NILS Overview

INTRODUCTION

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has deployed the Survey Management, Measurement Management, Parcel Management and GeoCommunicator modules of the National Integrated Land System (NILS). Additional functionality will be added, in future releases, to the modules until the full complement of the BLM’s cadastral and land records management business rules have been implemented.

The National Integrated Land System (NILS) is a joint project between the Bureau of Land Management (BLM); USDA Forest Service (USFS); and state, county, and private organizations. NILS provides a business solution to land managers who face an increasingly complex environment of complicated transactions, legal challenges, and deteriorating and difficult-to-access records.

The primary purpose of the NILS system is to automate the BLM cadastral surveying and land records business rules in a GIS environment. The integration of surveying and GIS provides land managers with a complete field-to-fabric technology solution. The NILS geodatabase model was developed by a consortium of cadastral and parcel subject matter experts. The model meets the requirements of the Federal Geographic Data Committee's Cadastral Data Content Standard. The implementation of the model includes the conversion of the data from the NAD27 to the NAD83 datum as well as the development of a seamless national dataset. The survey and parcel data will serve as the foundation for a national multipurpose Cadastre.

The NILS application software consists of Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) and custom developed software. Approximately 85 percent of the project’s requirements are contained in COTS GIS products from Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI). ESRI is also developing the NILS custom software for the BLM.

NILS consists of two environments: transactional and publication. In the transactional environment cadastral data and land records data are captured, analyzed, edited and committed to permanent records using a customized workflow management methodology. This methodology allows the BLM to standardize it's survey and land management processes using a Workflow Manager and Task Assistant. The Workflow Manager guides users through all the necessary GIS and non-GIS tasks required to complete an entire business process; it serves as a guide for staff in their day-to-day activities while also providing a mechanism for tracking a job's status and providing accountability and control in BLM work processes. The publication environment is available from the GeoCommunicator website to provides maps, reports, and GIS information to public and government customers.

The NILS system architecture consists of a centralized NILS database with ArcSDE services, centralized applications servers, Windows Terminal Servers (WTS), an ArcIMS server and data storage. Remote locations (State Offices, Field Offices) access NILS data and applications via Windows Terminal Clients over the BLM (Wide-Area Network) WAN. The GeoCommunicator website is accessed via the Internet using Microsoft Internet Explorer or other browsers.

The desktop GIS software solution includes the Survey Management, Measurement Management, and Parcel Management applications. These applications provide a custom BLM user interface to the ESRI Survey Analyst extension, supported by the ArcGIS ArcEditor desktop software.

Module Overviews
Survey Management and Measurement Management (SM/MM)

Cadastral survey business rules are the foundation for the functionality in SM/MM. The application provides a GIS work environment for entering and maintaining survey-based data. When SM/MM is fully implemented, it will replace Cadastral Measurement Management (CMM) and the GCDB (Geographic Coordinate DataBase) Data Preparation software GMM (Geographic Measurement Management). It will provide a re-engineered, enterprise-wide solution for the management of the BLM Cadastral Survey data.

SM/MM functionality:

• Import the BLM's survey-based data from the GCDB representing the Public Land Survey System (PLSS) into the NILS Geodatabase
• Enter new survey-based data as new surveys are performed and approved.
• Maintain the survey-based data in the GIS environment
• Create lines and polygons for the legal description fabric
• Validate and verify the integrity of the legal description fabric

Parcel Management (PM)

Realty, land law examination and land records management business rules form the foundations for the PM application. PM provides a GIS-based environment for visualizing, annotating, and maintaining the land records for which the BLM is responsible. Data associated with the GIS includes land descriptions and case processing information. PM is a new work environment for the BLM employees.

PM functionality:

• Converts the LR2000 case processing data to the NILS geodatabase. Parcel land descriptions are mapped to existing PLSS and metes and bounds parcels
• Implements functionality to edit the parcel attributes and geometry.
• Includes a database design to accommodate the BLM land survey types and case types.
• Maintain currency of LR2000 data within NILS
• Compliment the BLM PLSS data with survey-based data from non-BLM sources.

GeoCommunicator

GeoCommunicator is a land management and land records web site for the distribution of information and data from the National Integrated Land System, and the BLM’s land and mineral records system called the Legacy Rehost 2000 or LR2000. GeoCommunicator provides the following capabilities:

• Land & Mineral Use Records providing interactive mapping for searching, accessing, and displaying the BLM's land and mineral use authorizations, conveyances documents, and mining claims.
• Federal land Stewardship for discovering which federal surface management agency manages a piece of land.
• Land Survey Information System providing the Public Land Survey System (PLSS) and other survey-based data for downloading, viewing, or image streaming.

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