The town's geographic information system (GIS), a public version of which first became available on the internet in 2011, contains a broad range of useful information, provided that such data can be keyed to a geographic location, such as a street address.maps.newtown-ct.gov.

To keep that information relevant and current, Kevin Dunkin, the town's GIS specialist, has the ongoing task of updating the data in the GIS network. Mr Dunkin works at the town's Technology and GIS Department, which is headed by Al Miles.

"We have all this great data to keep updated," Mr Dunkin said in a November 30 interview at his office. Various GIS updates are performed on a daily basis, he said. The GIS network thus is considered "a work in progress."

A key component of GIS is the property information for individual land parcels that is kept by the tax assessor. An update of the town's GIS will involve inserting the new real estate valuations that are based on the recent revaluation of properties.

The town's Land Use Agency, Economic and Community Development Department, and Public Works Department are heavy users of GIS, Mr Dunkin said, noting that those agencies' tasks lend themselves to GIS electronic data display.

One key upgrade planned for GIS is the inclusion of color overhead aerial photos of Newtown, which were taken by the State of Connecticut in April 2016. Mr Dunkin said he expects the new photography to be included in the network sometime during the next 12 to 18 months. Those photos will provide finer visual detail than the system's current photos, which include color images recorded in 2012 and 2007, plus black and white photos taken in 2002.

Comparing the photos that were taken at different times provides a GIS user with a sense of how the local landscape has changed across time. Such photo interpretation is also useful to town land use enforcement staff members who are able to discern changed terrain conditions, providing documentation in terms of enforcement situations.

The aerial photos in the GIS network were made at a time of year when vegetation was dormant, providing overhead views unobstructed by foliage. The photos were taken when shadows were minimal to maximize the illuminated detail. Hundreds of individual aerial photos taken from same altitude are electronically stitched together to create an apparently seamless photomosaic.

A set of scalable planimetric maps for the entire town underpins the scalable layers of aerial photography in the GIS network. The planimetric maps include buildings, structures, pavement, and bodies of water, among many other physical features.

Notably, GIS mapping is intended for land use planning purposes and does not reach the level of accuracy provided by surveyors' mapping.

GIS users may create their own maps on their own printers or plotters, or may have the town provide such customized maps based on a fee schedule, Mr Dunkin said. Typical map buyers are people in the real estate business and land developers, he said.

In the GIS network, multiple visual data layers may be added, subtracted, or recombined, as needed, to create customized maps holding various detail. These data layers include zoning districts, floodplains, trails, topographic contour lines, police patrol sectors, fire districts, water districts, sewer districts, historic districts, open space, wetlands, aquifer protection areas, aquifer recharge areas, fire suppression facilities, surface water quality, groundwater quality, school districts, and individual land uses.

GIS mapping stores data on individual land parcels, roads, railroads, brooks, ponds, wetlands, open space, trails, public utilities, industrial development, and land use zones. It includes property boundaries, zoning boundary lines, topographic contours, tax assessments, property ownership, building sizes, and land record references, plus other data.

Mr Dunkin explained that residents who want the Public Works Department to solve various problems may submit their requests for work via the internet through the "citizen service request system" at the GIS website. That system is intended to expedite work involving stormwater drainage problems, hazardous tree situations, and roadway problems, among others.

Besides providing access to the GIS network, the GIS website also includes a feature on interactive town mapping, as well as a map gallery that includes an open space map, a street index map, a zip code map, and a zoning map. Those maps, which are presented in the PDF format, are downloadable and printable.

Information for the town's GIS network is at