NRIS ROLLS OUT NEW WEB APPLICATIONS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Anastasia Burton
January 28, 2004 (406) 444-5357
(HELENA)--- The Montana Natural Information System (NRIS) announced today the availability of enhanced data offerings and web applications. NRIS Director Jim Hill said, “We’re excited to start the new year by offering our web users improved data access and additional information. We encourage natural resource professionals, as well as the public, to visit our website to see the vast amount of data available to them whenever they need it.”
- The GIS home page of NRIS has been reworked. New underlying applications have been built to provide an all-new “three-tier” data access system: Tier 1, the “Map Library” includes a series of richly formatted pre-built maps in PDF or gif format. State, county, and watershed map series are available for viewing on-line, printing, or inserting into reports or presentations. Tier 2 includes popular NRIS interactive applications, such as The Digital Atlas of Montana, (formerly known as Thematic Mapper) and TopoFinder I and II. These applications provide powerful Internet based tools that allow users to enter geographic search criteria, then view maps, summarize data, or download a variety of GIS data layers available via the system. Tier 3 is designed primarily for GIS professionals. It includes a new searchable “GIS Data List” and the “GIS Data Bundler,” an application that allows users to pick an area, specify the GIS layers they want, and have the system ‘clip, zip, and ship’ the data to them in near real-time.
All three tiers can be found at http://nris.state.mt.us/gis.
- NRIS, the Montana Department of Revenue, and the Information and Technology Services Division (ITSD) of the Montana Department of Administration are pleased to announce the availability of updated Cadastral / CAMA shapefiles. The cadastral (land ownership parcel) data were obtained in late October from ITSD and the CAMA data were obtained in December from the Department of Revenue.
NRIS has selected a subset of CAMA attribute data and joined it to the Cadastral layer and made the results available in ESRI shapefile format at http://nris.state.mt.us/nsdi/cadastral. These data are also available in their updated format via the Digital Atlas of Montana and the new GIS Data Bundler at http://nris.state.mt.us/gis. Cooperative procedures are now in place between the State Library, ITSD, and the Department of Revenue to support monthly updates to this data.
- The Montana Natural Heritage Program (NHP)—part of NRIS—is Montana's clearinghouse for information on our native species and habitats. The NHP has added a summary level of its Element Occurrence database to the Montana Digital Atlas. The Element Occurrence database is a statewide inventory of known locations of Montana Species of Concern. This application provides users an opportunity to tap into the EO database to identify Species of Concern that may exist within one or more public land survey sections (640 acres). Look for the EO information under the “Biological Data” tab in the Digital Atlas.
The Montana Natural Resource Information System (NRIS) was established in 1985 by the Legislature. NRIS, a division of the State Library, acts as a clearinghouse for natural resource information.
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