Andrea Miranda, the GIS analyst for the Tulare County Resource Management Agency, demonstrated a new ArcGIS Online editor on Jan. 15 designed to show "who is doing work, what work is being performed, and where" on county waterways.

"To enhance the maintenance of our waterways, we developed this tool to be able to track who is doing work, what work is being performed, and where," Andrea Miranda said during a live demonstration. The editor highlights major waterways from the National Hydrography Dataset and allows authorized county users to tag segments with responsible party, routine maintenance agreement numbers, and permitted work types (for example, tree trimming, grading or bank work). Miranda said selected pilot accounts are ready for local entities including Delano Earlymark, Koeia Conservation District and Lower Tule.

Commissioners and staff welcomed the tool as a way to centralize fragmented records but stressed that mapping ownership and responsibility will be a separate, necessary effort. Several commissioners warned that listing a responsible party could create future liability or complicate FEMA recovery if maintenance records are incomplete.

Denise (Resource Management Agency staff) emphasized the tool is intended to capture current activity and permit status, not assign new legal obligations. Staff said they will layer routine maintenance agreements and existing county agreements onto the map as they locate them, and that channel segments can be split into smaller reaches to avoid lighting up entire channels at once.

RMA staff also said a programmatic permitting path is in progress: the county is working on a routine maintenance agreement application with the state (Fish and Wildlife) to clarify permitting for routine activities. Denise said the CEQA review for that RMA application has caused delay; staff estimated another roughly six months before that permitting piece advances.

Commissioners suggested the next steps should be (1) populate the map with known county agreements and district-maintained reaches; (2) pilot editor access with selected districts and the Lower Tule entity; and (3) identify gaps where new zones of benefit, special districts or agreements may be required to fund and authorize maintenance work.

What’s next

RMA staff will continue account setup for pilot users and inventory existing routine maintenance agreements for upload into the GIS tool. Commissioners asked staff to return with a plan for ownership, permitting limits and how the map will be used in FEMA or grant reporting.