Manitoba Hydro Integrated Property Parcel Fabric

Building the first foundational Province-wide Integrated Property Parcel Fabric

See the Implementation of a Province-wide Property Parcel Base Map

Watch how MNC built the first foundational Province-wide Integrated Property Parcel Fabric

Project Overview

Modern land and asset management demand accurate and seamless property mapping. Manitoba did not have a single, province-wide property parcel GIS dataset. Manitoba Hydro, as the province’s major energy provider, required a unified parcel layer to facilitate effective planning, infrastructure development, and informed spatial decision-making across its operations.

MNC (Martin Newby Consulting Ltd.), in partnership with Esri Canada and Manitoba Hydro’s Geospatial Data Services, led the design, development, and implementation of a province-wide property parcel base map, synthesizing over 850 disparate datasets into a cohesive, scalable foundation for Manitoba Hydro and the wider GIS user community. This collaboration resulted in a province-wide parcel fabric, an achievement that had never been realized by any single agency in Manitoba before.

Challenge

To support effective planning, operations, and land management, Manitoba Hydro needed a single, authoritative property parcel GIS dataset for the entire province. However, no such resource existed. The available parcel information was highly fragmented, scattered across more than 850 disparate sources with varying formats, accuracy, and standards. Legacy CAD files further complicated the landscape. Without a unifying process or dataset, Manitoba Hydro was limited in its ability to deliver reliable spatial information and respond to changing business needs.

Map of Manitoba showing 894 disparate parcel datasets from five sources totalling 1.5 million parcels, used by Manitoba Hydro.

Key Limitations Included:

No Existing Dataset

No existing parcel dataset covering all of Manitoba

Disparate Data Sources

Over 850 disparate data sources, including municipal, provincial, federal, and internal archives

Inconsistent Data

Inconsistent data formats, spatial reference systems, and attribute standards

Quality Issues

Legacy CAD data plagued by varied structures and quality issues

Need For Ongoing Support

The need for a process that was repeatable, sustainable, and supported ongoing updates

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The Solution

To address the challenge of consolidating over 850 disparate parcel datasets into a single, integrated parcel base map for Manitoba Hydro, MNC undertook a comprehensive and systematic approach under Manitoba Hydro’s Geospatial Data Services direction.

Data integration workflow showing source data transformed into a unified parcel fabric database.

Key Steps in the Solution:

Gap Analysis

Evaluated existing datasets from sources including the City of Winnipeg, the Province of Manitoba, Natural Resources Canada, and Manitoba Hydro’s internal archives.
Ensured a thorough understanding of data limitations.
Confirmed that Esri’s Integrated Cadastral Fabric data model could be supported.

Tool Development

MNC designed a suite of modular FME (Safe Software Feature Manipulation Engine) workspaces and custom scripts.
FME workspaces and scripts standardized attribute structures, converted geometries and ensured topological integrity.
Provided robust quality checks through staging file geodatabases.

Data Integration

Employed advanced spatial validation techniques, including custom transformation, adjustment, and conflation workspaces, to resolve spatial misalignments and inconsistencies across datasets.
Standardized and normalized legacy CAD data, often requiring substantial cleaning and batch processing to address varied structures and quality issues.
Ensured a uniform, accurate, and topologically sound parcel fabric ready for seamless integration.

Finished Parcel Dataset

Delivered a seamless, province-wide parcel fabric containing over 1.5 million polygons, serving as a single source of truth for Manitoba Hydro.
Greatly improved the organization’s ability to support GIS applications, data quality, and spatial decision-making across all business units.
Designed for ongoing maintenance and updates, enabling long-term sustainability and enhanced internal support.

The Results

The resulting GIS parcel fabric is easy to maintain and update, eliminating the need to reference hundreds of separate datasets. It significantly improves data quality and decision-making for Manitoba Hydro, setting a new standard for parcel mapping in the province. The uniform parcel base map not only supports Manitoba Hydro’s operations but also provides a valuable resource for all surveying, mapping, and GIS users in Manitoba, reducing duplication of effort and serving as a collaborative foundation for provincial geospatial data initiatives.

Diagram illustrating interconnected FME workspaces used to build a complete parcel fabric dataset.

Key benefits included:

Single Source Of Truth

One seamless, province-wide parcel layer eliminates the need to reference hundreds of fragmented datasets.

Repeatable, Maintainable Process

Automated workflows allow quick, predictable updates as data or requirements evolve.

Improved Operational Efficiency

Staff can easily access and maintain the fabric, supporting faster, better-informed decisions.

Enhanced Infrastructure Planning

The high-quality, topologically sound parcel layer enables more effective design and delivery of power transmission networks.

Broader Value For Manitoba

The project delivers a common parcel mapping base for all provincial GIS users, reducing data duplication, improving collaboration, and supporting future data integration across organizations.

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Multiple Datasets

INTEGRATED INTO A SINGLE PARCEL FABRIC SYSTEM

Reduced

DUPLICATION ACROSS PREVIOUSLY SILOED DATA SOURCES

Improved Efficiency

ACROSS LAND, ASSET, AND INFRASTRUCTURE WORKFLOWS

About MNC

The Cadastral and Parcel Mapping Experts

MNC is a trusted leader in cadastral and parcel management with 25+ years of experience delivering GeoAI-ready datasets, modernizing parcel fabrics, and automating GIS workflows. As an Esri Gold and Cornerstone Partner with Parcel Management and State and Local Government Specialties, MNC provides scalable advanced GIS, ArcGIS Pro, FME automation, MicroStation, AutoCAD and cloud-ready geospatial systems that improve data quality and support government land administration modernization across Canada, the USA, and the Caribbean.

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