One quarterly email notice.
Starting this November, it's the only tangible indication subscribers to Metro's Regional Land Information System (RLIS) will receive that the GIS – Geographic Information System – data for the Portland metropolitan region has been updated.
For the last 15 years, Metro's Data Resource Center has shipped RLIS data to subscribers on a quarterly basis using CDs and DVDs. Last August, Metro launched RLIS Live, an anytime, anywhere direct data download service available from the RLIS Discovery site on Metro's website.
"The convenience of being able to directly download the data over the old system of receiving data on DVDs is night and day," says Ryan Campbell, GIS analyst with the Port of Portland. "The release notes are right in the body of the email. I go to the RLIS Discovery site and with one click, download the complete set of RLIS map layers in about 30 minutes. I liked it on DVD, but I love the direct download service."
Regional partnerships
GIS data are created and maintained at the Metro Data Resource Center, as well as by other jurisdictions and agencies throughout the region.
Metro stitches together the data contributed from these partners into a seamless whole and serves as a clearinghouse by providing a subscription service to the RLIS map layers. A limited selection of free map layers is available to nonsubscribers.
RLIS subscribers include city and county planners, real estate developers, environmental groups, neighborhood associations and a growing number of application developers that create the kind of apps the public is accustom to using on smart phones and websites.
For questions regarding data access, subscriptions or RLIS Live, call Metro's Data Resource Center at 503-797-1742.