GIS & Cartography

The GIS and Cartography Section is responsible for the creation of and the on-going maintenance and updating of the Crown Land Cadastral Geographic Information System (CLCGIS). The CLiQS ArcIMS Internet web map service is the distribution vehicle for this GIS. It serves the land ownership information for all DNR ( soon to include all government departments) property to all government employees via the internet. In the future it is planned to be open to the public.

The Section is also responsible for the tracking and documentation in the GIS, the land transactions between the Department of Natural Resources and Stora Enso. As well, the section supplies a number of other GIS and mapping services to a wide client base. Some of these include hard copy mapping showing the Government property holdings housed in the Crown Land Cadastral GIS as well as derivative information of that GIS data set, as well as digital map and data base products of the same.

More specifically the GIS and Cartography Section is responsible for the following:

• Maintaining the digital Crown Lands Cadastral Geographic Information System (CLCGIS) housing the ownership information for Crown Lands, Disposed Crown Lands, Ungranted Crown Lands, Survey Corner Monumentation, Boundary Lines and associated data.
  
  
• Assisting in the design, data compilation, preparation and editing of the Crown Lands for the Provincial Map Book
  
  
• Carrying out projects that supply the Department and other government agencies with hard copy and digital map and database products based on derivative information from the Crown Land Cadastral GIS and other sources of data.
  
  
• Supporting the migration of Crown Lands into the new land Registry.
  
  
• In accordance with legislative requirements, managing the records of land transactions that take place between the Province of Nova Scotia and private companies such as Stora Enso. This includes the maintenance of a set of more than 250 maps at a scale of 1:15, 840 that record these transactions in support of forest management purposes.
  
  
• Providing technical support in the areas of Geographic Information Systems and Cartographic Expertise to other branches within or outside the Department.
  
  
• Manages a ‘Provincial Crown Land Data Distribution Program’ in support of the Survey Field Offices (10) and DNR Regional Services GIS professional Offices (3) and NS DEL

For more information, please contact the Robert H. Bowlby, Supervisor, GIS & Cartography, Department of Natural Resources, PO Box 698, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3J 2T9, phone: (902) 424-3156, or e-mail at rhbowlby@gov.ns.ca