsea, Dudley, Easthampton, Egremont, Franklin, Granville, Hampden, Hatfield, Holland, Holliston, Lanesborough, Lexington, Marblehead, Northborough, Southwick, Warwick, Wayland, West Stockbridge, Westwood, Whitman, Winchendon and Worcester.
- April 2018: 24 municipalities: Ashburnham, Athol, Barre, Berlin, Chicopee, Freetown, Grafton, Hamilton, Hancock, Hubbardston, Lincoln, Lynnfield, Manchester, Milford, Millis, Petersham, Plymouth, Princeton, Rowe, Shelburne, Waltham, Wellesley, Wellfleet and West Bridgewater.
- May 2018: 24 municipalities: Acton, Auburn, Becket, Belchertown, Bernardston, Blackstone, Chelmsford, Dartmouth, Douglas, Essex, Granby, Greenfield, Littleton, Mansfield, Mendon, Mount Washington, Reading, Shirley, Stockbridge, Sunderland, Tisbury, Walpole, Westfield and Windsor.
MassDEP GIS Group has updated the following layers, now available from MassGIS:
Data are up-to-date through March 29, 2018. Please see the above links for metadata and free data download. In Oliver and the ArcMap Data Viewer, all data are found in the Regulated Areas folder.
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MassGIS welcomes Sula Watermulder. Sula began working at MassGIS as a GIS Technician on March 12. Her first assignments are updating some important datasets that are overdue for regular update. She has already completed work on updating the locations of colleges and universities, prisons, and courthouses and is now working on updating healthcare facilities. Following graduation from Bates College, Sula worked as a Forest & Park Supervisor for the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation in the Boston Harbor Islands before joining the Northeast States Emergency Consortium as a GIS & Emergency Management Specialist. Sula is Massachusetts native who enjoys watching Boston sports and volunteering with Boston Cares.
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MassGIS has changed the publication schedule of this newsletter to avoid a December issue.
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