About Jasper County Geographic Information Systems

Jasper County Geographic Information Systems (GIS) began in Emergency Management / Jasper County 911 for their 911 applications. Many geographic layers were developed, most importantly being the street centerlines and address points. Other layers developed were municipal boundaries, fire hydrants, taxing districts and other layers of geographic information used that are used with the County's 911 system.

In the Spring of 2006, the County flew new aerial photography. The rural areas were flown at a 1 foot pixel resolution and the urban areas (Joplin area and Carthage) were flown at a 6 inch pixel resolution.  In the fall of 2006, Jasper County contracted with the Schneider Corporation to convert the cadastral layers. The cadastral layers include the parcels, lots, blocks, subdivisions and sections.

The County hired a GIS Coordinator in February 2007 to coordinate the county's GIS efforts. The position and a portion of the program is being funded by a Environmental Protection Agency grant obtained through the Health Department to help with efforts to identify and cleanup in the Superfund site areas.

In February 2008, the Beacon GIS maps and data web site was unveiled. This website will provides a lot of valuable maps and data to the public for free. All of the map layers are available for free and basic parcel informaiton. For a subscription, users can view detailed parcel information from the Assessor's office. Click here for more details.

In February 2009, the county acquired updated aerial photography. Not only was it traditional orthophotraphy, straight down view, but it was also oblique photography. Oblique aerial photography is also called 'bird's eye view'. Obtained through Pictometry International, the oblique photography offers a four directional view of the county urban areas and a two directional view in the rural areas.

Continued efforts of the GIS Department are to enhance other departments productivity through technology. GIS and technology go hand-in-hand. If you can convert a department's archaic paper record keeping methods to an Access database, and if there is a locational component such as an addres; you can integrate those records, regardless of what they are, into a Geographic Information System.