Geographical Information Systems
Who We Are
GIS is a collection of computer hardware, software, and geographic data for capturing, managing, analyzing, and displaying all forms of geographically referenced information.
In the simplest terms, Burnaby's GIS is a computer system capable of holding and using data describing locations where we live, work and play. Jump to GIS Explained for an analogy that explains our information system.
What We Do
Why GIS and What Does It Mean to Me as a Tax Payer?
The GIS at the City of Burnaby provides a foundation for integrating the City's municipal services, such as road, water and sewage networks, planning and zoning, parks and recreation, taxation and parcel information. All the data is centrally managed and effectively utilized to provide prompt, accurate and efficient services to the city's staff and citizens. The GIS promotes collaboration, communication and insight to assist day-to-day decision-making at the City of Burnaby.
GIS, Burnaby and the Tax Payer
| What GIS Can Do | The GIS at The City of Burnaby | What Does This Mean to The Tax Payer | |
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Enable a person to visualize patterns, relationships and trends | The City's GIS staff analyse data with the GIS and provide maps, tables and reports | The City uses this information to make sound decisions in order to best reflect tax payers' interests and needs in the City's planning and development process |
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Display spatial and attribute data | The GIS staff maintains the City's award-winning web mapping system - Burnaby Map | Tax payers can access information regarding property, infrastructure, and aerial photography through the Internet 24/7 |
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Relate information to a location | Information about land use, taxation, and infrastructure associated with a parcel | Property and infrastructure data is properly maintained and managed in GIS |
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Capture, store, and display geographically referenced data | A complete record of parcel infrastructure and other data is available | Ensure the tax payers' money is spent wisely in the maintenance of infrastructure assets |
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Manage utilities data | The GIS staff record water, sewer, drainage and roads related infrastructure, and their associated attributes, using GIS | Assists in maintenance plans, rehabilitation and replacement of infrastructure |
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Manage legal parcels and addresses | City staff can identify the tax payer's location and retrieve information | Tax payers can be assured that they are served promptly when a request is made in phone or in person |
What Questions Can the City's GIS Staff Assist in Answering using GIS?
The Engineering GIS personnel collect data from a variety of sources and store, update, manipulate, analyze and display the data, producing GIS products and services to both internal staff and the public in a timely manner. Below is a list of our responsibilities:
The typical questions that the City's GIS staff assist in answering using GIS are:
- What GIS data and maps are available at the City of Burnaby?
- What information is available relating to my property?
- What are the on-going road or sewage works and what are their impacts on our commute?
Other responsibilities of the City's GIS staff include:
- Maintain and update the city's legal parcel, street networks, water, sewage, drainage, planning, zoning, and other spatial-related information
- Provide GIS data and services to city departments and third party consultants to assist in planning and zoning, parcel, roads, water and sewer management, street cleaning, garbage collection, and environmental planning
- Maintain, synchronize and integrate the Asset Management System with the GIS
- Design and develop methodology for Mobile GIS to expand GIS from the office to the field, so that crews can access relevant GIS data from the field
- Perform GIS analysis to provide better information and knowledge to uncover complex relationships otherwise difficult to understand, such as complex network, routing, geometric networks, and image analysis
- Develop custom desktop GIS tools and extensions to increase productivity
- Upgrade, test and implement new GIS software and equipment and provide training to staff
Burnaby Map Online
City of Burnaby's interactive Burnaby Map is a web-based mapping application that provides access to the City of Burnaby's geographic and attribute data using Internet Explorer Web Browser. Burnaby Map pulls together data from a variety of sources, and organizes it into detailed and informative maps that can be viewed, saved to file, e-mailed or printed.
Data Request
Data is accessible only to those working on City of Burnaby sponsored projects. Call 604-294-7460 for further information.
GIS Explained
We hope the following text and illustration can help you better understand the relationships between GIS, City of Burnaby and YOU as a tax payer:
Figure 1. GIS as an abstract model of the real world.
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A tax payer lives on a lot in Burnaby and has water and sewage services connected to the lot
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The City's GIS records the lot's location, size, dimension and address, as well as property information, license and permit, and utility services that are tied to the lot
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Other geographical information which the GIS records are streets, street intersections, sidewalks, traffic signs, street lights, pavement markings, parks and recreation, trees, terrain, water bodies and ravines, to name a few, as shown in this illustration.
Although currently the Burnaby Web GIS system - Burnaby Map only displays GIS data in a two-dimensional format, it is possible for the GIS staff to represent data in a three-dimensional way. We can use 3-D functionalities provided in today's GIS software. This is useful when using the GIS as a tool to assist urban design, zoning analysis, and sightline analysis.
Figure 2. The GIS System at the City of Burnaby.
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This figure outlines the components that constitutes the City's GIS system: data tables, feature layers, computer hardware, software, and GIS staff
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The data is organised as different layers in the GIS, such as street layer, watermain layer, parks layer, and so on
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Each number in the green circle corresponds to a row of the table above. The table contains detailed explanations of these elements and how they relate to the tax payer
