Overview of Services and Programs

The City of Oroville GIS Division is managed under the Department of Community Development and Public Works Department, and supplies mapping services to the public, city planners, engineers, field crews, and other city departments. The City of Oroville maintains a sophisticated collection of printed and digital information, which are available to download at any time. Please contact the Division with questions regarding mapping services, products, and data.

What is GIS?

GIS integrates hardware and software, along with mapped or collected information into a two or three dimensional visual database in order to analyze data, or to understand and interpret data changes and trends. This results in a simplified visual model of the real world. Objects that we define as important are selected and modeled in the GIS environment to more efficiently analyze and manage city assets. One example of this is the modeling of the city sewer network. Each manhole and cleanout is represented in the GIS as a spatial point that contains coordinates and other attributes describing it. Sewer lines are modeled as well, and include attributed information such as line diameter and flow direction. With this information in the GIS model, the City can analyze the flow from one point in the sewer network to another in a matter of seconds. A GIS database helps answer questions and solve problems by looking at data in a way that is quickly understood and easily shared.

How Does the City of Oroville use GIS?

GIS is a versatile tool that can be used across all departments of a municipality. The City of Oroville currently uses GIS as the backbone of its Infrastructure Management Program. Assignments are associated with specific features, such as sewer pipe that needs to be flushed. The underlying database tracks the maintenance that has been performed on each asset. This allows city staff to analyze maintenance costs, identify trouble spots, and estimate the financial impact of future projects.

The Planning Department has become increasingly reliant on Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and it has become a critical component of the planning, project and environmental review processes. Physical location and relationships to surrounding land uses or environmental constraints are all key components of the project review process. In recent years, almost all of the data associated with individual properties has been linked to mapping data which provides a one stop shop for property details. The GIS capabilities are utilized in all planning projects, for the creation of project maps, slope analyses, public presentations, environmental analysis, service provider boundaries, location of existing facilities and services, presence of environmentally sensitive resources, parcel location, aerial views of the project site, and the creation of Master Plans. Historically, planners were required to wade through volumes of information and hours in the field to analyze the potential impacts associated with a development. GIS has enable planners to keep the information in one location that is easy to update and analyze, it streamlines the project review process and allows the city to give the community information in a fraction of the time.