CISU is responsible for developing and maintaining statewide assessors' cadastral map standards. The unit contracts with 14 of Oregon's 36 counties to maintain their cadastral maps and also engages in cooperative re-mapping projects with any of the counties that need their cadastral maps brought up to statewide standards. In the past the unit has been known as the Cartographic Unit and the Urban-Rural Mapping Unit.
The Manual of Cadastral Map Standards, Concepts, and Cartographic Procedures (The Manual) provides information on the map system, map standards, technical procedures, and legal principles regarding mapping to assist tax administrators and county cartographers in their work with real property.
Writing the original Manual began in the 1950s shortly after the Legislature created the Cartographic Unit within the Department of Revenue. The first version was published in June 1981. The addition of Chapter 14 was complete in August 1988. Chapters 1, 2 and 3 were revised and published in June 1989. In 1996 an addendum, Standards for Digital Cadastral Maps modified the graphic standards for printed maps to make them more compatible with Geographic Information Systems (GIS). In the fall of 2002 The Manual was converted to digital format and posted on the ORMAP website.
Significant credit for writing the Manual goes to Robert A. Mead, former Manager of the Cartographic Unit. This electronic version has merged the various volumes and chapters of the Manual. The 1989 version was divided into volumes, it is now divided only into chapters.
From 1995-1998 the Oregon GIS Association (OGISA) in partnership with county cartographers, the Oregon Geographic Information Council (OGIC), the Department of Revenue, and the Oregon Association of County Engineers and Surveyors (OACES) developed the ORMAP concept.
A technical committee made up of state, local, and county government representatives devised the interchange format and the data standard, tested it using land records from several counties, and developed several simple demonstrations using the information.
The Oregon Department of Revenue's Cadastral Information Systems Unit and the ORMAP Technical Group have developed:
The ORMAP data will comply with the Oregon Cadastral Exchange Standard, which may be downloaded at: https://www.oregon.gov/geo/Pages/standards.aspx