Navigating Parcel Migration Amid Maui’s Wildfire Aftermath

Maui County embarked on the migration of its tax parcels from ArcGIS Parcel Fabric in ArcMap to ArcGIS Pro. The wildfires devastated the island. Here’s how county staff overcame the ultimate obstacle while serving their community and exemplifying the intrinsic value of property records.

Since 2014, Maui County staff have used ArcMap to manage parcels in ArcGIS Parcel Fabric. With ArcMap nearing its retirement, county employees initiated a transition plan to ArcGIS Pro. This plan provided sufficient time for both migration and training. County staff were also keen to take advantage of the customization capabilities of Parcel Fabric in ArcGIS Pro.

“As long-term Parcel Fabric users, we knew we needed to get ahead of the curve,” said Elisse Deleissegues, GIS analyst in Maui County’s Real Property Assessment Division. “Our Real Property Assessment Division has a track record of technical proficiency, and we understood the level of effort involved. We were ready to migrate!”

Maui County staff worked with Pro-West & Associates, an Esri partner, to identify how they could leverage Parcel Fabric in ArcGIS Pro to manage data and workflows more efficiently.

“We needed to minimize the potential for human error during entry and hold onto many of the unique ways in which we used the fabric for our own geography and unique needs, while going beyond the limitations of ArcMap,” continued Deleissegues.

Maui County's goals included

• Automating input and reducing manual entry by leveraging attribute rules.
• Adding more domains for consistent data entry by modifying the current schema.
• Representing features such as plats by adding new parcel types to the schema.
• Enhang history preservation.
• Tying parcels to each instrument of record using Records to generate a parcel lineage.
• Employing ArcGIS Pro tools for efficient and flexible editing.
• Improving label expressions in ArcGIS Pro to show multiple values in unique situations.

Maui County’s geography is atypical because it consists of four islands—totaling 1,161.5 square miles—resulting in a lack of contiguous data. Additionally, Maui County does not have a Public Land Survey System (PLSS) base for defining land. The county uses a base of control points from which to develop and maintain its data. Maui County uses a state plane coordinate system with south azimuth direction units. In preparation for migrating to ArcGIS Pro, county employees upgraded to ArcGIS Enterprise. This allowed them to update the data to the correct version needed to implement ArcGIS Parcel Fabric in ArcGIS Pro. The time had come to perform the migration.

Then, disaster struck. 

Beginning August 8, 2023, wildfires took hold. The historic and culturally important town of Lahaina was reduced to ruins. The lives of 101 individuals were tragically lost, making the outbreak one of the deadliest wildfires in US history.

In the aftermath, all projects in Maui County were immediately halted. This included the parcel migration and Enterprise upgrade projects. Staff pivoted to focus entirely on serving the community. 

At this time, the true value of parcel data came to the fore. Lacking the infrastructure to monitor and manage wildfire damage—wildfires of this magnitude were unprecedented in Hawaiʻi—county staff faced an extraordinary volume of requests for information. Many duplicate requests were received and inquiries poured in from property owners, other counties, the state, and relevant entities.

Information about property boundaries, zoning, and more was in higher demand than ever. A small team worked tirelessly to respond—with the added pressure of the personal impact of the fires on staff members, including the loss of homes, loved ones, and community.

Ten months after the fires, two out of the five Maui County Enterprise Management team members still work full-time to help with recovery and reconstruction efforts. With numerous lawsuits and discovery underway in relation to the fires, information remains in high demand.

“When the wildfires hit, the critical nature of parcel data immediately became clear. Recovery would be impossible without it,” said Deleissegues.

After the county started to recover from the wildfires, staff restarted the Enterprise upgrade and parcel migration project. Maui’s parcel data was moved into Parcel Fabric in ArcGIS Pro, leveraging its newly created schema customized to match the county’s needs.

With the migration complete, the Enterprise management team focused on maintaining their data in Pro. Team members were equipped to be self-efficient in editing data in ArcGIS Pro, having taken training focusing on the county’s unique workflows and schema as well as staff roles across offices involved in the parcel management workflow.

ArcGIS Pro brings new capabilities and advantages to Maui County, including

• Reducing opportunities for human error and increasing data accuracy.
• Enhancing editing efficiency.
• Simplifying the QA/QC process.
• Improving attribute visualization.
• Automating unique scenarios using attribute rules.
• Understanding the source documentation, including deeds, plats, surveys, etc.
• Displaying parcel lineage visually and in tables, showing which documents created and retired the feature.

“As a technically astute team, we were ready to embrace the most up-to-date tools to keep our authoritative data up-to-date and deliver value. We’re excited about building on our capabilities,” said Deleissegues.

Maui County's Enterprise management team is focused on taking full advantage of accurate data and modern geographic information system (GIS) capabilities from the upgrade. The team is using its Parcel Fabric data in ArcGIS Pro to support and share valuable data through self-service GIS apps and county initiatives. These apps and initiatives include the Real Property Assessment Division Parcel Viewer, which tracks parcel changes, ownership changes, and value changes; conducts compliance checks through agricultural inspections; manages an appeals tracking dashboard; and uses post-wildfire imagery for assessment purposes. Additionally, the team utilizes the Public Parcel Viewer for real-time tax map updates, the Maui Automated Planning & Permitting System (MAPPS), and the Equitable Property Value Hub.

“While the impact of the wildfires will stay with us forever, we are able to move forward with a clearer focus than ever on the value of the land records information and land records professionals,” said Deleissegues.