Who retains legal ownership of the digital map data and raw GIS files once a municipal cemetery mapping project is complete?
In a municipal cemetery mapping project with Sentry Mapping, the municipality keeps legal ownership of the cemetery's digital map data and raw GIS files. Sentry delivers the maps and may host a web map, but the data remains yours.
With Sentry Mapping cemetery mapping for a municipal cemetery, you retain legal ownership of the digital cemetery mapping dataset and the raw GIS files that describe your plots and burials. The project deliverables from burial plot mapping and grave locating become part of your records and your GIS.
At final delivery, you should receive the completed cemetery GIS mapping layers (grave points, plot polygons, sections, roads, and searchable fields) plus a printed master map and a web map link your staff and the public can use. Your records and map layers stay under your exclusive ownership even while they are hosted online. This makes it easier to integrate the data into your city GIS and avoid vendor lock-in.
Sentry Mapping retains only its proprietary equipment and workflows used to collect and process ground penetrating radar cemetery scans and GPS observations.