DELAWARE MUNICIPAL BOUNDARIES
The Delaware Office of State Planning Coordination maintains a statewide GIS data set of the boundaries of Delaware's incorporated towns and cities. The data set was developed over time with assistance from the University of Delaware Institute for Public Administration and in cooperation with municipal and county leaders.
All annexations -- the acts that change municipal boundaries -- are required under state law to be reviewed by the Office of State Planning Coordination. When annexations are reported as approved by local governments, the Office updates the municipal boundary file.
To establish a baseline, the Office worked with municipal leaders -- mayors, managers and staff -- to correct municipal boundaries found in sources including the US Census Bureau's TIGER database, state agency GIS data, USGS Digital Line Graphs, and various paper maps. The lines have also been adjusted, where possible, to match county-maintained cadastral (tax parcel) data.
GIS Data:
- munbounds.zip -- A shapefile version. The zip file includes detailed metadata.
- Web Map Services -- ArcIMS and WMS services of this data set are available from the Delaware Data Mapping and Integration Laboratory (DataMIL).
Metadata for this data set is included in the ZIPPED data collection and is posted to the Delaware Geospatial Data Exchange. For each polygon, there is attribute data providing basic information about the municipality, its population as counted in the most recent Census, and a link to the municipal web site (if available).
This data file is not intended to be used as a definitive legal boundary for any municipality. The municipal charters and other legal documents give the legal boundaries of each municipality. This data is intended to be used as a descriptive planning tool.
Please refer all questions, comments, and corrections to Mike Mahaffie, by e-mail or at (302) 739-3090.
