Blair County GIS

Empowering others to explore the world around them.

Blair County GIS

November 7, 2022

What is GIS?

GIS stands for geographic information system. This system is comprised of computer based tools used to store, analyze, and visualize geographic data. Examples of geographic data are addresses, Geo-enabled pictures, roads, voting areas, utility infrastructure, and plans. GIS systems are also comprised of non-geographical data like the number of cows on a farm or how many times the letter A shows up in Altoona Mirror. Non-geographical data is used in GIS systems by linking the information to geographical data. For example if we know how many cows are on each farm in the county then you can do an analysis to see which municipality in the county has the most cows. GIS uses data and other information to answer questions about things around us, whether that be questions about cows or how many buildings in the county are single stories.

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Lets look at GIS systems in Blair County

Blair County has several independent GIS systems as you will learn.

Blair County Courthouse

The GIS system located here is a repository for County wide data such as tax parcels and voting districts.

Blair County 911 Center

This system is the repository for addresses and service areas.

City of Altoona

Altoona uses some county data like parcels and then combines that data with their own information to serve multiple purposes.

Altoona Water Authority

The water authority has a GIS system to keep track of its assets like fire hydrants.

Logan Township

Logan Township uses GIS in a similar way as the City of Altoona.

Antis Township

Antis Township uses GIS to help keep track of permits and other information.

Blair County Conservation District

The conservation district uses GIS to help conserve our natural resources like stream water preservation.

Hollidaysburg Borough

Hollidaysburg borough uses GIS in a similar manner as Antis Township and Logan Township.

PennDOT District 9

PennDOT uses GIS to keep track of road assets like sign locations along their roads.

Professional Services

Several local Engineering Firms and Professional Surveyors utilize a GIS to better serve their customers

Due to the variety of GIS users within Blair County the GIS users have created a group called BCGC, which stands for Blair County GIS Community. This is a group of people who use GIS and are interested in GIS. Currently, the group meets once every quarter to talk about GIS and what kind of things are happening in Blair County. Since this group started they have constructed a HUB site where the public and other GIS users can access GIS data and resources.

Lets look at the County of Blair's GIS system. Their are a total of 5 employees within the county that maintain the GIS data. 3 of the 5 are located in the assessment office maintaining parcel data. The other 2 employees are in the GIS Department. This department is in charge of maintaining the rest of the data for the county and providing GIS services to other Blair County departments, municipalities, and residents. The GIS department regularly serves the Department of Emergency Services, Assessment, and Elections.

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It's time to see how the County of Blair's GIS Department serves the community and other departments.

The GIS Department created a parcel viewer web application for the public so that they can find out general information about a parcel without needing to go into the assessment office.

Elections asked the GIS department to create a web application that would enable voters to know where their polling location is located.

The GIS Department created a repository web application so the public could find out where the repository properties are located along with some general information about them.

An addressing dashboard was created by the GIS department to allow the public and other county offices access to anything addressing related that they might want to know. This includes what addresses have been created or readdressed, links to addressing information and applications, along with a way to report addressing errors.

GIS has created a map to show residents and other offices what areas the Blair County Magisterial District Judges cover and where they are located.

The Blair County Conservation District wanted a map that would allow residents to find out which watershed they were located in.

This is how the County of Blair's GIS Department is empowering others to explore the world around them.

If you have any suggestions or requests about how else the GIS Department can serve you please let us know.