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Asheville and Buncombe County GIS mapping decoded

Get to know your neighborhood through the geographical information systems that are mapping Buncombe County.

View of downtown buildings from Pack Square Park.

Get to know your neighborhood.

Photo by AVLtoday

Table of Contents

If you’ve ever wished you had a map that highlighted all the hiking trails in city limits or longed to see where all the libraries + voting polls are located — it’s high time you met GIS mapping. GIS mapping is a go-to, visual resource used by the City + County, local organizations, and passionate locals to help us discover data about places in our community.

So what exactly is GIS?

GIS (geographic information system) is a tool for gathering, managing + analyzing data. Maps are created through GIS software (like ArcGIS, Google Earth + more) to analyze physical locations and organize layers of info into visualizations in the form of maps + 3D scenes.

GIS is used by thousands of organizations, companies, and governments — think National Parks guiding visitors or environmental organizations sharing climate data. GIS is also used by cities to help their community learn about trends, specific locations + more. These maps allow people to communicate, perform analysis, share information, and even solve problems on a local and a global level.

How is it used locally?

Buncombe County has a website dedicated to GIS. On it, you’ll find mapping of school districts, parks, land use, cemeteries, farms + more. Explore Discover Buncombe, where you can input your address and find a list of properties, parks, pools, schools, libraries, crime + voting areas in and around your location.

The City of Asheville has its own GIS collection. The Asheville Map is a comprehensive map viewer that lets you toggle layers on and off to see street maintenance responsibility, bus routes, pipes, law districts, neighborhoods + more.

Map Asheville with National Register Historic Properties, ART Bus Routes, and historic landmarks layers toggled on.

Explore a long list of data layers, like historic places and bus routes.

Screenshot via Map Asheville

Map it out

If this article is inspiring your inner cartographer, here are a few interactive GIS maps to explore:

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