web viewing of 3d gis comes of age · 2019. 2. 1. · technology and the historic environment in...

Bringing BIM alive with Cadline and Autodesk

Return on investment in addressing

Spatio-temporal geography and health data

New technologies and historic environments

New transformations for mapping and GIS

Cooperation is key at AGI Northern Ireland

News | People | Products & Services | GiSPro’s columnists

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issue 71 : August 2016

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. . . joining the geography jigsaw

Web viewing of 3D GIS comes of age

F

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read on. . .

COVER: A 3D textured mesh model of Oxfordautomatically generated by Skyline PhotoMesh.PhotoMesh produces photorealistic models that

can be loaded in Skyline TerraExplorer forviewing and analysis in applications such as cityplanning and security. The images used to makethe model are from a camera system that hasfive cameras, one nadir and four oblique.

©Shanghai Hangyao. To read more, turn to p.30.

Next Issue: October 2016Copy dates Editorial: 12 September

Advertising: 20 September

p.05 Editorialp.06 Newsp.28 GiSPro Products & Services

p.30 GIS Calendar p.31 GiSPro Classified

> GISPro’s STANDFASTS

> GISPro’s COLUMNSp.09 Adena Schutzberg – Why GIS users (still) need to know about MOOCs

to subscribe to GiSPro, go towww.pvpubs.com/GISProfessional/Home

contentsIssue No 71 August 2016

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Return on Investment from AddressingGiSPro has had unique access to the recent report by ConsultingWhereto GeoPlace on the benefits of addressing. Just look at the savings!

New Geoid TransformationsIt may seem a tad complicated but this is an important topic in GIS.The earth moves while our sensors get better at recording positions.

Big Map feature: Brexit’s islandsThe nation has spoken and Brexit is already beginning to take effect.But what about the geography? This is one way of looking at it.

Technology and the historic environment in ScotlandThe rise of geospatial technologies is having a profound affect on datacollection in the heritage and historic environment. Diana Murray explains.

Cadline’s Autodesk conferenceBIM is now a reality in construction and environment. Richard Groomreports from a conference that raised awareness across the board.

AGI Northern IrelandFrom how the map will look in the future to digital realities, there wassomething for everyone at the AGI conference for Northern Ireland.

Geography adds value for analysis of medical dataDr David Green and colleagues present their findings through severalexamples of how spatio-temporal geography can plan medical resources.

p. 25

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Watch out for the IoT and the return of vinyl

Writing in The Observer newspaper John Naughton sounded a prophetic warning about the Internet ofThings, the latest technology buzz to assail us. He cites one of those security systems that enables youto control all sorts of sensors in your home remotely from your smartphone. With a control centre inChina, it was about as secure as a chicken coop with a dodgy door and a pack of foxes on the prowl.

Naughton is one of my techy heroes. I’ve followed his regular Sunday Networker columns for years.They always offer concise informative insight into some topical aspect of technology and the world ofthe silicone geeks. He is also the author of a couple of outstanding books on digital communications:A Brief History of the Future: the origins of the Internet and From Gutenberg to Zuckerberg: What YouReally Need to Know About the Internet. They’re both an easy and engaging read.

As we rush headlong into the IoT and other over-hyped techy things more of us need to pause andtake stock. I was reminded of this with a story on Wired recently where the writer was singing thepraises of the sound quality from music CDs. Remember those handy little disks before Apple and abillion downloads? The Apple iPod is a brilliant little piece of technology (launched unbelievably almost15 years ago!). But I’ve never gone for music downloads. Instead I rip/copy my CDs via Apple’s awfuliTunes software (if you doubt my criticism talk to a classical music enthusiast) so I can enjoy music onthe move. The key point is that Apple encourages a canapé approach to music instead of a fulfillingmeal. Songs versus a body of work. In vinyl times: 45s versus LPs (ask your Mum or Dad!)

I’m also not so sure about the fidelity of CDs as there’s been a revival of their predecessor, the vinyllong-player disk, which some aficionados including me believe offers even better sound reproduction,provided the disk is in pristine condition and free of scratches that replicate as those annoying popsand crackles so reminiscent of the pre-digital era. We call it noise today and rightly.

Hopefully there are no pops in this issue of GiSPro although I hope there are one or two items thatwill set ideas crackling. I must thank GeoPlace for allowing us to see the full version ofConsultingWhere’s report on the value and cost savings local authorities gain from having up-to-dateaddressing. It deserves wider circulation and appreciation.

GIS has brought order where previously there was often chaos from undocumented files without metadata. But that is only the beginning. GIS allows analysis to reveal the best routes, the ideal location,where efficiencies and savings can be made and importantly, the tracking of assets. I commend thefirst of two articles from Dr David Green and colleagues about how GIS has provided useful insight forthe medical professionals. Disease and infections can be tracked, treatment facilities best located andthe impact of inappropriate positioning of schools identified.

Another area where GIS is helping to widen interests for the general public is the heritage sector.Diana Murray reflects on the changes during her career in Scotland’s heritage sector.

Finally, I must draw readers attention to our article on the new geoid transformations that affect map-ping in the UK and Ireland. This is a complex topic but one which GIS professionals should understand,even if their current job is unlikely to be affected. While height differences of a few millimetres areunlikely to affect many applications, changes in 2D mapping do need recording.

Enjoy the summer; we shall return in October.

Stephen Booth, Editor

welcome. . .to the August 2016 issue of GIS Professional. . .

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from undocu-mented fileswithout meta

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joining the geography jigsaw

from the editorIssue No 71 August 2016

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‘Raw’ laser data for bettercity modelsThe Britain’s EnvironmentAgency (EA) has released175,000 square kilometres of‘raw’ lidar data to help andencourage start-ups, engineersand planners to build morerealistic models of cities. Therelease of lidar point clouddata began in March 2016 andby the end of June EA hadmade all 725 gigabytes of itspoint cloud archive available onthe website: https://data.gov.uk

The benefit from this hasseen start-up Emu Analytics usethe data in an interactive mapenabling people to easily seeheights of buildings across

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London: http://www.emu-analytics.com/buildingheights/and at the end of June theyreleased a similar map showingbuilding heights across themajority of England:http://buildingheights.emu-analytics.net/

Emu Analytics’ JonathanSmith said: “Point cloud data isa step up in terms of the levelof detail we can achieve inmodelling infrastructure andthe natural environment. Weare able to define the shapesof buildings and vegetationand even discover temporaryinfrastructure, such as cranes.With the detail that point cloudprovides we will be able to

open up new use cases andofferings such as providingclutter data for line-of-sitebroadband companies orcalculating the shadows nearbybuildings would cast on aproposed array of solarpanels.”

Since the agency beganreleasing its lidar surveys asopen data in September 2015there have been manysurprising uses includinghelping archaeologists todiscover ‘lost’ Roman roads andMinecraft enthusiasts to buildvirtual worlds. With point clouddata users can create their owncustomised elevation modelsincorporating additionalinformation about the type ofground feature (vegetation orhard surface) being surveyed,or the time the survey wasconducted.

Mongol Post adopts w3wMongol Post, Mongolia’snational postal delivery service,has adopted the addressingplatform what3words for theentire country – an area nearlythe size of the European Union.The partnership gives Mongoliaan instant addressing system tohelp underpin the country’seconomic development.Despite almost a third of itspopulation living as nomads,and a vast sparsely populatedlandscape, Mongolians nowhave an address.

The company has alsocompleted an $8.5 million(US$) Series B funding round,led by global logistics giantAramex. As part of the deal,Aramex, which operates in 60countries, will roll out 3 wordaddresses in its e-commercefulfilment operations across theMiddle East, Asia, and Africa.

Web mapping helps fire &rescue serviceWeb mapping from Britishsoftware developer Cadcorpprovides location intelligence

to firefighters and analysts infire and rescue services in theUK. Tyne and Wear Fire andRescue Service (TWFRS) hasselected Cadcorp’s Web MapLayers 8.0 to help them betterunderstand the geographicdistribution of incidents intheir service area, and in doingso, help both prevent andrespond to them.

TWFRS’s Ross Hall explains:“All fire and rescue services areunder pressure to do more withless, and TWFRS is noexception. Our analysts. . .have been working successfullywith Cadcorp’s WorkloadModeller for a number ofyears. This software has beeninvaluable in helping us worksmarter by optimising the wayin which we deploy ourresources.”

Hall is keen to stress thatWeb Map Layers is not areplacement for existingsystems that handle location,but rather an enhancement.“We already have an incidentrecording system in place.Amongst other things, itrecords the location of eachincident. Web Map Layers willprovide a cartographic frontend to this SQL Serverdatabase. It will display therecorded location of theincident against a mapbackground, and it will give theuser the ability to amend thelocation interactively.”

It is intended that WebMap Layers will become ageneric resource in TWFRS. . .to support a range ofstrategic and tacticaloperations. Ross provides thefollowing examples: “We willbe able to combine our ownrisk data with other datasources such as flood mapsprovided by EnvironmentAgency or anti-socialbehaviour provided byNorthumbria Police anddisplay the results as hot spotmaps. Web mapping will be

Issue No 71 August 2016

news

Up-to-date imagery helps council

English local authority South Tyneside Council is using the latestdigital aerial survey data from Bluesky to update essential councilrecords and inform decision making. By comparing new photographywith older imagery, officers are able to identify potential breaches ofplanning permission and land encroachment.

Flown in 2015, the latest photography is being deployed inplanning and highways through the council’s desktop GIS usingstandard web browser technology and across the organisation via anintranet. Plans are also in place to update the council’s communitywebsite, giving residents and businesses access to the imagery.

Different ages of imagery help identify and resolve boundarydisputes where residents or businesses may have encroached oncouncil land, while other applications include identifying andrecording features not referenced on traditional map layers, suchas street furniture, road markings, street lights, trees and othercouncil assets.


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invaluable in confirming thelocation, building footprint,and size of premises beforeour inspectors carry out firesafety visits. The system willalso provide a map-basedfront for displaying premisesrecords in the Community FireRisk Management InformationSystem (CFRMIS).”

Aerial certification for LeicaLeica Geosystems hascompleted all aspects requiredto fly and operate UAVscommercially. The Civil AviationAuthority (CAA) has awardedthe company a PFAWcertificate (Permission forAerial Work). To operatecommercially in the UK, acompany must achieve allqualifications and standards setout by the CAA relating to theweight class of the system.Leica’s Aibotix X6 V2 systemfalls into the sub 7kg weightclass, meaning the completionof a theory course with anNQE (national qualified entity)was needed. This was followedby compiling an operationsmanual and finally completinga flight assessment. Onsuccessful completion of allthree elements the companyreceived its PFAW certificate.

“The CAA approval for theUK is a very important step forboth, Leica Geosystems/Aibotixand our customers”, explainsRobert Heaver, technicalspecialist UAS at Leica. “TheCAA approval offers manyopportunities for surveyingengineers, professionalinspection companies andpotential users in the field ofagriculture and forestry”, addsBen Federmann, director ofmarketing and communicationsat Aibotix.

Leica will be holdingmonthly demonstration days toshowcase the Aibotix system’sabilities at Hawk in Shropshireto include site specific data socustomers can relate to the


data they are viewing. Thedemonstrations will be half-daysessions including inspection,volume control, 3-D modellingand information on multispectral and thermographicsensors. CAA rules andregulations and how to achievea PFAW through a NQE willalso be covered. To registeryour interest in thedemonstration days, please goto: http://facts.leica-geosystems.com/UK_Aibotixdemodates

Partners in the skiesDrone developers Skyward andsenseFly are partnering todeliver a custom operationsmanagement software andconsulting service package forsenseFly’s aircraft. The package,available for customers inNorth America through thesenseFly distribution networkor Skyward, gives operators apreconfigured Skyward accountwith senseFly flight log import,senseFly manuals, customizedpre-flight checklists, and otherinformation specific to senseFlyoperations. These features arepart of the Skyward droneoperations managementplatform that includes up-to-date airspace information andtools to plan and log flights,manage personnel andequipment, flight hours, andmeet regulatory reportingrequirements.

Customers will also haveaccess to a team of regulatoryand drone operations expertsand benefit from Skywardexpertise in order to definetheir flight operationsprocedures and write relatedoperating manuals.

EC launches CopernicusAcceleratorThe first of what must surelybe many initiatives from whichthe UK will not be benefitingwas announced recently. Tospeed up the user uptake of

the European Union’s Earthobservation programmeCopernicus, the EC’sCopernicus Accelerator willfoster the development ofcommercial space applicationsand products.

There is a tremendousamount of data from space -especially the kind produced byCopernicus – that presentscountless opportunities. Suchdata are becoming anincreasingly commoncomponent of commercialproducts and applications innumerous sectors of theeconomy. Fascinated by thepossibilities in intelligent dataanalysis, young start-ups andscientists in particular are

developing a growing interestin Earth observation and thebig data it generates fromspace. If you’re interested,maybe a move across LaManche or the Irish Sea is theanswer.

BRIEFS

Route optimisation software ishelping to reduce mileage,manage costs and minimise theenvironmental impact of bed-maker Warren Evans. The firm isalways keen to burnish its greencredentials having won greenand ethical awards from theSunday Times and The Observernewspapers. They have nowadopted Maxoptra, an advanced

There is more news of companies and organisations on our website at www.location-source.com To get your company featured on these pages call Sharon Robson on +44 (0)1438 352617


news

Canal clean up job for Esri

Ten employees from Aylesbury based Esri UK have been workingwith the charity, the Canal & River Trust, as part of a project to spruceup the Grand Union Canal. More than 40 Esri staff were involvedwith various tasks to help improve the Aylesbury Arm of the Canal.In their latest outing, the team has been busy repainting a footbridgewhich crosses the canal and filling sandbags which, once in place, willbe used to help protect the canal bank from water erosion.

Richard Parry, Canal & River Trust chief executive, said: “Thevolunteers have been doing a fantastic job in helping us to look at thisstretch and they should be proud of their efforts. We’ve been workingwith Esri for a number of years and it’s great to give the team theopportunity to get out of the office, enjoy some fresh air and help outon the canal. Already I can see that they have made a big difference.”

Esri UK MD Stuart Bonthrone adds: “Our office is located right nextto the canal basin in Aylesbury and often my team pop out duringtheir lunch hour to get some fresh air and take a break beside thewater. We’ve all really enjoyed the opportunity to get away from ourdesks, get a bit mucky and help the Trust look after our local canal.”


route scheduling optimisationsoftware for delivery fleets thatincorporates job despatching,telematics integration, mobilemessaging, with live ETA andPOD reporting.

Europa Technologies has beenappointed as an official Eircodeprovider for Ireland’s postcodesystem. The company is nowable to supply either of thetwo data Eircode products:ECAF (Eircode Address File),the base reference datacontaining all 2.2 millionaddress points with theirEircode and USP Postal Addressand ECAD (Eircode AddressDatabase) which incorporatesECAF with additional data foreach address such as aliasaddress information, geo-coordinates and other dataincluding but not limited toboundary and buildinginformation.

Iceland has committed tocontribute data to a gatewayof pan-European maps,geographic and landinformation from officialsources. Following agreements

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with EuroGeographics, NationalLand Survey Iceland andRegisters, the country willprovide a range of information,including topographic andcadastral data, administrativeunits, addresses, geographicalnames, land cover andtransport networks to theEuropean Location Framework.

Cartography.co.uk is using thelatest aerial photography fromBluesky to produce bespokemaps of rural farms andestates. The largest producer ofcustomised mapping for privatelandowners in the UK,Cartography.co.uk’s maps areused for a variety ofapplications, including agrowing concern for ruralsafety. Detailed maps areincreasingly being produced forlandowners concerned aboutemployees working in remotelocations in the event of anaccident or other incidentrequiring support from theemergency services.

The Open GeospatialConsortium (OGC) has releasedversion 3.0 of its Catalogue

Services standard to supportpublishing and searchinggeospatial data and services.Information (metadata)provided by catalogues supportsevaluation and furtherprocessing by both humans andsoftware. The OGC Catalogueinterface standards specify theinterfaces, bindings, and aframework for definingapplication profiles required todiscover and access digitalcatalogues of metadata forgeospatial data, services andrelated resource information.

The theme for this year’sIntergeo conference inHamburg will be Smart Cities.As the host city for INTERGEO2016 (11-13 October),Hamburg is leading the way inGermany when it comes to theSmart City and has been quickto position itself with“Hamburg’s Strategy for theDigital City”, which aims todevelop a standardised smartcity strategy that aims to makecities places which offer agood standard of living andthat can fully harness theireconomic potential. Key areasinclude mobility, energy,business and work,accommodation and city life.

1Spatial is to distributeGeocom’s GIS “Geonis” suite forutilities and industrial plants inthe USA. The move extends1Spatial’s partnership withGeocom to the US and builds onthe recent UK & Irelanddistribution agreement. Bothcompanies are Esri worldwidepartners.

PEOPLE

Bluesky expandsInvesting in internal support,Bluesky has appointed AndrewKociolek to the role of ITEngineer, while SuzannaBaynard joins as management

accountant. Charlotte Ballard,previously a key member of theBluesky production team, joinsthe sales team, and Marco DeStavola joins the company onan EU ERASMUS scholarship asGIS Intern.

“We have recently beeninvolved in a number of large,high profile contracts both inthe UK and abroad,”commented Rachel Tidmarsh,MD of Bluesky, “and it wascrucial to our continuedsuccess that we underpin ourfrontline sales and productionteams with the support they,the company and ourexpanding client based require.These appointments will allowus to build on recent successand will provide the foundationfor future growth.”

New MD for OSI

Ordnance Survey Internationalhas appointed Peter Hedlund asMD. He has previously heldsenior director positions, andhas over 15 years’ experiencein developing and deliveringinternational businessstrategies to support businessobjectives of both start-ups andglobal corporations. Hedlundjoins from Trimble where hewas regional director of MiddleEast and Africa. During his timewith Trimble, Peter producedand implemented growthstrategies for internationalmarkets that grew thecompany’s business acrossseveral regions.


news

Shady deal from EU helps Santorini’s coffers

Planning to take your summer holiday in Santorini? Now, due to astudy carried out by TotalView and the Municipality of Santorini basedon using very high-resolution satellite imagery, you can be assuredthat you are sitting under the shade of a legally placed umbrella!

European Space Imaging has published a case study showing howvery high-resolution satellite imagery has aided Santorini to claimback its public space from illegally placed umbrellas. In Greece thebeaches belong to the community and are public spaces requiring freeaccess. Imagery from WorldView-2 satellite has assisted in mappingthe beaches and in ongoing monitoring of umbrella locations to helpensure businesses pay fees for their location on public beaches.

THE TOPIC OF THIS ISSUE’S COLUMN comes from ane-mail exchange with GiSPro Publisher, and mylongtime friend, Stephen Booth. I shared news withhim about my new position on the education teamat Esri and I noted that I’d be working on MOOCsand with universities. He replied that he wasunfamiliar with MOOCs until he looked up theacronym.

I suspect a reasonable number of readers are inthe same boat. Further, I’ll guess that those whocould quickly expand MOOC to “massive openonline course” haven’t reconsidered this form ofteaching and learning for a few years, since the hypehas waned. I want to address both groups to high-light why MOOCs matter to GIS professionals in2016 and beyond.

First, let’s get back to the acronym itself.Conversations using the term MOOC have becomeless and less aligned with the original meaning.“Massive” might be thought of as “optional.” Is aMOOC with 300 students just an OOC? Is onewith 3000? 30,000? These days, the term seemsto apply to all of those. “Open” is widely variable

in meaning, as many of us in GIS know. In thecontext of MOOCs it tends to refer to “accessibleto all,” “without a fee” and “with open accesscontent.” In these times I’ll suggest it too can beconsidered optional for some providers. I’mpleased to report that “online” and “course” havestraightforward meanings.

Why MOOCs matter Things change - new GIS(and related) products are being released all thetime. MOOCs can be a great way to get your handson them and see how they can be used. Want to playwith ArcGIS Pro within a class? It’ll be front andcentre in the upcoming Earth Imagery at WorkMOOC.

No pocket money? - “Real” MOOCs are free, andthose with a fee often also have a “free option” thathas fewer bells and whistles. Coursera now has feesfor the vast majority of its courses, but it also offersfree versions.

Limited time commitment? - How long are MOOCs?Google early GIS MOOCs (2013) Mapping withGoogle, covered the material in just two weeks.Another one, from Pace University, GIS Basics, whichtackles ArcGIS for Desktop, runs 16 weeks. Mostother courses fall somewhere in between.

Wide variety - There are now companies, universities,non-profits and others offering MOOCs that includeGIS. A well rounded professional needs more thantechnical ability. Are you considering starting up aGIS consulting business? How about a businessMOOC?

Credentials - While a number of organizations areworking on ways to turn MOOCs into credit bearingcollege courses, companies and non-profits are

offering other credentials such as certificates ofcompletion and badges. Do these matter? I thinkthey do; I note the three MOOCs I’ve completed onmy résumé.

Advice for today’s MOOC students Searchwidely and vet - EdX and Udemy are less well-known than Coursera, but all three and others ofwhich you have not heard, host MOOCs. Don’t beput off by organizations that are new to you, justvet them. Read course reviews; CourseTalk is agood place to start.

Law of “Two Feet” applies - Go into MOOCsexpecting a good to great experience, but don’t feelbad if it doesn’t work out. Remember that only 7%or so of students complete most MOOCs, so it’s nobig deal to drop out.

Document your learning - Document your work on apublicly accessible blog or portfolio, especially if youwant to use MOOCs to enhance career options.

Commit - Like most learning opportunities, what youget out of it depends on what you put into it. Decidewhat your goal for the class is and set aside the timeto reach it.

Why GIS users (still) need to knowabout MOOCs Need to update your skills? Want to learn a new GIS?

Adena Schutzberg has sound advice for those turning to the online world to learn new skills.

Adena Schutzberg hasworked in geospatial

technologies for more than25 years. She is a member

of the Esri Education Team.


columnist adena schutzberg

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MOOC diagram ByMathieu Plourde,

creative commons,wikimedia.org

www.gisprofessional.co.ukjoining the geography jigsaw

“Government investment in the Local Land andProperty Gazetteers (LLPG) and Local StreetGazetteers (LSG) over the period 2010-5 has yieldeda net benefit of approximately £86m in savingsfrom reduced data duplication and integration,improved tax revenues, channel shift and routeoptimisation in waste management.”



. . . ROI in thisstudy is one

based on “foreach £1

invested thereturn is £xx”

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The statement above comes from a report preparedby ConsultingWhere for GeoPlace. It adds, “Futurenet benefits from the same applications are likely tobe in the region of £200m over the next 5 years.Based on the current rates of adoption, thisrepresents a Return on Investment (RoI) or costbenefit ratio after discounting of 4:1.”

The report goes on to argue that the “returncould be significantly higher if barriers to adoption,particularly access to funds, staff retention and

improved national collaboration are addressed. Weestimate this could be worth additional benefits of£20m over the next 5 years.”

Accurate geo-referenced address data from asingle authoritative source is vital and can deliversubstantial socio-economic benefits. AsConsultingWhere point out, “Inaccurate andunreliable addresses that are inconsistently geo-referenced carry a high financial cost and, in thedespatching of emergency services, a human cost.”(A recent example in London was a patient in cardiacarrest had too wait half an hour for an ambulancedispatched to the wrong address despite the locationbeing a well known sports venue.)

In Great Britain that “single authoritative source”is GeoPlace, a partnership between the LocalGovernment Association and Ordnance Survey.Through its links with local authority address andstreet gazetteer custodians, GeoPlace creates andmaintain the National Address Gazetteer and theNational Street Gazetteer for England and Wales toprovide definitive geo-referenced address and streetdata from Ordnance Survey, which makes it availableto the wider public and private sectors.

The study looked in detail at ROI from addressand street data for local councils in England andWales including the emergency services. It also

looked more widely and included comparable studiesfrom countries as diverse as Australia and Denmark.

Treasury approved technique The techniqueused to analyse ROI in this study is one based oncost-benefit analysis, a method where results areoften expressed as return on investment, i.e. "foreach £1 invested the return is £xx over a period of xxyears", a method approved by the Treasury as themost robust approach for projects where results areas real and tangible. Such a cost benefit analysis(CBA) attempts to collate all of the costs and thequantifiable benefits, adjusted for the time value ofmoney, i.e. returns achieved at some future date arediscounted to take into account the opportunity costof having made an alternative investment. However,ConsultingWhere note that associated qualitativebenefits discovered during the study while reportedare often difficult to express in financial terms.

The environment in which GeoPlace operates wasalso subject to analysis. A framework analysis tool,PESTLE works through six key indicators: Political,

Economic, Social, Technology, Legislative andEnvironment, hence PESTLE. Under Political, forexample, the observation was made that there is ageneral lack of political awareness of the potential ofaddress and street gazetteer data to inform andenhance decision making in the public sector. Thepotential benefits from the integration of health andsocial care are poorly understood by decision makers.Let’s hope that the bold declaration of Cabinet OfficeMinister Matthew Hancock at this GeoPlace Awards day,“I will be your champion!” bear fruit (see June GiSPro).

Since GeoPlace was founded in 2010, the PublicSector Mapping Agreement (PSMA) of 2011 has hadsignificant impact to the public sector through accessto Ordnance Survey digital mapping and OS’sAddressBase product. Nevertheless, since 2010severe reductions in local authority budgets havemeant cuts to staff engaged in gazetteermaintenance with loss of expertise. On the plus side,there has been an increasing integration of theAddress ID (UPRN) into core local authority systemsresulting, for example, in the identification of benefitfraud, more efficient recording of new houses andstreet names and more shared services includingaddress and street gazetteer maintenance.

Case studies and survey ConsultingWhere’s study

Multi-million pound savings bring RoI from rightaddressing Earlier this year a report commissioned by GeoPlace found

that the return on investment (ROI) to local councils and emergency services from accurateaddressing had delivered multi-million pound savings. GiSPro reported briefly on this in the last

issue of GiSPro (June 2016, page 16–17). We have now had unique access to the full report.

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relied primarily on GeoPlace’s own database of casestudies and its international involvement in similarexercises. This was backed by training for potentialrespondents to an online Survey Monkeyquestionnaire, of which 178 out of 800 responded.As the report’s author Andy Coote, comments: “ifyou have a good story to tell you may respond butotherwise not.” Over 30 of the respondents werefollowed up with interviews. Analysis of theresponses ranked local authority department users ofaddress data: Planning and development (54%),Highways and transport (17%) and customerServices (14%) were significant users. The leastimportant current uses of LLPG and LSG in localorganisations – those ranked 11-15% by importance– were public health, public safety and interactionwith emergency services.

This has led ConsultingWhere to conclude thatthe functions with opportunities for greaterrealisation of value include:

- Corporate services (reflecting little understandingat senior management level of the value ofaddress and street data);

- Social Services, where there is probably a mutuallack of understanding of how data in general andaddresses in particular can provide insights in

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social care provision;

- Public Safety, a sector surprisingly low inimportance ranking given recent floods;

- Education, best practice indicates significantsavings in school placement applications;

- Emergency Services, (there is generally less inter -action between local authorities and emergencyservices in relation to data sharing than in the lastdecade); and

- Public health.

So plenty of evangelising ahead for both local andnational custodians of addressing. In the meantimelet’s look at some of the successful users.

ROI fromaddressingUnitary authorities (including

Metropolitan Districts, LondonBoroughs and Welsh Counties)

represented 40% of theresponses and districts 44% of

responses. There wererelatively few county

respondents (9%). Theremainder were predominantly

shared services.

£4 return on every £1 spent on council address and street information

• of up to £202 million by 2020 for the local government sector from better use of the address and street data that councils create and maintain

• Based on the current rates of adoption within councils, this represents a Return on Investment after discounting of 4:1

@GeoPlaceLLPwww.geoplace.co.uk



Planning and development Well developed usesof the LLPG and UPRN (unique property referencenumber) include integration into planning andbuilding control processes in the majority of all typesof local authorities. Local Land Charges have seen asignificant impact too, with the UPRN being the keyidentifier used to bring diverse data together. Otherexamples include systems that facilitate notification ofneighbours of planning applicants, local plan revisionand planning consultations. Plans to moveresponsibility for Local Land Charges to the LandRegistry is delaying investment in this functional area.

Highways and transport The use of the LocalStreet Gazetteer (LSG) in the planning and issuing ofpermits for streetworks both by local authorities and byutility companies is well established. The LLPG can alsoplay a role in notifying those affected while the LSG canbe optimised for inspection routes for highwaymaintenance; more effective gritting and salting routesand reducing service interruptions for streetworks.

Revenue and benefits The LLPG is being is alsobeing used to pinpoint missing council tax or non-domestic rates collection. The use of address data aspart of a matching process to detect council tax andbenefit fraud is included in the cost benefitsquantification. This is increasingly being undertakenas part of what is referred to as a data warehouseapplication or more recently big data analytics. Anexample of this process is the detection of potentiallyfraudulent claiming of single person occupancy bycross-referencing against other local authorityaddress data such a parking fines where severalpeople using the same address (claimed to be insingle occupancy) for parking fines indicates theneed to investigate the claim. Matching with centralgovernment data through the National FraudInitiative (NFI) also has substantial potential tohighlight fraud.

Corporate services The creation of executive andmember dashboards that allow decision makers tobe able to see what is happening across theirorganisation in relation to a small area (defined by agroup of addresses) or individual address is animportant and as yet underused. The use cases inCorporate Services are often “bundled up” into

larger Digital Transformation projects and thespecific benefits of the LLPG and LSG are difficult toseparate out for quantification.

Social services A growing number of uses relate tosocial services, these include neighbourhood analysisand the identification of troubled families, support forvulnerable people, loneliness studies and special needstransport. Currently, the numbers of implementedsystems are small so there is significant potential torecognise these successes, create case studies andpromote them as exemplars of best practice.

Street scene The most easily quantified use case forthis type of council function is the use of tablets orsmartphones to allow council officers to spend moretime in the field and react more rapidly to incidents.This technology opens up new possibilities forreporting problems such as graffiti as well as workorder management and management reporting.There are however few examples where the benefitshave been captured.

Property services The address gazetteer (LLPG) haslong been used to assist property departments inlocating, managing and rationalising their assets.The usage is a small part of a much more complexprocess and few examples of quantification exist.The availability of the land registry index map asopen data under INSPIRE provides opportunities forfurther work by local authorities on vacant land. ThePublic Rights of Way (PRoW) maintained by councilscan also be hosted within the LSG data.

Environmental services Address data isfundamental to the licensing and monitoring ofcommercial premises. However, apportioning thebenefits is often problematic. Environmental issuessuch as illegal tipping can also be monitored andtackled more effectively with address data. The LSGcan be used as a base to record detailedenvironmental information, allowing streetworksactivities to be carried out with consideration andawareness of roadside nature reserves and sites andartefacts in the sites and monuments record.

Customer services Customer RelationshipManagement (CRM) systems are one of the largestconsumers of address data for identifying locationduring calls and face-to-face meetings. GeoPlace datafrom 2015 suggests that 72% of councils’ CRMs arereliant on the UPRN. Address data can also assist withservice interruption notices and opinion surveys. Theassociated benefits of channel shift are quantified aspart of the study.

ConsultingWhere’s analysis found that whilst effortin local authorities is spent maintaining and improvingthe quality of data, additional resources would havepotentially significant impact on the rate of integration

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ROI fromaddressing


Ranking of currentusers. Planning anddevelopment(54%), Highwaysand transport(17%) customerServices (14%)scored most highly.

. . . address dataas part of amatchingprocess to

detect counciltax and benefit

fraud. . .

“

“


and thereby accelerate the flow of benefits. They alsofound that too often it was observed that anythingconcerning gazetteers was passed unseen from CEOs tocustodians, defeating the object of targeting them.Closer work to find partners across government and thepublic sector; identifying examples where individualshave been successful with short-term impact and limitedresource; and collaborating with DCLG’s digital localsuccess on waste management as a national model forother use cases. The experience of the London Boroughof Harrow is an exemplar here.

Recommendations The report concludes with aseries of recommendations to GeoPlace and calls for:“a sustained, multi-faceted, marketing campaignbased on the results of this study. The core messagesto communicate to local authorities should be:

- The substantial benefits that have been realisedfrom past investment.

- The need for current staffing levels and productquality to be maintained in order to realise greaterbenefits in the future.

- The multiple opportunities for enhanced benefitstied to national efficiency initiatives, such as thesuccessful Troubled Families scheme.”

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The barriers preventing wider use of address dataidentified by the study include lack of funds, insufficientmanagement awareness and software limitations.Coote, who is an evangelist for the benefits ofaddressing, says that danger lurks in not maintaining agood database. GeoPlace is therefore recommended to:

(i) Enhance collaboration with bodies working at anational level such as the Audit Commission(NFI), Socitm, CIO Council, DCLG and Nesta.

(ii) Further promote examples of best practice across awider range of business functions such as educationand social services. The value of data sharing withemergency services should also be re-emphasised.

(iii) Work more closely with the Ordnance Survey topromote the use of AddressBase for local authorityfunctions where out-of-area coverage is required.

(iv) Advocate and work towards replicating DCLGschemes such as the DCLG Local Digital Project forLocal Waste Service Standards for other use cases.

(v) Establish key performance indicators that allowrealised benefits to be regularly (annually)quantified.

Watch this space for more news of how addressingcan deliver worthwhile savings to the public sector.

ROI fromaddressing

A study in 2015suggested that

72% of councils’CRMs are reliant

on the UPRN.

“

“



. . . there aremany national

datums andellipsoids of

slightlydifferent size

and eachpositioned

slightlydifferently.

“

“

THE ORDNANCE SURVEYS of Great Britain (OS),Ireland (OSi) and Northern Ireland (now known asLand & Property Services (LPS)) have announced newtransformations to convert coordinates generated by

GNSS equipment to their respective national gridsand height datums.

Plan positions GNSS positions are in a “Global”reference frame, but in many countries nationalmapping is still on a “classical” datum with an ellipsoiddefined to fit the shape of the Earth as closely aspossible just within the individual country. As a resultthere are many national datums and ellipsoids of slightlydifferent size and each positioned slightly differently.

There still remains the problem however of fittingGNSS based observations to the national mapping onthe “classical” datum. National grid coordinates derivedfrom GNSS (and in ETRS89) need to fit as closely aspossible to the coordinates derived from the Re-triangulation which resulted in the OSGB36 datum*.When the triangulation stations were surveyed usingGPS there were inevitably differences. So, in the early1990s a transformation which would ‘rubber-sheet’ theobserved GPS coordinates onto OSGB36 was created sothat the GPS coordinates of any triangulation stationwould, on average, be within 0.1m of the publishedvalue. When GPS came into popular use, in the early2000s, OSGB published OSTN02, which applied thetransformation from ETRF89 to OSGB36. To obtaincorrect national grid coordinates using any GPS receiver,the user had to apply OSTN02. It is always worthchecking, particularly on navigation grade receivers, incase another transformation has been used, whichcould result in errors of ten or more metres.

The realisation of ETRS89 has now been improvedand updated so there is a need to update OSTN02,resulting in OSTN15. Table 1 shows the expected finalimpact on user-generated OSGB36 coordinates. Formost GIS applications the changes will be insignificant.

Table 1. Differences (in m) old ETRS89 +OSTN02 and new ETRS89 + OSTN15.

East North

Min -0.037 -0.015

Max 0.019 0.018

RMS 0.009 0.007

OSTN02 was only valid offshore within 10km of thecoast and the transformation file was zero populatedoutside that buffer, but OSTN15 extends to the edge ofthe UK’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and extrapolatesthe correction from shore, so that the accuracy degrades

from 0.1m onshore to the 3m level at the edge of theEEZ as the process of extrapolation increases errors.

What about height? GNSS observations producelatitude, longitude and height above the GRS80ellipsoid, the standard ellipsoid used by ETRS89. Tobe useful, these have to be transformed to theheights above the national height datum and for thiswe need a geoid model of the separation betweenthe ellipsoid and the irregularly shaped geoid. It’sirregular because it is affected by the microgravitational effects of topography and geology. In2002 the OS produced OSGM02. The new model(OSGM15) incorporates new gravity data from theGRACE (Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment)satellite mission and additional ground-basedobservations to improve the fitting to local datums.

Updated transformations for UK and Ireland’sGIS and mapping OSTN and OSGM are the transformations that link 3D

positions measured using GNSS with the national coordinate and height reference systemsof Great Britain, Ireland and Northern Ireland. This article presents the latest transformationsincorporating new gravity data. They also iron-out discrepancies, mostly at the outer edges.

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transformationsforGIS&mapping


• This article is anabridged version of alonger one which waspublished in GeomaticsWorld, July/August2016 issue.

*OSGB36 National Grid (Ordnance Survey GreatBritain 1936) is our national coordinate system fortopographic mapping. It is used for OS mapping atall scales, and for many private topographicsurveys. The OSGB36 part of the name refers tothe geodetic datum (system of latitude andlongitude) used, and the National Grid part refersto the map projection and grid referencingconvention for eastings and northings.Established in 1936, could it be the first instanceof metrication in the UK?

A greatly exaggeratedrepresentation of a cross-sectionthrough the Earth showing cross-sections of a globally best-fittingellipsoid (black) and a regionallybest-fitting ellipsoid (grey). Theregional ellipsoid is only intendedfor use in the region of best fitand does not fit the Earth in otherareas. Note that the ellipsoidsdiffer in centre position andorientation as well as in size andshape.

• read more about the UK’s co-ordinate systems at https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/docs/support/guide-coordinate-systems-great-britain.pdf

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OSGM02 in Great Britain In GB, OSGM02 wasnot a true geoid model because there was arequirement for heights observed with GNSS to becompatible with legacy OS benchmarks, quoted inmetres above Ordnance Datum Newlyn (ODN). To dothis, GNSS observations were made at the networkof high precision OS geodetic benchmarks, thenetwork of highly accurate benchmarks maintainedby OSGB, and OSGM02 was adjusted to fit.

OSGM15 is affected by the new realisation ofETRS89 which has the effect of changing levelsacross Great Britain by an average 25mm. The newgeoid model improves the fit to ODN in north-westScotland and the local height datums of the islands.

Table 2 shows the expected differences betweenOSGM02 and OSGM15 and also the accuracies ofthe OSGM15 datum realisations. The differences are

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shown spatially in Figure 1.

Changes It is clear from Table 2 that the greatestchanges are for the Isles of Scilly and the OuterHebrides. For details, see the longer full article inGeomatics World, July/August 2016.

In OSGM02 the Newlyn (ODN) datum extendedup to the 10km offshore boundary imposed in thefile. In OSGM15 ODN extends to 2km offshore. Sincethe gravimetric geoid is computed for the whole700km × 1250km OSTN15/OSGM15 area, but is ofcourse just fitted to Newlyn on the GB mainland –anything offshore is considered an extrapolation ofODN. So, beyond the 2km line this datum is now



Datum: Newlyn St Marys Douglas02 Stornoway15 Lerwick Newlyn (Orkney)

RMS difference: 0.026 0.365 0.000 0.175 0.013 0.021

Accuracy: 0.008 N/A single offset 0.030 0.011 0.018 0.017

Table 2. Differences (in m) between OSGM02 and OSGM15 in GB and alsoaccuracy values of OSGM15.

Figure 1. Differences (inm), in Great Britain,

between OSGM15derived heights and

OSGM02 derivedheights (OSGM15 minus

OSGM02).

Figure 2: Map of transformation extents.

— = Extent of Irish OSGM15 files— = Extent (10km buffer) of Belfast OSGM15 datum

built into OSGM software— = Extent (20km buffer) of Malin OSGM15 datum built

into OSGM software— = Extent of OSTN15/OSGM15 file— = Extent of OSGM15 “Newlyn Offshore” datum

(flag15)— = Extents (2km buffer) of Great Britain OSGM15 land

based datums: Newlyn, St Marys, Douglas02,Stornoway15, Lerwick, Newlyn (Orkney)



flagged as “Ordnance Datum Newlyn (Offshore)” toindicate the extrapolated Newlyn datum. Figure 2shows the transformation extents.

OSGM15 in Ireland and Northern Ireland Table3 shows the differences between OSGM02 andOSGM15 in Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Table 3. Differences (in m) between OSGM02and OSGM15 in Ireland and also accuracy values

of OSGM15.

Datum: Malin Head Belfast

RMS difference: 0.093 0.018

Accuracy: 0.023 0.014

The differences between OSGM02 and OSGM15 on theMalin datum can be largely attributed to improvedgravity data in the extreme West of Ireland. Thedifference between the OSGM02 model and theOSGM15 model in Ireland is, on average, at the lessthan the 2cm level. However, the new model in someplaces contains significant variations. An area aroundLeitrim/Cavan/Monaghan contains differences aroundthe 20cm level, while the most pronounced differencesoccur in the most Westerly parts of Galway and Mayo.These differences are higher than expected given theaccuracy of the models and to give further assurance ofthe validity of these changes OSi observed some furthertest points targeted specifically in these areas.

The raw OSGM15 data for Ireland is released astwo files: one for Belfast datum and the other forMalin datum. Within the updated transformationsoftware limits have been placed on the extents ofthe datums. Belfast extends 10km offshore and intoIreland and Malin extends 20km offshore and intoNorthern Ireland. See Figure 2.

Availability of new models All the trans -formations have been coded into the softwareapplication “Grid InQuest II” which allows forindividual coordinate input and output via a GUI andalso batch input/output via text files. A commandline interface and dll, along with examples of theiruse in a variety of programming languages, are alsoincluded. Users wishing to incorporate the pre-prepared .dll into other applications should refer tothe Grid InQuest II user guide. Grid InQuest IIdownload packages for Windows (32 bit and 64 bit),Linux (32 bit and 64 bit) and OSX are available fromhttps://bitbucket.org/PaulFMichell/gridinquestii

The raw data files have been released to softwareand equipment vendors. Any developer wishing torequest the raw data files should contact one of thefollowing:

Ordnance Survey (GB): [email protected]: [email protected]: [email protected]

The new models will be available by August 26th2016 and website transformation tools will also beupdated at this time. A tool will also be available toallow coordinates and heights from theOSTN02/OSGM02 models to be converted toOSTN15/OSGM15 values by first back transformingto ETRS89, via OSTN02/OSGM02, and then forwardtransform through OSTN15/OSGM15.

The EPSG Geodetic Parameter Dataset maintainedby the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers(IOGP) has been updated to give new EPSG codes to theOSTN15 and OSGM15 models. EPSG codes arecommon ly used to uniquely identify datums, project -ions, transformations etc especially within GIS systems.E.g. OSGB36 datum can be referenced as EPSG:27700.

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The authorsMark Greaves, leadconsultant, geodesy, OrdnanceSurvey.Peter Downie, geodeticmanager, geodetic survey,Land & Property Services,Northern Ireland.Katy Fitzpatrick, operationsmanager, geodetic survey,Ordnance Survey Ireland.Additional material by RichardGroom.



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GiSPro’sbig map feature


. . . a qualifiedgraphic

designer with atrigger-happy

attitude for anyand all fan-art

sundry.

“

“Islands of Remain in the Brexit Sea– the geography of the counties and countries of the UKafter the Referendum on 23rd June 2016

THE MAP above shows the counties of GreatBritain (not including Northern Ireland) thatvoted to remain in the EU following the UK’sreferendum on 23 June 2016 as physicalislands; islands of remain in the Brexit Sea.

The new post-Brexit Isles would includethe island of London (minus Hillingdon,Sutton, Bexley, Barking and Dagenham, andHavering) but which would also includeOxford, Cambridge, Reading and Brighton,the island of Cardiff & Bristol, Isles of Scilly,island of Leicester, island of Manchester,island of Liverpool, island of Leeds & York,Newcastle-on-the-Sea and of course thelargest island of all, Scotland.

• The map is the work of MATAYO MOSHI,aqualified graphic designer with a trigger-

happy attitude for any and all fan-art sundry.He says: I'm a passionately proudnerd/dork/geek (plus any and all otherrelated synonyms). It is my nerdiness which ismy biggest source of inspiration for most ofmy favourite projects. Design is my favoritehobby and my only profession.

I love creating, and make sure to playaround with something new everyday. Popularculture of the science-fiction and fantasypersuasion is my design muse, and has beenthe inspiration for much of my most enjoyablework. However, I am a designer, and enjoy acreative challenge no matter the project.

My favourite toys are Photoshop,Illustrator, InDesign, and Cinema 4D.

• More at http://stagyika.deviantart.com/

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The technologyexists and thedata is thereand is only

waiting for thestandards to beset and the links

to be made.

“

“

NEARLY 20 YEARS AGO I organised a seminar thatlooked at new techniques and new knowledge inarchaeology. ‘The purpose of the session’, I wrote, ‘wasto take a glimpse of the future, exploring newtechnologies which could help the effectivemanagement and sharing of data which would lead toa better understanding of the past.’ In this vision, I

imagined a time when, from the comfort of your ownhome, you could make an enquiry online that would callon information from any available source, with locationmaps, distribution analysis, images and associated datato answer an almost limitless set of questions about thehistoric environment (it was the very early days of theinternet). Well of course this vision is now very much areality and we can even do this on mobile technology,which was way outside our thinking back then.

Historic Environment professionals are always keento harness available and emerging technologies, notleast in the recording and curation of information andin the democratisation of access that makes peoplemore engaged with the Historic Environment, and thejob of the professionals better understood. Today, weare looking at new methodologies, such as machine-readable techniques and new thinking such as linkeddata, which will speed up data collection and open upnew avenues of analytics.

Linking data An example of such potential is to linkHistoric Environment data across sectoral boundariesin order to demonstrate the relevance of the HistoricEnvironment to a wider agenda. For example, that asense of place and identity, interest in culturalheritage, and associated volunteering effort can havea significant impact on self worth, and physical andmental well-being. The technology exists and thedata is there and is only waiting for the standards tobe set and the links to be made.

The power of integrating information is not a new

concept. Information about the historic environment(antiquities as it was termed) has been part of the OSfield survey specification for nearly 200 years until theend of the 20th century. It was brought together withaccurate topographic mapping on published maps useduniversally by those engaged in any form of workrelating to planning, land use or land management.Today powerful databases, digital mapping and GItechnologies, internet and web developments enableheritage managers to hold and manipulate their owndata interactively with spatial geographies; which in turnhas opened up unimaginable opportunities and raiseduser expectations.

Alongside the opportunities that this brings, is therecognition that there needs to be a co-ordinatednational approach if we are to serve our stakeholderswell. Encouraging this collaboration and demonstratingthe benefits of mutual co-operation has resulted in theNational Mapping of the Historic Environment forScotland. This provides the bedrock on which decision

making can be made about how to deal with change.It helps establish the criteria that are used relating tosignificance of monument and landscape types and theconsequent approach to conservation or recording, aswell as providing access for interested public users.

The long-term view Providing authentic nationalcoverage is achieved firstly by taking the long-termview: incorporating work that has been accumulatedover many years of research and survey by RCAHMSand others and which form the National Record of theHistoric Environment, now in Historic EnvironmentScotland (HES). This includes field surveys, aerial andremotely sensed data, desk-based recording andresearch programmes, and excavation plans which canthemselves be spatially and chronologically fitted intolandscape mapping. In order to establish a trulynational picture, it also depends on collaborationacross the Historic Environment Sector with all thosewho are involved in data capture and who have arequirement or desire to make that public.

The recent survey of St Kilda provides an exampleof data capture involving over 15 years of researchand interpretation. Such detailed ground surveys havebeen a typical method of archaeological survey forover 100 years, but this survey illustrates the waydifferent modern techniques combine to produceaccurate mapping of the historic landscape usingrectified aerial photography, and GPS survey methods,together with detailed on-site recording. The resultshave been published as a popular book*, and the

New technologies and historic environment dataFormer CEO of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of

Scotland (RCAHMS) Diana Murray reviews the impact of new technology on archaeologysince she joined the heritage sector 35 years ago.

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technology: historicenvironment


• This article is based ona presentation theauthor gave at the AGIScotland annualconference on 16 March2016 in Edinburgh.

Detailed recordingmethodology byRCAHMS surveyorsand research andinterpretation has ledto a recent book onthe remote island ofSt Kilda.

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detailed information, survey drawings, images and themapping of this fascinating archipelago areincorporated into the National Record of the HistoricEnvironment and are available online.

Crop-mark capture Another important datacapture methodology is low-level aerial survey (flownat 1-2000 feet). Targeted in optimum conditions atspecific historic environment sites and at a rate ofcapture of 2-3000 per year, it has resulted in a widecoverage of the Scottish landscape. This techniqueincludes low-light photography of low relief sites;and crop-mark survey which typically revealsarchaeology as the conditions beneath the groundcause stresses in the crop at specific times of year.This creates the distinctive marks that can bephotographed from the air and interpreted asparticular types of monument. Farmingmethodologies with precision farming is nowbeginning to remove this effect from observationand new techniques are being explored includingspectral imaging, lidar and low-level drone surveys.These provide innovative ways for not onlycapturing, but also analysing information which canbe manipulated digitally to enhance features.

The National Record of the Historic Environmentat HES houses over 20 million photographs from allover the world including blanket coverage ofScotland from 1940s to the end of the 20th century.This collection provided the source material for a 20-year desk-based data collection programme in whichthe combination of maps and photographs old andnew has been used to analyse the historic land use ofScotland. This collaborative project was developed tohelp the understanding of the landscape and toenable the evaluation of areas of relicts of historicalinterest vulnerable to change.

Defining boundaries One of the programmes ofdata enrichment currently underway, is to define theextent of sites to replace single centre point locations.Defining the boundaries of historical sites for mappingpurposes is not as straight forward as you mightimagine. The statutory boundary for monumentprotection does not coincide necessarily with theknown spread of a site; while defining the extent ofa site known only through remote sensing can bequite subjective. So the journey to determining howto show site extents has been a long one and hasinvolved developing and agreeing a defined set ofstandards of polygonisation across the sector so thatthe data is exchangeable between partners. Based onthese standards however, it has been possible incollaboration with a number of participatingorganisations to build another layer of the National

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Map the Historic Environment of Scotland.Making this richly layered information widely

available is a core responsibility of public sectororganisations. Searches to the online servicesprovided by HES have escalated to a staggering 16.5million worldwide and some 20,000 images arefulfilled annually through direct online services.

Single hub Key to the success of the online delivery ofa national dataset is that the source data is maintainedin a single data hub, which can be accessed by a numberof tailored services including WFS and WMS. Also key tosuccess is the collaborative partnerships across theHistoric Environment sector in Scotland that providesusers with access to a ‘one-stop-shop’ for data drawnfrom a number of reliable sources.

The basic principles that have been adopted are:

- Metadata that links data internally and externallywhich is key to user discovery across differentdatasets.

- The application or if not available, the joint



Above, top: the surveyof St Kilda usedrectified aerialphotography and GPSsurvey to produce anaccurate map of thehistoric landscapes onthe island.Above: over 1400structures weremapped on St Kildaand linked to a GIS.

*”St Kilda: the Last and Outmost Isle” by AngelaGannon and George Geddes, published by HESNovember 2015.



development of industry standards and controlledterminologies,

- Introducing controlled gazetteers linking historicto modern data allowing past and presentgeographies to be linked, which is key to historicarchive discovery

- Historic Environment data is spatially enabled tounderpin the operation of the user services and theintegration of data. This allows users to make theirown associations and links.

The development across the sector of a shiftingrelationship with users, specifically the introductionof a two-way dialogue, and a presumption thatusers will be able to make their own understandingand meaning without specialist intervention orexpert advice. The focus therefore moves toenriching the data content including publiccontributions. These principles underpin many of theonline services available. Examples include:

Canmore – the main online service for users whichcombines access to location maps, survey reports,photographs and digital images of archives includinghistorical material and modern surveys. A newmapping application is about to be launched as partof this service combining a number of spatialdatasets, including site extents, which have notpreviously been available online.https://canmore.org.uk/ Related to this is:

My Canmore – which gives access for the public toupload information and images and contribute tothe national endeavour of creating a National Recordof the Historic Environment.

Scotland’s Places – is a partnership site aimed at thefamily history sector, giving access to the digitisedrecords of three National collections delivered in realtime, using controlled gazetteers that link historic tomodern places. This opens a non-spatial archive tospatial searches and the site includes opportunitiesfor volunteers to transcribe hand-writtenmanuscripts to make them searchable by people orplace. www.scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/

Britain from Above – is a partnership site which is

specifically designed as an online crowd sourcingproject. Over 1 million users last year helped toidentify and plot the content of the Aerofilmscollection. www.britainfromabove.org.uk/

There are also online services primarily designed forthe professional or specialist user, but open to all.Here data standards, metadata links and spatially-enabled data are key to their operation.

Pastmap – is a shared site for heritage informationthat combines data from a number of differentdatasets managed by a range of professional bodies,locally and nationally but which provides a ‘one stopshop’ for land managers and planners.http://pastmap.org.uk/HLAmap – is a Scotland-wide view of land use inmodern and past times designed to show how thelandscape has changed over time.http://hlamap.org.uk/

Buildings at Risk Register – lists vulnerable listedbuildings at risk of decay or demolition and allowsthe public to nominate buildings for the register www.buildingsatrisk.org.uk/

NCAP - is the online site for examining andpurchasing aerial photography cover of the UK andcountries across the world where Britain has had aninterest (generally military). The collection consists ofover 20 million photographs that are steadily beingdigitised and geo-located. http://ncap.org.uk/

Spatial and data technologies have becomeincreasingly interactive, web services are providingmore powerful delivery tools and an ever moresophisticated range of techniques is available fordata capture. The technology is no longer a barrier towhat we can now achieve. More important isensuring that the data is enriched in a way that canprovide answers to the questions we needanswering, and those depend not just on systemsand collaborations, but on a clear vision of what weneed and what our stakeholders require.

About the authorDiana Murray MA (Cantab), FRSE , FRSGS, FSA, FSAScot, MCIfA, MIoD was the Chief Executive of the RoyalCommission on the Ancient and Historical Monumentsof Scotland (RCAHMS) for 11 years and recently wasalso joint CEO of Historic Scotland (HS) until thefunctions of both organisations combined in October2015 to form Historic Environment Scotland (HES). Shestudied archaeology at Cambridge University and havingjoined RCAHMS in 1976, has devoted her career toScottish cultural heritage. She was responsible forleading the application of database, GIS and onlinetechnologies to develop the innovative methodologiesand online services delivered today by HES and itscollaborative partners.

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The archaeologicallandscape is densewith sites in thispart of NorthBerwick. Theunderlaying OS mapis enhanced withaerial photographicsurvey.

• RCAHMS was set up byRoyal Warrant in 1908 tomake a record of theHistoric Environmentwhich it developed forover 100 years. In 2014,its functions were madestatutory in the HistoricEnvironment (Scotland)Act and in October 2015,it became part of a neworganisation, HistoricEnvironment Scotland.

© Images CrownCopyright HistoricEnvironment Scotland.© Copyright anddatabase right 2016Ordnance Survey licencenumber 100057073.The use of the aerialimagery is CopyrightGetmapping plc 2016.


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21joining the geography jigsaw

. . . thecoordinates

appeared as thenational gridexpressed inmillimetres.

“

“

With the deadline passed for central governmentcontracts worth over £50 million to be using BIM

level 2, this year’s conference concentrated onhelping delegates to get to grips with the nuts andbolts of BIM.

BIM for newbies For early birds there was a pre-conference session on ‘BIM leadership’, which wasaimed at anyone ‘new to BIM or confused aboutwhat they should be doing next’. There were a lot ofus! James Philip put 3D modelling in the centre ofBIM and explained how federated modelling is themeans by which different disciplines contribute theirexpertise and retain ownership, whilst enablingcollaboration. This integrated approach meansdesign can proceed concurrently, with plenty of toolsto detect and resolve design difficulties beforeconstruction commences.

Licensing Following the pre-conference session,Scott Woolven welcomed delegates and gave anupdate on the situation regarding Autodesk licences.He began with a warning from Autodesk thatrenewals have to be received by Autodesk before thecurrent licence expires or users will have to buy anew licence. Licences can be renewed up to 90 daysbefore expiry of the old licence so the advice is toorder with plenty of time to process the orders.

From 31st July 2016 Autodesk will remove allremaining perpetual licences and all ‘suites’ will bewithdrawn from sale. From 1st August, threesoftware ‘collections’ will be introduced –architecture engineering & construction; productdesign; media & entertainment. These can be rented

on a three-month or one, two or three year basis.This reduces the upfront cost. There are variousoptions to migrate from perpetual licences to thenew licence rental system.

Woolven also introduced users to Cadline’s‘Journey plan’. This is intended to help users inparticular disciplines to implement BIM. As an aside,he also said that Cadline has noticed a trendtowards more work being done in-house with lessout-sourcing.

BIM in 90 mins PAS1192 is the document thatdefines the BIM process in Britain. It gives structureby specifying key documents, roles andresponsibilities. Early on in the evolution of BIM, theRoyal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) drafted aBIM ‘Plan of Works’, which has been adopted by theAEC industry as a de facto standard forimplementing BIM. The Cadline team took usthrough all the six stages of the Plan of Works.

The task was a hotel development atGlastonbury. Stage One: preparation involveddownloading OS Model Builder data forInfraworks 360. For stage two a building wassketched using Autodesk’s answer to SketchUp –Formit360 and then transferred to Infraworks360,a conceptual design tool that enables outlinedesign work for the site and for road access on aDTM with map or imagery background. It is aquick way to work up options, which can be usedas the basis for consultation. When the outlinedesign is ready it can be exported as an IMXformat file and then read into Autodesk Civil3D.At this point the file might be saved to a CommonData Environment on Autodesk’s Vault. From hereon, audit tracing is automatic.

At that point everyone took a breather. When wereturned from coffee the project was at RIBA stage 3,the developed design phase. The IMX file was readinto Civil 3D and then the site grid set up by clickingon two points to define the origin and orientation.No discussion about scale in this section but thecoordinates appeared and were expressed in metresin the Civil 3D software. When the model wastransferred to Revit, the coordinates maintain theirintelligence and were automatically shown in Revit asmillimetres to align the building model.

Swiftly on to step 4: technical design, where wewere shown how to combine the federated modelsusing BIM360 GLUE, which enables any partner inthe project to view any model and make mark-ups. Itcan also detect clashes between different models to

Conference brings BIM aliveCadline’s Autodesk user conference took place in the heart of the City of London in June.

Richard Groom reports that BIM was the hot topic this year.


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see if, for example, elements in the structural modelclash with those in the MEP model. It is at this pointthat component manufacturers can get involved. Theexample we were given was a fanlight window. Theidea is that the manufacturer can see the fanlight asdepicted in REVIT, then use Autodesk Inventor todesign the window and then export to Autodesk360as a new component. The interface between BIM asused for design and for shop drawings used bytrades is at last, it seems, being addressed.

And so on to stage 5 – construction. Here, theteam used Navisworks tools to produce contract

documents and then simulate construction andproduce animations for site project meetings.BIM360 is then used to allocate construction tasksand track them by monitoring in real time.

Stage 6 is project handover and close out,including hand-over of as-built models andcommissioning documentation. Another neglectedarea has been building operations but Autodesk nowhas software to do that too. A mobile phone app canbe used to set maintenance tasks, create job cardsand monitor the work.

Bringing it together In short, Cadline were able todemonstrate how a project is handled throughout itslifecycle. It was certainly a brave live demo but gavedelegates a valuable overview of the whole BIM process.

The afternoon was taken up with workshopmaster classes in three streams: Building,Infrastructure and General Design.

Overall, like last year’s, this event was time verywell spent and free of charge, to boot.

Delegates learning allthings BIM.


Autodesk user conference

Cadline invited delegates to participate in a freeDiscovery review to see how, as an AutodeskPlatinum Partner with offices across the UK andHolland, they can help guide individual clients onto a successful road to BIM adoption.


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. . . it isimportant that

we do so as it isperceived by

our customersand

stakeholders –not value as it is

defined byvendors.”

“

“

AFTER TWO REALLY SUCCESSFUL GeoBig 5conferences, we felt the time was right to broadenthe theme again. We had a good mix of public andprivate sector attending, and we were alsoheartened to have representation from 7 of our 11

new local councils, signs of the renewed importancebeing placed on location within this area. We werealso very grateful to our four Gold sponsors: IMGS,Esri-Ireland, Sopra Steria and Leica Geosystems, whoenabled us to follow AGI Scotland’s new cost modelto make the conference accessible to more delegatesin these financially difficult times.

The event was kicked off by AGI NI chair SimonWheeler who reminded everyone that AGI in NorthernIreland is alive and kicking. To set the scene heintroduced Joao Fernandes of Hexagon, Dr AnneKemp of Atkins Global and Tim Williams ofWhat3Words who looked at Future landscapes withinthe Location world. Joao looked at a world where themap of the future would be a dynamic platform tellingusers what has been, what is and what will be.

75% will live in cities by 2060 Dr Anne Kempreviewed the AGI Foresight 2020 report and why it isimportant to everyone. She outlined the challengeswe face globally with ageing infrastructure, shrinkingnatural resources and urbanisation – with 75% ofthe world’s population expected to live in cities by2060. These challenges will drive the need forsmarter solutions that can support Big Data, and anincreasingly data-driven world, where we will needto switch from being data providers to data services.

Last but not least, Tim spoke about an alternativemethod for addressing: breaking the world down into3×3m squares with a unique 3-word address. Not onlyis everywhere on the globe included, but words areeasier to remember than numbers and opens up amyriad of opportunities on a wide range of

applications. To round up the session before coffee wewere pleased to welcome Andy Murdock to speakabout the highly successful Early Careers Network(ECN) initiative, which he has led for the past 18months. The network has held some interestingwebinars, and he was able to connect with studentmembers and new professionals in NI during the day.

Following coffee and networking, we looked atsome more local examples of GI use from NorthernIreland and Ireland. Brad Fisher of Sopra Steria,Ciaran Kirk of IMGS, Sean O’Boyle of NI Water andBrian Galloway of Land & Property Services (LPS)reported on user stories from some of the biggerprojects currently underway. Brad spoke about theimportance and success of the user experience forfarmers when managing their single farm paymentclaims for the Department of Agriculture, whilstCiaran spoke on the major integration of SAP and GI

within the ESB – a major utilities provider in Irelandfor asset, work and customer management.

Improving your positions PositionalImprovement of data will be one of the bigchallenges for Northern Ireland incoming years, andSean O’Boyle and his team gave an excellent accountof the challenges they faced when looking at a shiftfor NI Water’s assets. Whilst PI would normally beseen as a dry subject, the team gave an excellentdelivery which proved of interest to all delegates.Finally before lunch, Brian Galloway of Land andProperty Services spoke about the new LPS datamodel currently in release and how customers wouldbenefit from the shift in how large scale base data ismodelled. The new data model is simpler than itscounterparts in GB and Ireland, while still providing afeature rich dataset giving many benefits to both LPSand customers.

Following lunch, the conference split into parallelsessions. In the technical session we heard from ColinMurphy of Natural Resources Wales, Dr SuzanneMcLaughlin of Open Data NI and Steve Campbell ofOrdnance Survey. Meanwhile in the customerexperience session, we heard from Iain McKay of theImprovement Service Scotland, Colm Daly of theEducation Authority and Moira Grimley of the Health& Social Care Board. Colin spoke about thechallenges of moving several organisations with avariety of requirements to a cloud solution, whilstSuzanne updated delegates on the NI Open Datajourney, and how everyone could assist. Steverounded up this session with a novel look at the

AGI NI annual conference: cooperation is keyA good mix of attendees and some interesting topics for the speakers, AGI Northern Ireland’s annual conference was set for a successful day, reports Diane Sandeman.

Dr Anne Kemp:“challenges weface globallywith ageinginfrastructure,shrinking naturalresources andurbanisation”


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question of how ‘Out is Out’ when looking at dataaccuracy for addressing in GB.

Joined up delivers for school transport In theparallel session, Iain spoke about efficiencies in Scotland,from a joined up approach by local government there,whilst Colm explained how their pilot approach toschool transport assessment was progressing, and thebenefits in both time and resources from using a web-based GI approach. Moira spoke about the use ofSpatial NI from LPS to help staff assess eligibility foraccess to early years services through SureStart, a jobmade much easier through use of location services.

The final session of the day was for the fullconference. This session was kicked off by NathanWard of Leica Geosystems who presented on digitalrealities. Nathan outlined the rapid developments in

measurement technologies from wearable laserscanning to UAVs to mobile mapping ofunderground utilities. Quote of the day from Nathanwas “you can’t plan what you can’t measure”.

The final presentation from the day was fromPaul Synnott of Esri Ireland who spoke on ‘Reshapingour mindset- A Customer Value Perspective.’ Paulexplained that to understand value, it is importantthat we do so as it is perceived by our customers andstakeholders – not value as it is defined by vendors.

The day was rounded off with a panel session ofthe AGI NI Gold sponsors – Ciaran Kirk, Paul Synnott,Nathan Ward and Brad Fisher. Paul’s view wasdiscussed and the future was generally agreed to bebright for the industry with Ciaran Kirk predictingthat “Geo will be a success when the technology istaken for granted and not seen as complex”.

To round off a successful conference delegates wereinvited to indulge in a few GeoDrinks to enjoy the last ofthe day’s sunshine. All in all a very successful conferenceand as one of the delegates said “The conference mademe realise the need for joined-up thinking and sharingof information and ideas, between all the industryprofessionals, both in terms of enabling us to meet ourown objectives and those of our customers going intothe future. Cooperation would seem to be key,” - JohnCorry, Omagh and Fermanagh District Council.

Geographic Information SystemsStudy for the award of PG Certificate, PG Diploma or Masters through online distance learning

Our course provides a broad-based education in the principles and practice of GIS. PgDip modules cover issuessuch as the representation, acquisition, management and manipulation of spatial data, spatial analysis andmodelling, remote sensing, GIS in the commercial environment, databases and Web GIS. Concepts andtechniques are illustrated using a variety of applications. Theoretical material is introduced in online lectures andreinforced by directed reading and practical exercises, giving extensive hands-on experience of key GIS packagesand other relevant software (including ArcGIS, Erdas Imagine, Excel, SPSS, open source software, webprogramming and various GIS extensions and plug-ins), developing technical expertise as well as an appreciationof real-world implementation issues. Optional modules are available in GIS customisation, environmentalapplications and workplace projects. For the award of MSc the student must undertake an independent researchproject in addition to the eight PgDip modules.

Key Features:Delivers all course material via the internet; gives flexibility of time, location and workload.•1 academic year (8 months) for PgCert, 2 years for PgDip and 1 further year for MSc (part-time); •full-time also available (4 months PgCert, 8 months PgDip, 1 year MSc).Additional options available: reduced pace study; enrol for individual modules; traditional on-campus study.•

The course enrols two intakes per year; the next start dates are 26 September 2016 and 30 January 2017.

Further details may be obtained from:Dr Sally Cook, Course Director, School of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Ulster University

T: +44 (0)28 7012 4401 E: [email protected] W: http://www.ulster.ac.uk/es/pgdipmscgis

Delegates were keen tohear from speakers on araft of topics.


AGI Northern Ireland



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GIS andmedicaldata

joining the geography jigsawjoining the geography jigsaw

Geospatialanalysis is

increasinglybeing used toevaluate thedesign and

effectiveness oftrauma

systems. . .

“

THE ANALYSIS OF SPATIAL DATA often relies on theuse of Geographical Information Systems, with mapsbeing the usual output. However, increasingly, GISfunctionality provides more than just a digitalmapping toolbox: it can include spatial and networkanalysis, 3D visualisation, and modelling. GIS canalso handle data from many disparate sources,

including remote sensing and GPS or GNSS. Thelatter provide for the accurate capture of spatiallocations and an array of attributes includingground-based photographic records, textdescriptions, and environmental sensor data. Recentdevelopments in this technology have also led todecision-support systems (DSS), online Internetmapping capability, mash-ups, and real-timeenvironmental monitoring, providing powerful andflexible ways to manage resources, accessinformation, and to engage with the public.

Many GIS-based medical and health applicationshave been reported including mapping applications,for exploratory data analysis; studies analysing thedistribution and spread of disease; studies of exposureto pollution sources, such as factories, roads andairports; cluster analysis and to identify the significanceand sources of disease outbreaks, and the linksbetween health and pollution; and the use of spatialtechniques such as Kriging to generate surfaces.

Remotely sensed data has also been used as asource of environmental information to correlatewith health data. Terrain data provides the means toconsider the influence of both natural and man-made surface topography on local climate such astemperature, wind direction and speed, and onobserved air and noise pollution patterns. Spatialdata can also be used in GIS-based pollution models.

Personal and environmental data can now alsobe gathered using small GPS based sensors to trackan individual and their health condition over bothspace and time. Witness also the rapid growth inwearable technologies such as monitoring devices in

the form of smart watches, GPS trackers, and fit-bitdevices. Subsequently this information can all beintegrated into a GIS with other spatial datasets thatmay help in an explanatory capacity. Spatio-temporalrelationships can also be studied using visualisationtools for data exploration and the generation of mapanimations that visually alert the viewer to anyhotspots of change over time.

Whilst the mapping and visualisation of datasetsremains the most common and obvious visual (bothhard- and softcopy) output from a GIS and therelated geospatial technologies, the real power ofGIS lies with the potential to generate new datasets,explore spatio-temporal data, utilise techniques andtools for spatial analysis, and to interface withmodelling and simulation tools. This is already beingsignificantly enhanced by the addition of furtherutilities, specialised functionality, spatial statistics,

and modelling tools.

In the first of a two-part series of case studies, thefollowing two examples outline, with illustrations, justhow spatio-temporal data can be analysed andmodelled to provide decision makers and budgetholders with the key information they need.

In the next issue we will look at examples inGeographical Mapping of Hepatitis C infection inNorth East Scotland using GIS; Proximity of high-density truck traffic near schools but not homes isassociated with childhood wheezing; and, Anexploratory analysis of the geospatial distribution ofthe incidence of injury requiring ambulance serviceattendance in Scotland.

EXAMPLES

Feasibility and utility of population-levelgeospatial injury profiling: Prospective,National Cohort Study (see Figures 1-3 page 26)

Geospatial analysis is increasingly being used toevaluate the design and effectiveness of traumasystems, but there are no metrics to describe thegeographic distribution of incidents. The aim of thisstudy, therefore, was to evaluate the feasibility andutility of using spatial analysis to characterize, at scale,the geospatial profile of an injured population.

This was a prospective national cohort study of alltrauma patients attended to by the Scottish AmbulanceService in a complete year (between July 1, 2013 and

Spatio-temporal geography and medical data Authors David R. Green and Jan O. Jansen demonstrate

through examples how GIS can add explanatory value to the analysis of medical data.

Inset of central belt area of Scotland from Figure 1 page 26.

“



GIS andmedicaldata


Left: Figure 1, Map ofstudy area, showingmajor cities, roadnetwork, and the‘‘central belt’’ area.

Right: Figure 2,Distribution of

incidents triaged toMTC care, as Kernel

density estimates

Below: Figure 3,Cluster map of patients

triaged to MTC care.

June 30, 2014). Incident location and severity werecollected at source. Incident distribution was evaluatedusing geo-statistical techniques.

There were 80,391 recorded incidents involvingtraumatic injury. Incident density was highest in thecentral Southern part of the country and along the Eastcoast, broadly following the population distribution androad network. The overall distribution was highlyclustered, and centred on the central Southern andEastern parts of the country. When analyzed by triagecategory, the distribution of incidents triaged to majortrauma centre care was slightly less clustered than thatof incidents triaged to trauma unit or local emergencyhospital care, but the spread was similar. Whenanalyzed by type of injury, assaults and falls were moreclustered than incidents relating to traffic andtransportation.

This study demonstrates the feasibility and power ofdescribing the geographic distribution of a group ofinjured patients. The methodology described haspotential application for injury surveillance and traumasystem design and evaluation, as shown by twosubsequent analyses of the dataset.

Paper Authors: Jan O. Jansen, Jonathan J.Morrison, Handing Wang, Shan He, RobinLawrenson, Marion K. Campbell, & David R.Green.

Access to Specialist Care: Optimising theGeographical Configuration of Trauma Systems

A trauma system is a network of specialist hospitals,supported by emergency medical services (utilisingboth ambulances and helicopters). The geographicconfiguration of emergency care systems is key tomaximising accessibility, while also promoting theefficient use of resources.

This study, drawing on the data collected as partof the GEOS study (see above), reports the use of anovel approach to inform the optimal configurationof a national trauma system. The project used anovel combination of network analysis and multi-objective optimisation, trading off characteristicssuch as travel time, under-triage, helicopter use, andhospital case volume.

The analysis demonstrated that Scotland’strauma network could be optimised with one or twomajor trauma centres, while requiring anenhancement of aero-medical retrieval capacity.

Paper Authors: Jan O. Jansen, Jonathan J. Morrison,Handing Wang, Shan He, Robin Lawrenson, James D.Hutchison, Marion K. Campbell

An exploratory analysis of the geospatialdistribution of incidence of injury requiringambulance service attendance in Scotland(see Figures 1 & 2 opposite)

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Geographical variation in the risk of suffering injuryis recognised anecdotally, but poorly characterised.The aim of this study was to explore the feasibility ofusing prehospital data and small-area geography toconduct a population-based analysis of geographicalvariation in the risk of injury in Scotland.

This was a secondary geospatial analysis of datafrom the GEOS study, described above. Dataregarding incident location and injury severity werelinked to small area (“datazone”) administrativedata, and analysed using geostatistical techniques.

“Hotspots” and “coldspots” of risk were deter -mined using the Getis-Ord* statistic. 80,394incidents requiring Scottish Ambulance Serviceattend ance were documented, as previouslyreported. Overall, the risk of injury, of any severity,was low, in most of the datazones, but there wereidentifiable “hotspots” in the Scottish Highlands andsome inner-city areas. “Coldspots” were situatedwithin the central belt, the east coast of Scotland,and the islands of Orkney and Shetland. The resultsand statistical techniques were found to besusceptible to “zero inflation”.

This study confirms the feasibility of combiningprehospital data, collected by the ambulance service,with small geography administrative data to conductpopulation-based spatial analyses of incidence rates.Risk appears to be concentrated in identifiablelocations. Risk differs from volume – trauma systemconfiguration is determined by the latter, whereasidentification of high-risk areas (which may notalways be the same as high-volume areas) may helpto address the causes of excess incidents.

Summary and Conclusions These examples demon -strate that there are many different ways in whichspatial data can be used to develop an understanding ofthe geographical dimensions of medical datasets.

Although nearly all output from a GIS or GIS-based analysis results in a map, GIS also providesmany geospatial tools and techniques to helpspatially analyse medical datasets, e.g. to produce asurface using Kriging, or the use of cluster analysis toproduce a map of hotspots. Furthermore, spatialdata can be analysed using techniques from otherdisciplines. Network analysis often requiresconflicting objectives to be considered, butconventional techniques frequently do not addressthis problem well. Multi-objective optimisation,pioneered in engineering and financial risk analysis,permits new insights.

As desktop GIS, WebGIS, and mobile GIStechnology continue to evolve there will be manynew opportunities for individuals to captureenvironmental data using wearable technologiesincluding miniaturised sensors, smart technologiesand even phone apps, as well as being able to shareinformation and to access publicly availableinformation through the Internet.

(a) Incidence rates (b) Hotspots and coldspots

(a) Incidence rates (b) Hotspots and coldspots

Above, Figure 1: Map of Scotland and detailmaps (inset) of central belt areas, showingdistribution of incidence rates per population(panel a), and hotspots (in red) and coldspots (inblue) (panel b), of patients requiring attendanceby Scottish Ambulance Service between 1 July2013 and 30 June 2014.

Above, Figure 2: Map of Scotland and detailmaps (inset) of central belt areas, showingdistribution of incidence rates per population(panel a), and hotspots (in red) and coldspots (inblue) (panel b), of patients requiring attendanceby Scottish Ambulance Service between 1 July2013 and 30 June 2014, that were notionallytriaged to major trauma centre care.

About the principalauthorsDavid R. Green works in theDepartment of Geography andEnvironment, School ofGeosciences, College ofPhysical Sciences, St. Mary’s,Elphinstone Road, Aberdeen,AB24 3UF, Scotland, UK tel:+44 01224 272324 email:[email protected] O. Jansen works in theDepartment of Surgery andIntensive Care Medicine, Ward505, Aberdeen Royal Infirmary,Aberdeen, Scotland, UK

Tel. +44 01224 552956 |Email. [email protected]

• In the next issue ofGiSPro there will beexamples ofgeographical mappingof Hepatitis C infectionand the effects ofproximity of high-density truck trafficnear schools.


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TerraExplorer for Web is a “plug-in free” 3D GIS viewer that enablesviewing high-resolution, stunningly realistic SkylineGlobe 3D contentin a web browser. This latest addition to the TerraExplorer product lineserves as a perfect complement to Skyline’s powerful 3D GIS desktopand mobile applications, offering a simple, no-download, no-installation solution for online viewing and analysis of 3Denvironments.

Based on the Cesium open source 3D platform, TerraExplorer forWeb has the capability to view imagery, elevation and KML layers.Spatial databases including 3D city layers and feature layers can bedisplayed and inspected using spatial analysis tools. The viewerintegrates directly with the entire Skyline product line for easyaccess to all types of data – from photo-realistic, geographicallyaccurate terrain databases created in Skyline TerraBuilder to high-resolution textured 3D mesh models created with SkylinePhotoMesh.

The viewer can seamlessly access online data from SkylineGlobeservers as well as OGC-compliant servers and can load onlineprojects published with TerraExplorer Pro. Based on HTML5/WebGLstandards, TerraExplorer for Web works on multiple platforms andbrowsers (Windows, Mac, Linux, select mobile devices, Chrome,Edge, Firefox, and more).

Based in the US with regional offices in the UK and Australia,Skyline Software Systems, Inc. is a leading provider of 3D earthvisualization software and services. The SkylineGlobe software suitesets the standard for 3D desktop and web-based applications,enabling an enterprise to build, edit, navigate, query, and analyserealistic 3D environments, and rapidly and efficiently distribute themto users. 3D Datasets that cover entire countries can be servedefficiently and swiftly to many hundreds of users using TerraGateServer. Applications include: Urban planning, Utility NetworkManagement, such as vegetation management for power networks,Defence, mission planning and rehearsal and Facilities Managementand Security. For more information about Skyline and TerraExplorerfor Web, visit www.skylinesoft.com

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IoT security scannerAn internet security vendor isclaiming a world first with thelaunch of BullGuard IoT Scanner– a free tool for consumerswhich reveals connected devicesthat could be vulnerable tohackers. The scanner allowsanyone to scan quickly to see iftheir smart devices or networkare accessible to hackers. If auser’s smart device is flagged asbeing vulnerable, details aboutthe specific security issues areprovided.

Workload modelling withGISA new version of Cadcorp’s SISWorkload Modeller, a resourceplanning and performancereporting tool, offers morerealistic simulation modelling.Workload Modeller uses historicdata about when and whereincidents have occurred in a fireservice, and relates this to theconstraints under which theservice has to operate. Itenables exploration of the likelyimpact of making changes toresourcing strategies such asclosing, relocating and mergingstations, and changing the mixand location of vehicles.

Because simulation model -ling is carried out against realhistoric performance data,analysts can be confident in therealism of outcomes: they arebased on a service’s own trackrecords of performance. Withthe new release Cadcorp hasendeavoured to build upon thisrealism, by incorporating newfeatures and capabilitiessuggested by its users.

Workload Modeller uses GIStechnology and algorithms notonly in simulating outcomes butalso in providing businessintelligence tools to helpanalyse and investigateoutcomes. To this end the newversion includes more loggingcapabilities and more visualaids, such as Gannt-style charts

depicting the utilisation ofappliances throughout thecourse of day.

MobileMapper driven byDigiTerraSpectra Precision’s Mobile -Mapper 300 smart antenna andthe GIS software DigiTerraExplorer v7 now interfaceseamlessly, enabling the soft -ware to drive Mobile Mapper’sGNSS receiver with advancedaccuracy options which arescalable from mapping grade tofull RTK accuracy. The antennais designed for use incombination with a wide varietyof mobile devices, includingsmart phones, tablets, andnotebook computers. DigiTerraExplorer software offers mobilemapping, GIS data collectionand maintenance as well asfield-to-office workflows.

Quick drone to mapAs reported in the last issue(“Esri lights up the enterprise”,page 18 GiSPro June 2016) Esrihas now released Drone2Mapfor ArcGIS. This is a desktop appthat allows people to processimages from drones and tocreate imagery products quicklyfor mapping, analysis, andsharing across the ArcGISplatform.

Automated data validity inthe field1Spatial has extended its offeringwith Esri to ArcGIS Collector.1Integrate for ArcGIS, as part ofCollector for ArcGIS, adds mobilecapability for automated datavalidation and management forthe ArcGIS platform, allowingorganisations to assess thequality of data to ensure it meetsdefined specifications and is fitfor purpose. It also performsrules-based data re-engineeringtasks, such as cleaning data,transforming data or creatingnew data from existing dataassets.

There is more news of products and services on our website at www.pvpubs.com To get your company featured on this page call Sharon Robson on +44 (0)1438 352617


products

3D GIS viewer for hi-res realistic content

A 3D textured Mesh model of Orlando automaticallygenerated by Skyline PhotoMesh. PhotoMesh produces aphotorealistic models that can be loaded in SkylineTerraExplorer for viewing and analysis in applications suchas city planning and security. The images used to make themodel are from a Dat’Air Octoblique Midas camera systemwhich has nine cameras, one nadir and eight oblique.

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May’s GEO Business eventin London saw the launchof a range of newtechnology solutionsaimed at the geospatialsector. Of particularinterest to GiSPro readerswill be mass spatial datacollectors for mapping andGIS applications.

City mapping and pointcloudsLeica Geosystems announced theworld’s first fused airbornesensor. The Leica CityMapper ispart of the RealCity 3D realitycapture solution, enablingcapture and processing ofimaging and LiDAR data in asingle sensor. Leica also releasedTruView Global 2.0, a softwareintegrating point cloud, 3Dmodel and panoramic imagery tosupport multiple communities ofusers from a single installation.

Sub-metre GNSSA real-time sub-metre GNSSreceiver from Juniper Systemswas launched at May’s GEOBusiness show. The Geodeprovides precise GNSS data andcombines versatility with one-button simplicity and can beused with Juniper Systems’rugged handhelds or any


Windows, Windows Mobile, orAndroid device.

OS and Cadline link forInfraworksCadline and the Ordnance Surveylaunched OS Model Builder at aworkshop at the GEO Businessevent in May. Over 30 attendeesheard about an application thatwill allow them to build 3DModels for Infraworks usingOrdnance Survey data. OS ModelBuilder is a visualisation tool thatcan support projects, includingLevel 2 BIM activities, and couldsave the construction industryand its clients’ time and moneywhen planning future projects.The tool is the result of acollaboration between Cadlineand OS to provide AutodeskInfraworks 360 customers with asingle source of Great Britain’smost accurate and up-to-datecollection of geographic data.

Robin bobs in below 10 kgs3D Laser Mapping launched itsRobin mobile mapping systemat GeoBusiness. Weighing lessthan 10kg for the Walk/Driveset up and less than 6kg for theFly set up, the Robin mobilemapping system can also betransported easily in oneportable flight case.

There is more news of products and services on our website at www.pvpubs.com To get your company featured on this page call Sharon Robson on +44 (0)1438 352617


products

Leica Geosystems has established a georadar portfolio with threereleases to provide applications in utility mapping, asset detection andmapping, and monitoring.

The Leica DS2000 utility detection radar identifies all potentialunderground threats, including plastic, all non-conductive pipes andfibre optics. Data is collected with dual-frequency antennae that locatedeep and shallow targets simultaneously. With or without GPS, utilitylocation can be accomplished onsite without post processing.

The new radar technology has also been added to Leica’s GeoMoSmonitoring software. By combining GeoMoS with IDS Guardiansoftware, the gaps between prisms on monitoring projects of landslides,mines or infrastructure are now also detected for fast movement. Riskmanagers can carry out their tasks with complete confidence, knowingall movement of surfaces is monitored by the two technologies.

The Leica Pegasus:Stream combines laser scanning and imagesabove with ground penetrating radar below to accurately capture thecomplete view of a targeted area. This mass digitisation ofinfrastructure assets, such as telephone cabinets above and cableconduits below, are collected in less time without needing to stoptraffic, increasing the safety of users. The Pegasus:Stream has thepotential to collect up to 100 km per day at 15 km/hr, providing digitaldocumentation for GIS and CAD modelling.

Leica’s Georadar Portfolio

Below: a GEOBusiness visitor carefully inspects Riegl’s newRobin mobile mapping system.

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calendarIssue No 71 August 2016

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| seminars | conferences | exhibitions | courses | events | workshops | symposiums |We welcome advance details of conferences, seminars, exhibitions and other events which are likely to be of interest to the GIS community. Please mention the name of the event, venue, date and point of contact for further information and send to Jason PooleGISPro, 2B North Road, Stevenage, Herts SG1 4AT or e-mail: [email protected].

RSPSoc 20165-8th September 2016, Nottingham, UKwww.rspsoc.org.uk/index.php/rspsoc-events/rspsoc2016.html

BCS - SoC Conference 20166-8th September 2016, Cheltenham, UKwww.cartography.org.uk/default.asp?contentID=581

InterDrone7-9th September 2016, Paris Hotel, Las Vegas, USAwww.interdrone.com

Inspire Conference 201626-30th September 2016, Barcelona, Spainhttp://inspire.ec.europa.eu/events/conferences/inspire_2016

GeoDATA Showcase 2016 Scotland6th October 2016, Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh, Scotlandwww.geoaware.info/#!geodata-seminars/c23xn

Intergeo 201611-13th October 2016, Hamburg, Germanywww.intergeo.de/intergeo-en/index.php

GeoDATA 2016 Brussels19th October 2016, Brussels, Belgiumwww.geoaware.info/#!geodata-seminars/c23xn

The Commercial UAV Show 201619-20th October 2016, London, UKwww.terrapinn.com/exhibition/the-commercial-uav-show/index.stm

GIS-Pro 2016: URISA's 54th Annual Conference31 October-3rd November 2016, Toronto, Canadawww.urisa.org/education-events/gis-pro-2016-urisa-s-54th-annual-conference/

Trimble Dimensions 2016 User Conference7-9th November 2016, The Venetian, Las Vegas, USAwww.trimbledimensions.com/

SEPTEMBER 2016 OCTOBER 2016

NOVEMBER 2016OCTOBER 2016

DISTANCE LEARNING GIS PROGRAMMES

MSc/PgDip/PgCertcourses in GIS bydistance learningJointly delivered by ManchesterMetropolitan University and theUniversity of Salford

New Masters in• GIS• Applied GIS• GI Technologies

Designed to meet the needs of GIS professionals and those newto the industry.

See our website for further details:www.unigis.org

+44 (0)161 247 [email protected]

Educating tomorrow’s GIS professionals

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AGIBlueskyCadlineCaledonian Air SurveysGeoPlaceInterGEOKORECLeica GeosystemsUlster UniversityUNIGISUniversity of Aberdeen

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One of the UK’s leadinggeospatial consultancies

www.thinkwhere.com

MSc GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS

• Full-time and part-time modes of study available • On-campus study and distance learning available • September and January start dates

The programme is designed to meet the needs of people who wish to specialise in the application of the geospatial technologies. Building on 25 years of excellence in postgraduate teaching of remote sensing, GIS, visualisation, digital mapping and cartography, this programme promotes the integrated study and application of the geospatial technologies through theory and practice, combining core techniques, programming, practical skills and environmental applications and incorporating the use of UAVs and softcopy photogrammetry.

The programme draws upon a wide range of international, national, and local expertise in the coastal and marine sciences, landscape ecology and landscape change, archaeology, integrated coastal management, o�shore, hydrographic and underwater survey, renewable energy, geology and hydrocarbon exploration, environmental risks and hazards, marine and terrestrial spatial planning, precision agriculture, climate change, and mobile data collection.

Full details regarding entry requirements, available funding, application process:

www.abdn.ac.uk/gis | [email protected]

ClassifiedTo reserve space in the next issue callSharon Robson on +44 (0)1438 352617

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