GeoBC: Crown Registry and Geographic Base
The Crown Registry and Geographic Base Branch is the amalgamation of the former Base Mapping and Geomatic Services Branch and the Integrated Registry Branch.
The Crown Registry and Geographic Base Branch is responsible for acquiring, managing, enabling access to and supporting the interpretation and use of the foundational data upon which GeoBC information products and services are built and delivered. These foundation data sets are also used to geographically reference and index other resource, social, and economic values and assets for analysis and decision making by other stakeholders and the public.
The foundation data that the Branch is responsible for can be broadly described as the Topographic and Legal Boundary Feature Set, an Imagery Data Set, and a Land Registry Information Set. The Branch derives its mandate to manage these data from Sections 5, 6 and 7 of the Land Act.
The Topographic and Legal Boundary Feature Set contains:
- Terrain Features (e.g. digital elevation model and landforms, etc.);
- Cultural Features (e.g. built-up areas, building footprints, etc.);
- Transportation Features (e.g. cartographic representation of the Integrated Transportation Network, including ferry routes, airports and airfields, etc.);
- Hydrographic Features (e.g. cartographic representation of the Integrated Hydrographic Network, including polygonized lakes, wetlands, and glaciers, double line streams, and hydrographic structures - dams and weirs, etc.);
- Geographic Names;
- Integrated Hydrographic Network (e.g. single line streams, lakes, wetlands and coastlines, etc.);
- Integrated Transportation Network (e.g. single line municipal, provincial and resource roads);
- Land Parcel Features (e.g. unique land parcels described or delineated and registered in accordance with various statutes); and
- Boundary Features (e.g. political and administrative boundaries).
The geospatial reference system, embodied in the physical (i.e. MASCOT Geodetic Control Monuments records) and the space-based (i.e. Global Positioning System [GPS] base stations and real-time services) layers underpins all surveying, mapping and positioning activities thereby linking these physical features to each other and to other data sets that may have been positioned or can be geo-referenced to this common geographic framework.
The Imagery Data Set includes:
- Aerial photography – some 2,250,000 frames dating from 1936 to present in a variety of formats including film negative, print positive, scanned aerial photography and original source digital imagery;
- Orthophotos and orthophotomosaics; and
- Satellite imagery, including Landsat, SPOT, IKONOS, Quick Bird, IRS and RADARSAT 1 and 2.
Land Registry Information includes information regarding the current record of the nature, extent and ownership of the rights and interests in Crown land. These interests – (some 262 of them) are administered by 19 different agencies in a variety of systems, databases and files, including TANTALIS. Under recent legislation each of those interest granting agencies is obliged to deposit records of their dispositions in the Integrated Land and Resource Registry (ILRR) which becomes the official register and single point of access for the records of interests in Crown land.
At this time there is no intent to reduce or otherwise materially alter the suite of products and services that have been delivered from these Branches, but the service delivery model and the supporting organizational structure will certainly change to reflect new expectations and demands for products and services; to take advantage of emerging technologies; and, to acknowledge and accommodate a changing workforce. This page and site will be updated, expanded and fleshed out as our ideas and models emerge and mature. Please stay tuned.
In the meantime for a detailed description of the products and services that will continue to be available, please visit:
