URISA 2007: HUD/BSI Present NPDP Disaster Recovery Database Pilot Program

Press Information
For Immediate Release -- August 14, 2007
Dennis Klein
Phone: 415-381-1750
Email: info@boundarysolutions.com
Boundary Solutions, Inc.

HUD/BSI Present NPDP Disaster Recovery Database Pilot Program at URISA 2007

Mill Valley, CA: Boundary Solutions Inc, (BSI) and the HUD Office of Policy Development & Research (PD&R) have recently completed an NPDP (National ParcelMap Data Portal) implementation of a Katrina County Disaster Recovery Database Pilot Program involving counties shown in the image below. The results will be presented at URISA 2007 Conference Washington DC on August 22, 2007

BSI’s contribution to this effort included parcel data assembly, normalization and extensive situs address densification. The upside was that there is data available for all three of the particularly vulnerable counties along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The downside was, like many counties in the US, the situs address values were sparse. This highly constrained use of the GIS in performing “situs joins” to addresses in multiple disaster recovery related databases (grants, claims, loan applications).

BSI’s remedy was to extensively work with local officials to find, acquire and innovatively process Situs address data sets in a manner that added the much needed additional addresses (correlated with APNs) to each data model. To assess the “true” quality of the situs density, a technique shown below was developed and applied for the first time by BSI to differentiate situs density between developed and undeveloped parcels. The result expedited identifying/rectifying shortfalls. HUD subsequently was highly successful in linking to these databases to visually identify where neighborhoods are actively “digging out” and where little recovery activity is occurring.

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Boundary Solutions Inc. assembled the most extensive database of parcel map data available from jurisdictions throughout the United States. As of August 2007, a total of 53 million parcels from 425 jurisdictions are normalized and ready for download. Terms and conditions for digital parcel map database acquisition and updates are in place for 450 more jurisdictions, a total of 86 million parcels representing coverage for up to 95% of the nation's land transaction activity. Regardless of source format, all content is subjected to over 25 modifications and metric recordings to assure universal internal consistency makes it possible for an application that works in Seattle also works in St. Pete. Boundary Solutions Inc. was awarded U.S. Patent 7,092,957, entitled “Computerized National Online Parcel-level Map Data Portal.” Claims include multi-jurisdictional search to locate an address by displaying its corresponding digital parcel map boundary. The patent relates back to the original provisional patent application filing date of January 18, 2002. Boundary Solutions, BSI, Boundary Solutions logo, National ParcelMap Data Portal, NPDP, and Rooftop Accuracy are trademarks of BSI. All other trademarks and company names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.