Guidance Documents

These guidance documents are provided by the Connecticut's GIS Office to support our role in coordinating a consistent, high-quality geospatial framework for the state. As part of our responsibilities, we maintain statewide data standards, support data sharing and integration across agencies and municipalities, and manage the state’s geospatial data clearinghouse. This guidance is intended to help all levels of governments and partners align their GIS efforts, improve data quality, and contribute to a more connected geospatial ecosystem in Connecticut.

Geodata Portal Publishing Guidelines

This document provides guidelines for GIS professionals in CT's state agencies and trusted partners who are sharing data with the CT Geodata Portal. The guidelines cover steps to connect to the portal and recommendations on how to prepare and publish data that adheres to universal and state-specific standards.

Connecticut GIS Mapping Accessibility Guidance

This document provides guidance for ensuring that Geographic Information System (GIS) maps and applications (apps) produced by the State of Connecticut and its partners are accessible to all users, including individuals with disabilities.

CT GIS Parcel Data Creation Guidance and Specifications

The Connecticut GIS Parcel Data Creation Guidance and Specifications (“Parcel Guidance”) is a technical document developed by the GIS Advisory Council’s Parcel Data Creation Working Group in collaboration with the Connecticut GIS Office. It provides a consistent framework and quality standard for creating, maintaining, and updating parcel GIS data, ensuring uniformity and interoperability across the state.

Guidance for Address Management in State Administrative Data

This guidance provides best practices for state agencies to ensure consistent management of address data. 

Housing Developable Land Inventory Guidance Document

This guidance outlines datasets, analytical methods, and mapping standards that can be used to produce a consistent, for municipalities to identify a “developable land inventory”, a preliminary screening level product, as defined in Connecticut General Statutes (C.G.S.) Sec. 8-13aa.

Note: To view this document as an interactive web page, navigate to this link.

One-Pagers

Learn more about the GIS Office through this one-page summaries of our work.

Presentations

Explore the latest presentations from the Connecticut GIS Office. Featuring webinars, conference talks, and public outreach materials that showcase how geospatial data is strategically applied to inform decision-makinga and support statewide coordination.

Broadband Mapping in CT

A presentation on broadband data collection and mapping efforts in Connecticut—from program development and funding to ongoing work improving the state’s location fabric and tracking broadband access and adoption.

State of the State 2025

An overview of the GIS Office's key activities for 2025, presented on GIS Day 2025 at Central Connecticut State University.

The CT Geospatial Strategic Plan

The Connecticut Geospatial Strategic Plan is a planning document produced by the GIS Advisory Council and GIS Office, and updated annually. This plan has a five-year window (2023-2028) and identifies the needs of stakeholders and guides operational priorities. This strategic planning process, focused on the GIS community and related data, is the first effort of its kind for the GIS Office and represents an important milestone for Connecticut. The plan is built on three key methods: input from over 100 stakeholders (representing state agencies, municipalities, nonprofits, and the private sector) via an online survey; in-depth interviews with subject matter experts; and a review of national best practices. This information was synthesized into a set of 50+ strategic drivers, which were prioritized through internal and external review to shape the plan’s core content. The list of strategic drivers was also internally and externally evaluated, ranked, and scored to create the Five Strategic Goals.  Each one of the goals has related objectives, activities, and outputs with benchmarks, dates, and reporting metrics that describe the operational route for implementation of each of its objective.
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2023 - 2028 Strategic Goals

Goal 1

Use effective governance, policies, and standards to manage geospatial data.

Goal 2

Implement a sustainable funding model for imagery acquisition, GIS data, and geospatial technologies.

Goal 3

Increase access to data, spatial analysis, web services, and visualization capabilities for local and regional governments, community organizations, the private sector, and other stakeholders.

Goal 4

Provide direct analytic support and enhance capacity building for State Agencies.

Goal 5

Broaden communication and engagement across different levels of government and other organizations.