Historical Plat Maps of Dane County Digitized and Converted to GIS (1962-2005)

We constructed a time-series spatial dataset of parcel boundaries for the period 1962-2005, in roughly 4-year intervals, by digitizing historical plat maps for Dane County and combining them with the 2005 GIS digital parcel dataset. The resulting datasets enable the consistent tracking of subdivision and development for all parcels over a given time frame. The process involved 1) dissolving and merging the 2005 digital Dane County parcel dataset based on contiguity and name, 2) further merging 2005 parcels based on the hard copy 2005 Plat book, and then 3) the reverse chronological merging of parcels to reconstruct previous years, at 4-year intervals, based on historical plat books. Additional land use information such as 1) whether a structure was actually constructed (using the companion digitized aerial photo dataset), 2) cover crop, and 3) permeable surface area, can be added to these datasets at a later date.