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Kingston Online GIS.gif)
Geographical Information System (Click image on left to launch Online GIS)
Introduction The Town of Kingston is committed to providing access to public information on its website. Some information is best viewed on a map and this information is now available through Kingston’s OnlineGIS website. What is GIS? A geographic information system (GIS) integrates hardware, software, and data for capturing, managing, analyzing, and displaying all forms of geographically referenced information. A GIS allows users to visualize, interpret, and understand data in many ways that reveal relationships, patterns, and trends in the form of maps. A GIS can help users learn about their immediate surroundings, their region and the world. What type of information is available? There is a variety of information available including assessors’, zoning, open space, stormwater and utility data, among others. Many town boards, committees, departments, as well as the general public, will find useful information here. For details on the information currently on the site, please review the section on Map Layers below. The Town will continue to add and update information as it becomes available. Using the OnlineGIS System When entering Kingston’s OnlineGIS site, a map of the town is displayed in the main window along with a tool bar across the top where tools are available for zooming in and out, panning across a map, getting information on a particular location, measuring distance and area, as well as printing a map. Different types of maps can be displayed such as a parcel map, aerial map or relief map. Areas of Interest The Area of Interest tool will zoom the map to a particular parcel or location in town, e.g. the Town Hall or Gray’s Beach. Map Layers In addition to the Base Map, we have defined a number of Quick Maps, found under the MapLayers drop down list, that contain layers with different types of information. When you select a particular Quick Map, the base map information will be displayed along with additional related information. Quick Maps often contain a number of different layers that can be turned on and off by clicking the check box next to the name of the layer. For instance, the MASSGIS Data layer contains five other layers that can be viewed by clicking on the arrow to the left of "MASSGIS Data." Each of the layers can be turned on or off by checking/unchecking the box next to the individual layers. The same is true with the different layers available on the Base Map. By clicking on the arrow to the left of each layer, it is also possible to identify the symbol used for each feature shown on a layer. For instance, the DEP Wetlands layer differentiates wetland types via color shading (e.g. wooded marsh is shown in green, cranberry bogs in pink and reservoirs in blue). Features of other layers are shown as colored lines or colored shapes, among other symbols. This is important to note because a key or legend is not yet an available option when printing maps from the website. For general information about universal map symbols, please see the following U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) website: http://egsc.usgs.gov/isb/pubs/booklets/symbols/topomapsymbols.pdf.
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