An introduction to Geographic Information and why it is important

Birmingham 18th November

Brian HiggsCorporate GIS Manager

What is Geography?• Spatial is one of only five ways to analyse information

Obvious• Where is my nearest library or doctors surgery?• How many households are there within 2km of the proposed recycling

centre?• Where do the pupils who attend a particular school actually live?

Less so• Who is my councillor?• When does my bin get emptied?

• Synergy – the ability to join up data about the same real world object or individual.

GI as a Facilitator

• Modern society now depends on seemingly limitless numbers of computerised databases.

• Bank/credit details, store cards, insurance and health records, Facebook and other internet applications, etc…

• Most of these contain some form of geo-code that can be linked to reference geographies, eg nearly 90% of Local Authority databases fall into this category.

EXPERIAN -MOSAIC UK

Northgate - Electoral Register

ONS - Index of Multiple Deprivation

GIS and LLPG

APAS - Planning

Applications back to 1947

Building Reg’s

TPO’s

Enforcements

Planning Policy

GVA - Corporate Asset

Management

CENTRIS - Pupil Records

iWorld –Housing

Management

M3/Northgate - Environmental

Health

NLIS - Land Charges

CONFIRM - Arbor / Grounds

Maintenance

Northgate -Revenues and

Benefits

Business Link Data

MAYRISE - Street Lighting

Symology - Highways

Maintenance

ExeGesIS - HBSMR

ASPIRE - CRM (Dudley Council Plus)

ELMS2 - Community Equipment

EMS - Early Years

SIDEM – Parking

Management

SWIFT - Social Service

Clients

ONS - Census Data

Reference Geographies• Postcode

Designed to be a mail delivery mechanism not a reference geography, but everyone knows theirs

• AddressAs above but factors such as “gentrification” make the ability to match difficult so resort to property references

• Transportation networksRoads, railways, canals, rivers etc. Different communities will often see the same object differently

• Co-ordinatesDifferent co-ordinate systems require translation such as data captured through GPS (latitude/longitude) to be mapped on O.S. maps (National Grid)

Local Authority applications using spatial technologies

500m radius search area

Customer Insight and Social MarketingWe already know which of our services they use, so collate the service lines through the address in order to build up a profile of the customer…

Household Business

Housing Benefit Council Housing

Address

TypeAge

Tenure

Environmental HealthTrading StandardsTrade WasteNon-Domestic Rating CRMetc

Individual

Social ServicesPupil RecordsElectoral RegisterCRM etc

Housing Benefit Council Housing

TypeAge

Tenure

Environmental HealthTrading StandardsTrade WasteNon-Domestic Rating CRMetc

Social ServicesPupil RecordsElectoral RegisterCRM etc

Where they live will give some insight into their demographic profile and identify services that aren’t being taken up but perhaps should be, using sources such as:

Profiling data e.g. IMD

Local Authority and partner data

Commercially available data, e.g. MOSIAC

A GI-based approach to getting to know your customerCustomer Insight and Social Marketing

Mosaic data

Reproduced from O.S. mapping with the permission of The Controller of H.M.S.O. Crown Copyright 2009 Licence No. 100019566

All 110 schools have accessed it with Primary Schools the most active users

One user interface from Reception Class through to Sixth Form

Supports cross-curricular delivery

The first application to be delivered through Dudley Schools Portal

GIS-MO for Schools

Other sector applications

• Planning the location of new stores using geo-demographics, e.g. analyses of catchments and drive-times

• Loyalty cards enable them to monitor what you buy and from where; assists planning of promotions and reducing unsold stock

Retail Sector

Insurance Sector – Flood Risk

Health Sector

Public-facing applications

Health Services

Government

Route Planning

Fault Reporting

Open Access Mapping Infrastructure

Geography has “broken out”

Neo-geographers

• our view of them:

• their view of us:

Because it’s there to be mapped…

Locations of places mentioned in one band’s songs

Validating and improving authoritative data – despite the authorities!

Community calendar – where and when

Historical information

German V2 rocket strikes on London

Thank you for your attention