New County GIS Hub makes data easier to access

Hood River County’s new GIS hub is a one-stop shop for all County GIS maps

Geographic Information System (GIS) maps allow users to visualize and learn about land in Hood River County. The County’s website now features a new hub that serves as a one-stop shop for GIS maps and a simplified way to access and interact with public-facing maps and data layers. Links to the GIS hub are in the footer of every page at hoodrivercounty.gov and opendata-hrcgis.hub.arcgis.com.

At the top of the hub, there’s a link to the Public Web Map, the main source for sharing GIS information. These include tax lot data, voting districts, special districts, county zoning, and a wide range of other data about the County. 

Below the Public Web Map link, the hub page features specialized interactive web maps tailored for specific purposes. These include the County’s Winter Road Maintenance Map, a County Crime Map displaying recent incidents by date ranges, a Forestry Trail Map of the County Tree Farm, and maps detailing Board of Commissioner precincts, voting precincts, and political boundaries.

“As we create more focused maps, they will be added to this section of the hub,” says GIS Coordinator Jake Edwards. “The county has empowered the local, regional, and even global community to better understand Hood River County and the interrelated pieces of information that define our unique community. This portal reflects our commitment to Open Data policies and aims to remove barriers to accessing information.”

The final section of the hub presents the Data Catalog organized by theme, including zoning, environment, infrastructure, transportation, utilities, and more. Each category page features GIS layers, related PDF maps, documents, and other GIS applications. Users can generate their own maps using these layers or download existing data to their computers.

Currently, there are 92 layers that the public can download for free using the GIS hub site. This new download function eliminates the need for the GIS coordinator to process individual data requests via phone or email. The GIS coordinator controls which data layers are available for download. The GIS Hub also provides multiple language translations so that non-English speakers can use this County service.

A major benefit of the hub site is allowing the public to directly download GIS layers online. “This service greatly benefits the County, and we are considering adding enhanced services by offering some maps for free,” County Administrator Allison Williams said.

Jake Edwards, the County's GIS coordinator, manages the GIS data and provides analysis specific to our region and county. The county’s GIS system is constantly evolving to meet the needs of residents and County staff. Edwards was introduced to GIS during a college internship at NASA’s Earth Sciences division. He decided to get his degree in the burgeoning field. Before joining Hood River County three and a half years ago, he worked for nine years at the Oregon Department of Geology & Mineral Industries.

If you have any questions or suggestions for Hood River County’s web map, feel free to email Edwards at jake.edwards@hoodrivercounty.gov

Jake Edwards, GIS Coordinator, is pictured by the County’s large format printer.