Columbia County GIS explains drone mapping, addressing and public portals

Columbia County GIS manager Larry Hobbs described the department’s use of high-precision drone imagery, public mapping portals and address assignment during a county presentation for the A to Z and CC series, saying the tools support emergency response, development review and multiple county services.

The GIS unit maintains public portals such as Maps Online and QPublic, supports the county’s addressing process required before construction, operates a drone program for internal inspections and produces an election-night dashboard, Hobbs said. "In a nutshell, the easiest way to describe it is Google Maps on steroids," he said, adding that GIS also tells "a story of the data and make[s] it easier for people to digest, consume, and understand."

Why it matters: Hobbs said accurate addressing and georeferenced mapping help emergency responders locate homes and prevent service delays. He described the addressing process as part of the county’s plan-review workflow: permits and construction require an address before work can start so dispatch and delivery services can reliably find locations. "If you can imagine your house is burning down and you call 911 ... if the numbers are out of sync, they can't find your house quickly," he said.

Hobbs described several operational products and uses. Maps Online provides engineering-grade mapping tools for detailed terrain measurements; QPublic provides tabular property information with a mapping component. The GIS team also produces printed maps on request, builds 3D models from site plans or drone flights, maintains flood-zone layers referenced to parcels and supports the county’s damage-prevention workflow tied to the Call Before You Dig system (811).

On drone operations, Hobbs said flights are performed for internal county departments or agency requests to inspect structures or terrain in locations that would be hazardous for personnel. He said the county uses higher-end, precision equipment and that imagery is georeferenced so repeated surveys can be compared over time; as a demonstration he noted the system’s ability to return to the same spot and align imagery to a small object used as a marker. "Most of the time if you look and you zoom in to the map, other than the coloration, you can't tell the difference between the base imagery and the updated overlay," he said.

The GIS team also supports CityWorks, the county’s work-order and 311 intake system; Hobbs said 311 uses CityWorks heavily to route issues such as water leaks or code enforcement tasks to the appropriate departments. He described DigSmart as a product that collects utility-locate tickets for the county’s damage-prevention team to service and said GIS maps underlay known utility assets to aid locating and marking.

Regarding elections, Hobbs said the county publishes an election dashboard that displays periodic extracts of count data at the county level but does not directly connect to the election system. "We are very particular about that. But we publish what we can as soon as we can to keep the citizens informed and engaged," he said.

Hobbs said the GIS department has 11 staff members who support nearly every county department, including emergency management, planning services and utilities. Cassidy Harris, Columbia County public relations manager, opened and closed the presentation; she thanked the GIS team and invited viewers to use the county’s public mapping tools.

The presentation did not include decisions, votes or budget actions; it was an informational overview of GIS services and capabilities.