[Talk-us-massachusetts] Waltham MA Data Import

[Nicholas Davidowicz]

Hi all,

I have been doing a lot of mapping around Waltham, MA. After reviewing
other GIS providers (ArcGIS), I realized the city office does have very
detailed GIS information available.

I am interested in attempting to import this data. My plan of action at the
moment is first to contact the GIS office (the contact is Eric Rizzo),
figure out the size of the dataset (or the relevant parts; my upper limit
will be ~16TB, hopefully it should be well under this), and get the data
transferred to my personal computer systems (either via internet or
sneakernet to hard drives). Likely there will be a fee associated with
acquiring the data, hopefully not more than several hundred dollars.

Once I have the data, the target is of course physically survey-able
information. Roads, sidewalks, building outlines, parking lots, fences,
retaining walls, and water features are primary; secondary will be building
addresses, trees, signage, cabinets, and other smaller features if
available. I plan to import it one grid block at a time (the city is
divided by evenly sized blocks numbered 1 to 81), starting with the city
center 60 and working radially outwards. I will manually review all changes
in JOSM and/or QGIS. This will likely take several months.

If this goes successfully, and I still have interest, I may also approach
neighboring towns in the future (Newton and Watertown first).

Is anyone opposed to this? Does anyone have any tips or comments, or know
if the city would even support this because of the licensing? I plan to
contact Eric in a week or two once this post has had enough time for
responses. Thank you for your attention.

Nick
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