GIS & Spatial Analytics

What this covers

Nearly everything a local government does has a location: parcels, pipes, streetlights, incidents, inspections, and routes. HQT builds and integrates geographic information systems, primarily on the Esri platform and open-source alternatives, and applies spatial analysis to agency questions.

Typical activities

• GIS architecture, including enterprise geodatabase and web GIS design
• Data migration and schema design for parcels, utilities, and assets
• Integration with permitting, asset management, and dispatch systems
• Field data collection applications for inspectors and crews
• Public-facing web maps and story maps
• Spatial analysis for service coverage, routing, and site selection

What you receive

A documented GIS architecture, migrated and validated data, integrated applications, and public and internal maps.

Considerations for public agencies

Location data about individuals, such as addresses associated with health or law enforcement records, requires the same care as any other sensitive data. Public maps are aggregated to protect privacy.

Signals that spatial work should not wait

Spatial problems rarely announce themselves: nothing visibly breaks when a layer drifts out of agreement with its source. These conditions are worth acting on:

• The authoritative parcel, centerline, or utility layer lives on one workstation, and nobody can say when it was last reconciled with the source of record.
• Two systems return different answers for the same address, and no written rule says which one governs.
• The 911 authority or state aggregator returns errors or gaps when the agency's layers are submitted for provisioning.
• Permitting, asset management, and billing each keep a private copy of parcels or service areas.
• The analyst who understands how the layers fit together is retiring, and none of it is written down.

When several hold at once, the binding constraint is usually stewardship and data architecture rather than software licensing.

Reference systems, accuracy, and metadata

Three decisions determine whether spatial data holds up over time. The first is the coordinate reference system, which should be named with its realization and epoch rather than assumed, since data loaded without a defined projection tends to get corrected by eye and never documented. The National Geodetic Survey is modernizing the National Spatial Reference System, and the timing of the replacements for the current horizontal and vertical datums has moved, so confirm current guidance and the state plane definitions your state has adopted before writing a requirement.

The second is positional accuracy, which belongs in the record as a number tested by a documented method, such as the ASPRS positional accuracy standards, with a threshold set per layer. A utility layer used for locating and a land use layer used for planning do not need the same threshold, and calling either one high accuracy tells a later user nothing.

The third is metadata and schema. Each layer should carry metadata to a named standard, commonly ISO 19115 or the older FGDC content standard, plus a data dictionary of fields and domains. Domains and topology rules belong in the geodatabase so bad edits are rejected at entry rather than cleaned up downstream, and analysis inputs should be reproducible rather than hand-edited.

Deciding the source of record for each layer

Parcels usually originate with the county assessor or recorder, address points with whichever body holds addressing authority, and utility features with the operating department. What matters is not which software the agency runs but which system governs each subject, who stewards it, and how other systems read it. Services keep permitting, asset management, dispatch, and the open data portal reading the same geometry, while periodic file exports drift apart between refreshes, and reconciling parcel and asset identifiers between systems usually takes longer than the mapping work. Where NG911 applies, address and boundary layers conform to the NENA GIS data model and move from the addressing authority to a regional or state aggregator, whose validation gives an independent check on quality. Check license terms before republishing commercial basemaps, imagery, or parcel data licensed from a vendor.

What to require in a GIS solicitation

1. Delivery in a named coordinate reference system, including realization and epoch.
2. Positional accuracy stated numerically per layer and verified by a documented test method.
3. Metadata to a named standard for every layer, plus a data dictionary listing fields and domains.
4. Deliverables in open formats alongside native ones, with the migration and transformation scripts used to produce them.
5. Agency ownership of the data, schema, and configuration, and an exit package another vendor could work from, so nobody holds the only working editing environment.
6. Acceptance measured on a named sample reconciled against the source of record, against a defect threshold the agency sets.
7. For public map applications, the accessibility standard the agency is subject to. Web content and mobile applications of state and local governments fall under a Department of Justice rule issued under Title II of the ADA that references WCAG 2.1 Level AA, with compliance dates phased by population, so confirm which applies. Require an accessible alternative to the map, such as a table or text list, since map interfaces are hard to make conformant alone.

Working with HQT on this

HQT scopes this kind of work as a fixed-price or time-and-materials engagement with a written statement of work, named staff, and a defined acceptance process. We are candid about what we can take on and prefer a well-run project to an oversized one. Contact us to discuss a requirement, a draft scope, or an upcoming solicitation.

Frequently asked questions