GIS Data, Sharing, and Distribution Policy
The City of Lynchburg recognizes that sharing of geographic information can result in considerable savings for local governments by minimizing duplication of effort in digital data creation and data maintenance procedures.
The City of Lynchburg strives to meet the needs of our customers by providing everyone with the best data available. The City of Lynchburg acquires, develops, maintains, and uses GIS data in support of its internal business functions and in the services it provides to the public. The GIS data which the City of Lynchburg distributes and to which it provides access may not be suitable for all purposes or uses. All GIS data sets are provided without warranty or guarantee.
Data Disclaimer:
The City of Lynchburg’s data carries the following disclaimer regardless of the format it is in or the method in which the data is obtained.
Data obtained from the City are Copyright © City of Lynchburg, Virginia. The GIS data are proprietary to the City, and title to this information remains in the City. All applicable common law and statutory rights in the GIS data including, but not limited to, rights in copyright, shall and will remain the property of the City.
Information shown on these maps and data are derived from public records that are constantly undergoing change and do not replace a site survey, and is not warranted for content, accuracy or completeness. Also, the information in the GIS system does not determine the ownership of property or such issues as whether or not streets and alleys are publicly or privately owned; such issues must be determined by an examination of the land records in the Office of the Clerk of the Lynchburg Circuit Court. The City does not guarantee the positional or thematic accuracy of the GIS data. The GIS data or digital files are not a legal representation of any of the features in which it depicts, and disclaims any assumption of the legal status of which it represents. The City of Lynchburg gives no warranties of any kind, expressed or implied for its data including warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose, and does not assume any responsibility for its uses. The consumer is responsible for performing all conversions, digitizing, spatial analysis, and graphic representation operations on the data acquired from the City of Lynchburg.
The data disclaimer is in place to safeguard the interests of the City of Lynchburg and ensure the integrity of data.
City of Lynchburg Data and Online GIS Applications:
The City makes available for viewing many of its GIS data layers and tabular information via online GIS applications. Links to the various applications are available on the Online GIS Portal: City GIS Applications.
Map Gallery: Standard maps and services are available on the Map Gallery. Some of the maps are downloadable in a PDF format, others are digital interactive maps that can be used online.
Open Data Portal: Many of our data layers are available for download from the Open Data Portal. The area covered by the downloadable GIS data is generally the entire area within the city limits. Please note that not all of the City of Lynchburg’s data layers are available for download. For City of Lynchburg water, storm and sanitary data, please contact the Department of Water Resources for inquiries about the availability of this data at 434-455-4250.
ArcGIS Services: The City of Lynchburg makes available access to our REST Endpoint. These services can be used within GIS and mapping applications in lieu of static, downloaded data.
Publicly Held Confidential Information:
By law, the City of Lynchburg cannot and is not required to provide access to or distribute some types of information contained within its GIS data. This data will be identified by City of Lynchburg staff and removed from the data before it is distributed, to the extent allowable by the Virginia Freedom of Information Act .
For homeland security reasons, there are restrictions placed on the availability of the water distribution system GIS data sets within the City of Lynchburg. Requests for large sections of GIS data containing this system will be subject to approval by the City’s Department of Water Resources before it will be released.
434-455-4520
Non-City of Lynchburg GIS Data:
The City of Lynchburg will not provide any digital GIS data that is owned by other sources. We will refer all inquiries for non-City data to the data owner or source.
The individual localities, the Central Virginia Planning District Commission, or VGIN must be contacted to obtain GIS data or other information in the counties surrounding Lynchburg.
Technical Specifications:
City of Lynchburg uses the Esri ArcGIS product family. The City's standard geospatial coordinate system is 4502 Virginia South, State plane, North American Datum of 1983. Horizontal measurement units are in feet.
Exported GIS and CAD data file formats for free download may include following:
- Esri Shapefile and File Geodatabase
- AutoCad .DWG file
- KML
Coordinate System:
Most of the data in the City of Lynchburg GIS is maintained by City staff and uses the below coordinate system:
| Coordinate System | State Plane |
| Zone | Virginia South |
| Datum | NAD 83 |
| Vertical Datum | NAVD 88 (for 2017 contour data) |
| Linear | Unit Feet |
| Projection | Lambert Conformal Conic |
| Esri Name | NAD_83_StatePlane_Virginia_South_FIPS_4502_Feet |
Orthophotography:
The City of Lynchburg has acquired orthophotography spanning many years. Orthophotography image file formats may include the following: *.JPG, *.TIF, *MrSid
Imagery is available in individual images corresponding to the tile grid that was used in that particular year. Click here for maps showing tile grids for all available imagery.
Contact Information:
For general questions about our GIS please contact:
GIS@lynchburgva.gov
434-455-3961
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