Washington Cadastral Framework
Using The Cadastral Data Content Standard
Comparing The Washington Cadastral Framework With The Cadastral Data Content Standard

Washington Cadastral Framework

The State Of Washington has made direct use of the Cadastral Data Content Standard.   This has involved building a Cadastral Framework with a number of partnering organizations.  This section describes some of the details.

The partners in the development of the Washington Cadastral Framework included Snohomish County, the Bureau of Land Management, Puget Sound Regional Council, Longview Fibre, ESRI, and the State of Washington Department of Natural Resources.   The partnership determined that the scope of the integration pilot would include Legal Area Descriptions, Boundaries, Corners, and Parcels.

The first phase included several steps:

• developing Cadastral Framework data criteria
• identifying commonly needed data
• developing a database based on the Federal Geographic Data Committee Cadastral Data Content Standard
• populating the database with data
• posting metadata on the Washington Clearinghouse node
• and distributing data and metadata to the Cadastral Framework Partners over the Internet.

A Cadastral Data Transfer Standard was developed to allow partners to extract data from their data sets and integrate the data into the Framework database.  The Cadastral Data Transfer Standard is made up of two sets of files --- spatial data to be transferred in a shape file format, and tabular data in ASCII flat files.  It is the responsibility of each of the Framework partners to develop methods for transfering data from their own database systems into the Cadastral Data Transfer Standard.   The shape and ASCII transfer files are sent to the Framework Server via FTP  (More on the Washington Cadastral Data Transfer Standard.) (* Note: Washington framework internal links not working, as of June 3, 2002)

Examples of Cadastral Framework data can be viewed on Washington's Internet Map Server Views page.

Using The Cadastral Data Content Standard in the Washington Cadastral Framework

This section, based on a paper by Greg Tudor, Washington DNR, summarizes the use of the Cadastral Data Content Standard in the development of the Washington Cadastral Framework.

Washington identified business functions associated with the data components in the Cadastral Data Content Standard.  Specifically, "The business function associations to data components are land surveying (legal_area_description together with corner and record_boundary), land management (parcel, parcel_transaction, transferred_right, and restriction), and land recording (parcel_transaction, restriction, and links to a source document). Agent and address are involved with all of the business functions."   (G. Tudor)

For Property Surveying, Washington chose to implement Corner, Corner_point (implementing corner_point and control points together and calling them coordinated_points), Monument (implementing Monument as separate from corner_point to keep the monument history), Record_boundary, and Legal_area_description.

In addition to using the specifics from the Cadastral Data Content Standard mentioned above, Washington also included additional information not covered by the Standard, such as Address and Tax Assessment information.   A diagram of the Cadastral Data Content Standard as modified by the Washington Framework can be accessed from Washington's Case Diagrams page.  (You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this entity relationship diagram.)

Washington's land survey data dictionary can be viewed at Washington's Land Survey Definitions page.

Comparing The Washington Cadastral Framework With The Cadastral Data Content Standard

The left column of the table below contains information from the Washington Cadastral Framework, as noted in their Cadastral Framework Data Model Land Survey Definitions.

The right column contains the Cadastral Data Content Standard entity which corresponds to the information in the left column.

This table illustrates direct utilization of the Cadastral Data Content Standard by the State Of Washington.
 

Washington Cadastral Framework Dictionary	Corresponding Cadastral Data Content Standard Entity or Attribute
Book Volume Type	Source Link
Legal Area Description	Legal Area Description
Boundary	Record Boundary
Boundary Measurement	Record Boundary
Boundary Measurement Reference Angle	Record Boundary Reference
Circular Curve	Circular Curve
Coordinate Measurement	Corner Point Measured Coordinate
Corner	Corner
Corner Classification Type	Corner Classification (1)
Corner Point	Corner Point
Corner Qualifier Type	Corner Qualifier (1)
Non-PLSS Corner	Legal Area Corner
Non-PLSS Described Area	Survey System Description
PLSS Aliquot Part	PLSS Township Second Division
PLSS Corner	Legal Area Corner
PLSS Donation Land Claim	PLSS Township First Division
PLSS Government Lot	PLSS Townhship Second Division
PLSS Government Parcel	PLSS Township Second Division
PLSS Protracted Block	PLSS Township First Division
PLSS Section	PLSS Township First Division
PLSS Section Subdivision	PLSS Township Second Division
PLSS Township	PLSS Township
PLSS Township Subdivision	PLSS Township First Division
PLSS Tract	PLSS Township First Division
Straight Line	Straight Line
Survey Monument	Corner Point (2)

Notes:
⁽¹⁾  This is an attribute of the Corner Entity
⁽²⁾  The Washington Cadastral Framework Land Survey Dictionary refers to this entry as a subset of the FGDC Corner Point entity.