St. James Parish-wide GIS

List of items completed under proposed grant

The St. James Parish CIAP selected was to develop a fully functional, multi-use, parish-wide Graphic Information System (GIS) program. The project provides a useful tool for the parish coastal zone management program to assist in the planned development and proper implementation of the goals and objectives of the federal, state, and local coastal zone programs. This fully functional GIS allows instantaneous access to monitor and accurately document cumulative impacts in and around coastal zone and wetland areas within St. James Parish. All subdivisions, building construction, infrastructures, and development can now be accurately mapped and plotted. With low altitude, aerial photography taken in St. James Parish in 1989 and again in 1998, the parish and other governmental entities can now record historical changes in land use and encroachments into or near protected and environmentally sensitive areas. The ability to superimpose the earlier flight photographs with the new photos, as well as the building permit information will provide the parish with a comprehensive look at development, changes in land use, and alterations of water features and watershed areas.

The parish GIS base maps include layers with centerline information on streets and roads, railroads, bridges, waterways, levees, and public rights-of-way. Presently, the parish is nearing completion, with support from the parish assessor, a parish-wide lot parcel and ownership map. Though is layer was not part of the original project proposal, it will allow the parish to identify property owners and provide an accurate map of public drainage servitudes and rights-of-way, which are important toward maintaining wetland and green space areas.

All existing development and structures were digitized on the initial GIS and the municipal addresses were added to identify each structure in a database. The parish planning and permitting division now submits all new applications and development to the GIS for inclusion on the parish map. The parish now has a GIS layer and database depicting all existing ditches and permitted culverts throughout the parish. As new culvert permits are issued, they are added to the GIS map. The completed drainage system layer includes the location of all environmental management units, major drainage canals and ditches, and water recreation facilities.

This project includes a emergency management and response layer. This layer includes the delineation of evacuation routes, parish-wide outdoor warning sirens and includes fixed facilities, and pipelines, which have the potential to release products that could have adverse environmental effects to wetland and coastal habitat areas.

The GIS project has a layer developed to identify the parish coastal zone permitted activities and approved mitigation sites. This layer includes future, possible mitigation sites that meet the federal and state criteria for acceptable mitigation banks and areas.

The layer depicting the parish’s existing utility infrastructures is also completed. This layer displays gas and water lines and valves and fire hydrants.

The CIAP, GIS project is 100% completed. The following items have been completed as proposed under the CIAP grant: (Note: some of the attachments are password protected for security reasons. All attachments are in pdf format and you will need pdf viewer to open.)

1

The cost breakdown for the above completed work is:

Federal $256,102.00
State $50,000.00
Local $43,160.00

The project will provide long-term and beneficial data in developing a strong parish with a high priority on wetland protection and preservation. The St. James Parish Council is committed to the long-term maintenance and continued development and enhancement of the parish-wide GIS project. The project will help ensure the protection and recreational use of one of our parish’s most valued assets, our wetland and coastal zone areas.