Digital Switchover is not just one event. 1,160 transmitters have to be converted on a region-by-region basis commencing in October 2007 and running until the end of 2012. There are about 50 separate switching dates, and at every step the coverage of TV services in the UK changes as new frequencies come on, old ones go off, and the pattern of interference between sites varies. The BBC needs to calculate the transmitter coverage at every step to ensure that viewers will continue to receive TV services throughout the process, and to communicate the various digital reception options to them and to the aerial installation trade.

The starting point of the calculation engine is a database of every transmitter location, aerial height, frequency, power output, antenna radiation pattern, and polarisation for each of the 50 switching steps.

We then split the whole UK into a grid of 100 metre squares, and for each switching step, and for each transmitter and for each 100m grid square, we use terrain height data to produce a path profile plot from that grid square to the transmitter site. Knowing the height of the transmitter mast and assuming a nominal receiving aerial height of 10m above ground level, we calculate the path loss across this terrain using a physical model of radio wave propagation known as the UK Planning Model (UKPM). The UKPM takes into account the shape of the landscape, diffraction of signals over obstructions, ground clutter (trees, buildings), propagation characteristics over water and typical UK weather conditions. For every grid square we then consider the path loss for each transmitter then in service, and the directions of those transmitters along with the directional characteristics of a typical receiving aerial, to calculate the amount of signal received from the best transmitter and the amount of interference received from other transmitters, to decide if that grid square can receive TV or not.

The calculation engine runs across seven Unix servers, each having 6 microprocessors and 32GB of RAM, and takes approximately one week to produce an answer.

The resulting database is passed to Digital UK, the independent body tasked with communicating Digital Switchover, who run a website where viewers enter their address and receive personalised advice on how and when switchover will affect them.

Lesson Learned
In order to reduce the amount of calculation required, three main techniques are used. Firstly, we only calculate coverage to a 100m grid square if it is known that it is inhabited. We use the OS Addresspoint product to calculate the Populated Pixels, and only calculate to these points. Secondly, we use a simple propagation rule to calculate the maximum possible extent over which a transmitter might have an effect. For example, a large site like Crystal Palace in London has a useable range of about 50 miles but can cause interference up to 300 miles away or more, whereas a small site may only have a maximum influence of 30 miles and so its effect need not be calculated beyond that point. By generating a Bounding-box for each site based on a simple distance rule, the number of calculations required is significantly reduced. Thirdly, many of the transmission parameters at many of the sites do not change from one switching step to the next, and so as much data as possible is cached for reuse.

• OS AddressPoint is used to calculate the populated 100 metre pixels.
• OS Landform Panorama data is used to calculate the terrain profile between each receiving point and each transmitter (noting that earth curvature is significant over these distances and is also calculated). The BBC did use OS Landform Profile instead, which was included in the PGA, although the resolution of this data set was too high and had to be sub-sampled to a more manageable size. However, when the new funding model for PGA2 was introduced, Ofcom left the PGA and, as it is essential that all spectrum planners across the industry use the same data sets and physical models, the BBC downgraded to Landform Profile as being the cheapest terrain option available to all.
• A basic clutter database from InfoTerra is used within the physical propagation model.
• OS AddressPoint is used by Digital UK to map a viewer’s address on to the 100m square of the calculated coverage database.
• Mapinfo software, embedded within our own bespoke spectrum planning tool (known as Spaghetti), is used by our spectrum planners to visualise and analyse the coverage results, in conjunction with OS raster maps.

(note: similar data is also sourced from other providers for Northern Ireland, Isle of Man and Channel Isles)

The Digital UK address checker has just launched on its public website, and will soon be promoted heavily as being the main source of technical data about digital switchover.

The BBC continues to adjust the switching orders, power levels and antenna patterns within the switchover plan in an attempt to minimise any disruption caused to viewers during switchover.

Our bespoke planning tool is soon to be expanded to include FM radio and DAB radio planning, which is currently undertaken on less sophisticated systems.

Digital UK Postcode checker.

Parts of the pre-existing map-related workflows exploited digital technology, but others still relied upon analogue methods. Constant switching between analogue and digital elements led to significant inefficiencies. Creation of a single, integrated digital workflow was recognized as a potential means of removing these inefficiencies. Equally it was recognized that standardisation on the use of ArcGIS as the main software platform throughout the proposed integrated workflow was desirable, to reduce the cost of training staff to use multiple software environments. Adoption of a single software platform also facilitates movement of data along the workflow, as the same data formats are used throughout. Communication and mutual mentoring among team members with different skills, backgrounds and roles is also facilitated by shared use of the same tools.

ESRI’s ArcGIS underpins the entire workflow. NERC has a framework agreement with ESRI, a GIS market leader.

Data preparation: ArcMap is used to review existing geological data and to clip and download selected items along with portions of National datasets, including Ordnance Survey basemaps, NEXTMap, etc. These data can be referenced in the field, via Tablet PCs and Laptops.

Virtual Field Reconnaissance is based around ArcGlobe, which allows users to “visit” anywhere in Great Britain and view all BGS National datasets in 3D (data served from Oracle via ArcSDE). Users can add local datasets as required.

Fieldwork Technology: Tablet PC, Microsoft XP for Tablet Edition with customised ArcMap, plus Microsoft Access and InfiNotes.

Map compilation, geoprocessing and analysis use a combination of ArcMap, ArcCatalog, ArcGlobe and ArcScene. Approved data are loaded to corporate servers as shapefiles, grids, SDE feature classes and SDE raster datasets and catalogs, depending upon dataset type.

Lesson Learned
Very large datasets such as aerial photograph are slow to display in ArcGIS when using Image catalogs. The use of Spatial Database Engine (SDE) can significantly improve the performance of large raster and vector datasets. Other options for large image layer are compressed formats such as ECW. The use of this latter format for the BGS aerial photography layer has improved the access performance in ArcMap dramatically. These solutions also reduce network traffic.

NEXTMap Britain Digital Elevation Model and Digital Surface Model (InterMap)
Aerial Photography (getmapping and Infoterra)
DiGMap (BGS geology layers)

Local and other National datasets are brought in as required to aid interpretation; some examples are:
Landsat imagery
Gravity data
Aeromagnetic data
Geochemical data
Other Datasets
NEXTMap Britain Digital Elevation Model NEXTMap Britain Digital Surface Model
Aerial Photography
DiGMap (BGS geology layers)
Other
Landsat imagery
Gravity data
Aeromagnetic data
Geochemical data

Software
ESRI
ArcGIS
ArcInfo
ArcView
ArcEditor
ArcGIS 3D Analyst
ArcGIS Spatial Analyst

In the future BGS will serve Globe and map data over its Intranet using ArcGIS Server, providing access via both ArcGIS Explorer and ArcGlobe. ArcGIS Explorer will support access to large BGS National datasets using only a thin client, promoting easier handling of terabyte-sized datasets, without the need for powerful desktop computers. Ongoing development of the virtual fieldwork element of the workflow will enable preliminary capture of potential geological boundary positions before fieldwork commences. As geologists will then be able to target critical areas that need to be visited during fieldwork this will increase both the speed and effectiveness of geological interpretation. A longer term aspiration involves planning and achievement of more efficient digital communications between field and office to streamline the already integrated workflow even more.

Further information about SIGMA can be found at SIGMA

The paper system was becoming unreliable as many of the documents were old and increasingly difficult to handle and interpret. They were also disseminated around the country at various offices and were getting lost or were unavailable as they were in use. Additional to this, the Terrier is maintained as two components: a textual record and a map based record. The old system associated the components through a manual cross referencing system making it possible for them to become out of sync. These were the main issues with the paper system and thus the drivers behind the implementation of the E-Terrier.

The aim was to replicate the Terrier system in everyway within a bespoke desktop IT solution and place dependencies between the two components so that they are presented within a work flow. All of the data and information from the map sheets to the deeds would be presented in the appropriate digital format.

The standards employed were:

No official national or international standards were adhered to with the roll out of the application, though all data now captured by DE and presented on the system, is captured to OSLandline in all instances.

Lessons Learned
Data
The major difference between the old Terrier and the E-Terrier is the data management. For the old Terrier the data was managed locally with a local system in place, however for the E-Terrier the local systems were all merged into a national system.

It was found in a number of cases that there were duplicate numbers across offices as the numbering system up until E-Terrier had been local and no consideration was given to the fact that duplicate numbers may be a possibility. Impacting the problem further was the geographic changes to the County boundaries that took place across England and Wales in 1974 as a result of the Local Government Act 1972.

It was identified early that such a problem may exist, however early attempts to fix this problem failed as the full scale of the problem was not apparent at the time. Subsequent investigation and work has now corrected a majority of these problems. However a fuller investigation prior to roll out may have saved the extra work that was needed further down the line.

Functionality
As mentioned, the idea with the E-Terrier was to fully replicate the existing Terrier system albeit within a tighter and controlled environment. However now that we are using the system, it has been realised that some effort should have been made in investigating some areas of the system which could have been streamlined, automated or even removed, so as to take advantage of the technology and increase user experience.

The software used to implement and manage the E-Terrier as it exists on our systems today are:
OSNI Raster 50K
OSNI Landline
OSNI Boundary Datasets
OSNI Transport Datasets
OSNI Raster 250k
ESRI ArcSDE
ESRI ArcIMS
ESRI ArcGIS
Oracle 9i
Microsoft Internet Explorer v6
Lizardtech GeoExpress and Document Express free plugins
Lizardtech GeoExpress encoder software
Lizardtech Document Express encoder software

Since the initial launch of the E-Terrier, two projects have been run in order to enhance performance and fix data issues, and to add user defined functional enhancements.

One key enhancement that we have installed is the ability to change the layers displayed within the browser environment. This is an out of the box function, however the E-terrier is bespoke and this functionality was lost. Prior to this enhancement, we required ESRI to perform such requests. We now request this functionality in all browser applications we have developed.

DE is currently working to upgrade the E-Terrier to version 9.1 of the ESRI software which will be rolled out in July 2007.

From user group meetings key functional requirements and improvements have been identified that DE will look to install soon.

We are also looking at modifying some aspects of the functionality and changing existing processes by utilising new technology; specifically ESRI GIS Server 9.2. To investigate the possibilities of this further we are developing a prototype later this year.

It was known that the E-Terrier should be presented as an internet GIS browser based solution. This technology obviously has the advantages of reduced overall cost of software when compared to a desktop solution and also in the management and dissemination of data.

The E-Terrier is presented with a normal browser window with tools which enable the user to navigate the map. To aid navigation the two OS raster datasets are used and have associated with them appropriate scale cut-offs. Alongside the OS mapping we also decided to scan our large scale Terrier map sheets, geo-reference them and present them in a raster catalogue as selectable layers. This ensured that all historical data captured on these maps was presented along side the new data that would be captured using modern techniques. The scanned deeds are available to the users upon clicking on a polygon. This would then trigger the scanned documents corresponding to the geographic area to open in a separate window so they can be viewed. Obviously this presented a problem with historic data and would need all of the polygons to be captured to present this data in a similar fashion. This was solved by having only the circular reference points on the Terrier sheet, which traditionally displayed the reference number, captured as polygons. These were then added as an invisible layer, and operate as such that when a user clicks on one of the circular references which are on the scanned map sheet; they are clicking on a polygon which links through to the appropriate document.

As a result of having the E-Terrier in place, the important maps and deeds can now be moved to secure locations. Defence Estates is now more geared up for a more corporate approach to the management and dissemination of data. We also now have completely moved away from maintaining paper based maps and now keep only digital records on the estate holdings of the MoD.

In implementing the E-Terrier, Defence Estates have saved in the following areas:
• Redrawing old terrier map sheets
• Storing maps sheets and deeds securely
• Training staff on antiquated Terrier technique
• Employing extra staff to bring the Terrier processes in line.

In 1999 DE launched its first web-based map browser which provided access to a limited range of estate information and some large scale mapping, together with some basic geographic analysis tools. In late 2003 DE embarked on a project to build upon its existing web-browser capabilities to improve the delivery of corporate estate-related information to its staff and customers, so as to support DE’s strategic objective to ‘manage and use information, knowledge and supporting systems available to provide effective solutions and deliver agreed business benefits’.

GEODE was developed as part of an ‘Estate Information Portal’ which provides users on the MOD corporate network with the ability to search and retrieve a range of corporate estate related information through a common access point.

The standards employed were:

The project management methodology used to deliver the GEODE Project was PRINCE 2 (PRojects In A Controlled Environment). The main PRINCE2 products used during the delivery were project initiation document (PID), business case, monthly highlight reports, risk and issue logs, request for change, project plans, work packages, and quality logs.

Metadata is stored and delivered to a FGDC/ISO combination using tools available from ESRI. Clearly the availability to store and deliver to the UK Gemini standard is a longer term aspiration.

For consistency, GEODE whenever possible uses display standards from other leading web mapping applications such as MAGIC and Nature on the Map as the standard for the visualisation of the Third Party spatial data (e.g. SSSI’s).

Solution
The majority of the requirements concentrated on developing a new mechanism for delivering both tabular and spatial information to the desktop. The delivered solution uses data stored in Oracle and ESRI ArcSDE/Oracle with a customised ESRI ArcIMS web front end. The resulting mapping application is known as GEographic On-line Data for Estates (GEODE).

Early in the design phase DE established a GOLD+ Enhancement Product Review Team (PRT) comprised of DE Subject Matter Experts (SME) and representatives from DE’s Customer Estate Organisations (CEstOs), Army, Navy and Defence Logistic Organisation. The PRT provided oversight and review of the design, development and testing of GEODE. The development of GEODE followed a Rapid Application Development type methodology whereby development modules were installed on the DE network, tested and returned to the developers for update. Improvements put forward by the PRT were therefore incorporated throughout the development encouraging customer buy-in and sense of ownership.

GEODE is dependent on the supply of corporate estate information from a number of disparate data sources, the integration of the data presented a significant challenge during the development. Throughout the development, changes were made to the scope of information shown, the way it was displayed as well as developing the unique identifiers used to join the data. The data issues encountered were the primary source of delay in the implementation of the development. GEODE displays an integrated view of spatial data supplied from GIS and non-GIS data sources. Within GEODE there are mechanisms for users to provide feedback on data quality which have directly led to improvements.

For consistency, GEODE whenever possible uses display standards from other leading web mapping applications such as MAGIC and Nature on the Map as the standard for the visualisation of the Third Party spatial data (e.g. SSSI’s).

As with many systems of this type it is often difficult to quantify the real benefits obtained from the introduction of the application particularly where this results in more informed decisions. However indications of the level of use of the system have shown that the system users are predominately non-DE staff, some 60%.

Lesson Learn

Data
It is probably not a surprise that data has proved to be one of the most problematical areas. DE as an organisation is responsible for the MOD estate across the UK. We therefore need to take data, such as SSSI boundaries, from the various national bodies and merge to create a true UK picture. Often this data will not have the same attributes or will have a mixture of numeric and alphanumeric key fields. This requires additional processing before the data can be presented corporately.

Even with DE derived data sets there have been issues with ensuring that data which is managed on one server is successfully replicated on the GEODE server. To maximize server performance the ideal is to have a database tuned for read only access, which is not therefore available for the type of read/write access that a regularly updated dataset requires.

There have also been issues with the presence of restricted characters within datasets which have impacted on the functionality which can be delivered within the application.

Placing all data into ArcSDE has considerably enhanced the speed of the application which had previously been reading data in flat files or from raster catalogues.

OS Derived Data from various 3rd Parties including:
CADW
Countryside Commission for Wales
DEFRA
English Heritage
Environment Agency
Historic Scotland
Natural England
Scottish Natural Heritage

Defence Estates Derived Datasets including:
MOD Boundary
MOD Hirings & Lettings
MOD Byelaws

The software used to implement and manage the E-Terrier as it exists on our systems today are:

ESRI ArcSDE
ESRI ArcIMS
ESRI ArcGIS
Oracle 9i
Microsoft Internet Explorer v6

Background Mapping Data:
Defence Geographic Centre (Raster & Vector Datasets)
OSGB Miniscale
OSGB Raster 250K
OSGB Raster 50K
OSGB Landline
OSGB Boundary Line
OSNI Raster 210K
OSNI Raster 50K
OSNI Landline
OSNI Boundary Datasets
OSNI Transport Datasets

Since the initial launch of GEODE in 2005 two phases of improvements have been initiated to provide additional data sets and to add user defined functional enhancements.

Key to this has been the support of an active and vocal user steering group who authorise enhancements and changes to the application.

Originally viewed as a tool to support land management activities with a strong environmental bias the application is now seeking to support other areas of the business, including facilities management and the training estate.

We are also looking at modifying some aspects of the functionality and changing existing processes by utilising new technology; specifically ESRI GIS Server 9.2. To investigate the possibilities of this further we are developing a prototype later this year.

There is widespread interest in monitoring the vitality of town centres, in being able to make comparisons between centres, and to support planning policy which favours the direction of retail development towards town centre locations.

The consistency of the boundaries generated by the project allows for easy comparison of the statistics within the ATCA boundaries.

Users should note that the project defines areas containing town centre activity for statistical monitoring and comparisons. These areas have no policy status and are not town centres for policy purposes.

Although most ATCAs will be designated town centres, some are not. Their appearance in the project does not imply they are recognised as town centres in local plans.

Also, some centres designated in development plans may not appear here. The exclusion of a centre does not mean that it is not a town centre. It simply means that within the model the density of town centre activity is not enough for it appear.

The model used is based on SQL2000, administered through ArcSDE, and with the front-end embedded in an ArcGIS desktop. The Spatial Analyst extension is required for the model to run. MS Visual FoxPro 9 is also used to view the data.

Annual Business Inquiry (ABI) employee data at unit postcode level from the Office for National Statistics;
Floorspace and rateable value statistics at property level from the Valuation Office Agency;
All Fields Postcode Directory;
1:10,000 scale colour raster for identification of town centres; and
1:50,000 scale colour raster for identification of town centres.

Boundaries and statistics for ATCAs have been published for 2000 and 2002 and are available here

Statistics and boundaries for 1998-2004 (including a revision of previously published 2000 and 2002 statistics and boundaries) will be released via the Communities and Local Government's State of the Cities Database in spring 2007.

Updates are planned on an annual basis.

Information on Areas of Town Centre Activity

Information on the Annual Business Inquiry

Information on commercial and industrial property statistics

Valuation Office Agencywebsite

GLUD provides statistics showing land type for all of England. These are illustrated across nine simplified categories plus 'unclassified' and provide a basis for comparing, for example the availability of green space between similarly defined administrative areas.

GLUD statistics show the area of different land types for Census Output Areas (OAs), Lower Layer Super Output Areas (LSOAs), Middle Layer Super Output Areas (MSOAs), Local Authorities (Las) and Government Office Regions (GORs) in England.

2003 CAS ward

NeSS - Comprehensive metadata about data described in GLUD

Communities and Local Government - statistics also available for CAS wards

The work started under the auspices of the Government Response to the Barker Review of Housing Supply. A set of maps running from 1996 to 2005 were regarded as being a useful tool to demonstrate to the Housing and Planning Cabinet Committee how significant an issue housing affordability is.

Whilst house prices have continued to increase throughout the country there has been different impacts on different areas, and it is this that means that no single solution will help deal with the problem. For instance, the increase in the south-west of England is mainly due to second homes, whilst in the south-east it is more related to pressure for commuting homes. Only by looking at the whole spatial picture can these patterns be fully understood.

In addition, the differences between workplace earnings and residential earnings is an interesting factor to look at as it can start to open up patterns around locations where it is cheaper to work and live against those where it is cheaper to commute to.

All this work was carried out in ArcGIS, Excel and Access.
The combination of earnings data with house prices was done in Access and Excel along with calculations of affordability and the differences between workplace and residential patterns.
ArcGIS was used to produce the final map output.

Solution
All data processing was carried out in Access and Excel to produce a lower quartile housing affordability score – namely lower quartile house prices / lower quartile earnings at the local authority level. This produces a ratio of how many times a yearly salary would be needed to pay for a dwelling. The lower quartile is used as this is the best proxy for first time buyers.

As well as simply affordability ratios, statistics such as the change over time (e.g. difference between 1996 and 2000, or the average yearly change between two years) and the difference between using residential earnings and workplace earnings can be calculated.

ArcGIS was then used as a data dissemination tool and as an easy way to communicate the results. The maps were created through the usual steps of joining statistical data to shapefiles (using the common ONS LA code) and used a static legend for the whole series from 1996 – 2005 to instantly convey how affordability changes over time.

This application is relatively low on the technology and technique side. Instead, its strengths lie in the visualisation of output from statistical analysis. Such visualisations of statistical data can help to stress to policymakers what has happened in the past and how much impact their policies are having on the country.

It is only as one tracks the growing red patches of high unaffordability that the true speed of change becomes apparent. Equally maps demonstrating change between periods help show how increases initially started in London before spreading through the south-east and south-west, before the rate in the Midlands and north increased in an attempt to “catch-up” with changes further south.

Land Registry Lower Quartile House Prices by LA (published by Communities and Local Government)
Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings – Lower Quartile earnings by LA (ONS)

OS BoundaryLine – Government Office Regions and Local Authority boundaries, Scotland and Wales outline
OS Meridian 2 – mean high water coastline for clipping BoundaryLine

A number of issue areas have been thrown up for further investigation. In particular, the Department’s current monitoring under its PSAs focuses entirely on affordability based on workplace earnings. This has advantages in that the earnings data has a longer history of supply over the residential data and it fits in with the ideals of everyone living and working in the same local authority.

On the other hand, however, being realistic it is not possible for everyone to live local to work and is certainly not the case for a significant proportion of the population. Therefore further work on looking at the differences in the pattern between the two sets of earnings data is warranted – such analysis can help to highlight the areas in which the residents seem to have better affordability ratios than the people who actually work there.

In addition, this work has only looked at lower quartile levels at the moment – a very different pattern could well appear at median or mean levels.

The Regional Resilience Teams (RRTs) have been operational in each of the Government Offices in England since April 2003. They play an integral part in both planning for and responding to major incidents. Also, during emergencies the RRTs act as an interface between Central Government and the local response.

Therefore, it was envisaged that the provision of a dedicated GIS capability to the RRTs would enhance the sharing of relevant information between the Centre and the Regions, especially during emergencies and crises situations. A GIS would also provide the RRTs with the capability to capture and maintain relevant information, to develop a clear picture of what has happened during an emergency, and also allow them to predict whether further disruption may be expected.

The Resilience Research Branch of the Fire and Resilience Directorate, Communities and Local Government (CLG) has been developing GIS based contingency planning tools for use in support of resilience policies of the CLG, and as decision support in crisis and consequence management. The GIS based tool developed for the RRTs is based on these other tools which have been developed by the Resilience Research Branch. Each RRT has been provided with a high specification standalone laptop loaded with ESRI’s ArcView software along with the Spatial Analyst Extension. A number of customised tools have been developed by ESRI (UK) for use by the RRTs. These tools enable the user to draw certain shapes, such as a cordon or a threat area, and query the data within those areas with ease.

Solutions
In 2004 a GIS capability on standalone dedicated laptops was rolled out to the RRTs in each Government Office to improve the sharing of relevant information between the Centre and the Regions, especially during emergencies. The tool was delivered on standalone laptops due to the nature of the data that is stored and also to enable portability so that the tool could be taken out of the office and used during emergencies and crises situations.

Initially, a six month pilot was held to investigate how the RRTs would use such a capability. During the pilot users were encouraged to use the system for any situation they deemed suitable and also to think about what data would be required to enable the system to be more suitable and tailored to their work. On completion of the pilot a workshop was held so that all users of the tool could share experiences of their use of the system. It was envisaged that by sharing experiences, those users that had not fully used the GIS capability would be able to see the value of such a tool in their day-to-day work.

A post pilot GIS is now in use by the RRTs. The datasets used by these teams varies depending on the event they are planning for or responding to. For example, during severe weather datasets such as the Environment Agency’s Flood Map and the location of response organisations could be used. However, when planning for a flu pandemic datasets such as the locations of hospitals and General Practitioners would be used.

The provision of a GIS capability to the RRTs has altered the way these teams can plan for and respond to major emergencies. One of the main advantages of such a system is that it enables relevant information to be interrogated with ease. This in turn ensures an efficient and effective response in an emergency and allows information to be shared and briefing produced with relative ease.

Lessons Learned
During the pilot stage of this project two versions of ArcView (v3.3. and v8.3) were rolled out in tandem because the customised tools for the Regional Resilience Teams were available in ArcView v3.3 but were still under development in v8.3. Since these tools were seen as very useful for the Regional Resilience Teams’ use of GIS it was decided to roll out version 3.3. However, these customised tools would eventually be available in ArcView v8.3 and because there was a big difference between versions 3.3 and 8.3 it was decided to roll ArcView v8.3 alongside v3.3 so that the Regional Resilience Teams could become acquainted with the latest version of ArcView. Although this was viewed as an ideal way to enable the users of the GIS capability to gradually transfer between versions of ArcView it did lead to some confusion. Ideally, we would have rolled out a complete package in the latest version of ArcView so that the users would not have to switch between two very different versions of the software.

As stated earlier the GIS capability provided to the Regional Resilience Teams is on standalone laptops. This presents a problem when updating the data. Instead of updating one central data source you have to update nine laptops. To overcome this we send out a CD to each of the Regional Resilience Teams with simple step-by-step instructions on how to load the updated datasets. During this project we have learnt that instructions on how to update data must be simple and easy to read as some of the users are not as IT literate as others.

The users of the RRT GIS tools do not necessarily use the system everyday and so skills can fade. Therefore, we have found that the production of simple summary guides of more common tasks, for example how to produce a layout for inclusion in a presentation or report, are very helpful to users when they start to use the GIS tools after a period of inactivity. Refresher exercises and tutorials are also sent out on a regular basis to encourage the GIS users to maintain a certain skill level. The provision of a set of tailored layout templates also enables those users who do not use the GIS tools often to produce effective and professional layouts.

Another lesson that has been learned is the important of having available relevant up to date and accurate datasets, especially an appreciation of those which are deemed to be essential and that these are likely to change as priorities change.

The full list of datasets used by the RRTs has a security classification of RESTRICTED and so cannot be published. However, the RRT GIS tool makes use of a number of OS datasets provided through the PGA:

Other datasets include boundary data, population data, and various datasets of the UK national infrastructure and response organisations. The population data used has been produced by a third party, CACI. CACI have modified the 2001 census data by projecting it to 2005 using Government projections and adjusted it to take into account work place and school age populations. CACI have then modelled this data to 100 metre grid squares covering the UK. In doing this, CACI have produced a 2005 day time population dataset and a 2005 night time population dataset. The 100 metre grid resolution enables the RRTs to predict the number of people within cordons and threat areas more effectively than would have been possible with the 2001 census data.

The pilot stage of this project highlighted a number of options for further enhancement of the Regional Resilience Team GIS capability. The main option being the development of a networked GIS for the Regional Resilience Teams. The current GIS capability is on standalone laptops and the main advantage of this is that it is portable and can therefore be taken out of the office and used during incidents. However, it has its limitations in that only one person per team can use the laptop at any one time and because it cannot be connected to a network it is not easy to share documents with others. A networked GIS for the Regional Resilience Teams will therefore overcome these issues. Other options for further development include the provision of portable colour printers and digital projectors to enable the standalone GIS tool to be of greater use during incidents.

An ongoing requirement of this project is to ensure that the data used is up-to-date, accurate and relevant. As priorities change within the Regional Resilience Teams the requirement for certain datasets also change. For example, if a priority is to plan for a flu pandemic, datasets such as the locations of hospitals and GP surgeries as well as primary care trust and strategic health authority boundaries would become a requirement.

Regional Resilience and the role of Regional Resilience Teams

UK Resilience Website

ESRI Support Centre

GIgateway

Neighbourhood Statistics data download

The Department launched a cross-Departmental policy programme for the Thames Gateway in July 2003. The Department is proposing to improve understanding of policy impacts and inform future strategy development in the Thames Gateway by understanding the context for policy and broader changes relevant to the aspirations for sustainable communities. This analysis will help us to understand how the area is functioning and the drivers of change.

The report presents baseline information to help us understand the broader context in the Thames Gateway and how the area is functioning. In the future, this information can be updated to assess whether we are achieving sustainable growth. A broad range of indicators have been included to provide evidence in relation to policy interests across the department (including social exclusion, housing delivery, etc.) and other Government Departments (e.g., skills, health, employment).

Solution
The report had to paint a picture of the Thames Gateway, its sub-regions, local areas and features at the start point of the Thames Gateway programme. With particular reference to the following themes:

• Geography & environment


• Community and social inclusion


• Education and skills


• Transport and connectivity


• Decent Places to live

A number of these themes can be readily presented in tables and charts which will illustrate change over time. However, a number also benefit from being graphically represented in order to add context. A particular problem of the Thames Gateway is that it suffers a bit from a lack of a distinctive identity because its borders do not follow those of either government office regions, local authorities or wards. As such, it was invaluable to present the reader with a series of maps to show exactly where the Thames Gateway area is, what is contained within it and where the key loctions are.

Other aspects of the Thames Gateway which needed to be communicated graphically included:

• Flood risk, which is important in relation to the proposed new developments


• Brownfield sites, illustrating how many areas in the Gateway are ripe for regeneration


• Transport links and travel to work areas – to illustrate the improving connectivity in the Thames Gateway


• Deprivation


• Air quality


• Public attractions


• Environmental quality and sites of special scientific interest


• Population density


A number of the datasets were created by using a suite of indicators based on the state of the Cities indicators, supplemented by data from the Census, LFS, Annual Business Inquiry and several other datasets. The indicators were aggregated to the relevant Thames Gateway geographies and presented in the form of either charts, tables or maps.

The report also made use of a number of different shapefiles/maps held by Data Statistics and Infrastructure Division.

The benefits of our approach is that it provides policy colleagues with a handy reference guide to the characteristics of the gateway and a basis from which future monitoring and evaluation can be developed. The report has also assisted with the development of the evidence base, thereby contributing to better policymaking.

As it is a baseline report, it is hard to definitively identify the totality of benefits and cost savings, and changes prompted by the report.

1981, 1991, 2001 Census ward boundaries for TG geographies
2003 Casward boundaries for TG geographies
Local Authority Boundaries for TG geographies
Numerous indicators from the State of the Cities database (including IMD and air quality indicators)
Points of interest (public attractions in the Thames Gateway)
Key stations and transport links in the Thames Gateway
Travel to Work Areas in the Thames Gateway
Population density in the Thames Gateway
Flood risk areas in the Thames Gateway (Environment Agency)
Protected environmental areas in the Thames Gateway (English Nature)
Previously developed Land in the Thames Gateway (NLUD)
RPG 9 geographical boundaries

We are currently working on a follow on project to improve the accessibility of information about the Gateway by loading the Thames Gateway geographies onto the department’s Places database and establishing links between Places and Thames Gateway London partnership’s Knowledge Platform system.

The project formed a key element of the Chief Executive’s 2002 “Coming of Age” modernizing agenda by-lined: “giving staff the right tools for the right job”. In addition to the 2 aims there was a requirement to:

• Migrate over 1,000,000 spatial records from 2 legacy GIS databases and dynamically link them with textual records held in 6 legacy Oracle databases.
  


• Implement an architecture to support EH’s longer term strategic objectives which includes the addition of an even greater range of internal and third party data, field based data capture and public-facing web GIS access to all EH’s heritage data

ArcIMS is used to power webGIS. webGIS provides all 1900 staff with user-friendly access to definitive data. It enables powerful spatial and thematic queries to be combined across multiple datasets, the production of simple reports and high quality maps using pre-defined templates.


The solution devised a method to validate, clean and migrate 1,000,000 spatial records. The data is loaded, maintained and managed in two Oracle Databases with ArcSDE. The records have been linked with the six legacy databases using a combination of web services and PL/SQL technology. This data is held alongside 700GB of modern and historical mapping.


ArcGIS is installed on two CITRIX boxes for deskGIS and deployed to users through CITRIX clients. deskGIS is used to enhance the data and perform more advanced analysis, it can be deployed throughout EH including historic properties and is customised to enable fast and efficient data capture.

Lesson Learned

• Having a dedicated support database set up so that you can easily retrieve old enquiries and the solutions, also useful to track trends.
• Having a method for reporting and recording data errors saves time and ensures issues are followed up
• Having a method of prioritising requests for change etc established is very useful
• Senior director buy in is key to success – particularly to obtain resource for testing etc.
• Testing takes much longer than you think!
• Good working relationship with the supplier is vital
• Dedicated Project Manager with experience of running IT projects (not necessarily GIS) gives you a much chance of success
• Clear and concise communication strategy is key to engaging with users (as well as a free lunch to entice people to come to meetings)
• Producing a national seamless coverage of Historical Mapping is not a simple task!
• Rapid Application Development approach worked well to help people who didn’t understand GIS – and we’ve continued to use it for other projects
• How to guides with step by step instructions are the preferred type of training notes
• Customise deskGIS training to just cover individuals flowlines rather than try and teach an introduction to ArcGIS.
• Cumulative searching is often required (i.e. querying more than one data layer at a time)

English Heritage Datasets
Scheduled Monuments
Listed Buildings
Parks and Gardens
Battlefields
World Heritage Sites
NMR AMIE Monuments
NMR AMIE Events

Other
Prewar Historical Mapping supplied by Landmark
Maritime Boundaries supplied by Law of the Sea, UKHO
Ancient Woodland
AONB
Heritage Coast
Joint character Areas
Local Nature researves
National Nature Reserves
National Parks
Natural Areas
RAMSAR
SAC
SPA
SSSI

English Heritage

Heritage Gateway

\'GIS is proving to be an indispensable tool in our day-to-day casework. Goodness knows how we coped before.\'
Casework Assistant
\'webGIS looks great and is priceless for us in our work lives.\'
Business Manager

The Environment Agency has a statutory duty to maintain, improve and develop freshwater fisheries. To fulfil this duty, information to describe and understand fish stocks is required. Current fisheries management tools rely upon the measurement of site and catchment features to aid the interpretation of fish survey data.

Manual methods of extracting site and catchment features are inherently time consuming and may be prone to human error. A huge advantage may be gained if such methods could be automated. The use of a GIS allows for the extraction of attributes for any sites of interest on the "river network". This enables the refinement, and improvement, of the existing management tools and assists with the development of new tools.
The project provided an analysis of new and existing GIS techniques for the measurement of site and catchment features. The GIS provides a data source, a modelling platform and a mapping tool that aim to supply useful improvements to existing fisheries management techniques and have wider usefulness outside the fisheries function.

The work was carried out in ArcGIS (mainly with ArcView but with some use of ArcEditor) and with the Spatial Analyst extension and the ArcHydro data model supporting tool set (ESRI). MS Excel and MiniTab were also used for the analysis and comparisons of datasets plus the development of demonstration models. ArcGIS was used for the data extraction and the back application of equation based models to produce predictive maps.

Solution
Hydrological modelling was undertaken using the Spatial Analyst extension of ArcGIS on the 50m resampled version of the NextMap surface DEM following the methods described in (Coley, 2003) and the ArcHydro tools for terrain reconditioning.
The derived datasets were then used again in ArcGIS (with Spatial Analyst) to summarise catchment upstream values for every 50m cell of the river network.
Data was extracted and combined with fisheries population data for specific sites within a statistical package (for example MiniTab) and a demonstration relationship described (as an equation). The equation was back applied within ArcGIS to predict a fish population on each 50m cell of the river network.

GIS provides the ability to automate and improve measurement of catchment features that will aid interpretation of fish survey (or other environmental survey) data and improve the cost-effectiveness of fisheries (or environmental) management methods. However, good data auditing is required. This is of particular significance in relation to location data, which is prone to errors when taken from older data sources.

GIS provides the ability to calculate attributes that are easy to calculate by hand in an automated way but also offers the ability to calculate variables that would be either very time consuming or impossible to calculate without using GIS.

Attributes can be calculated in a systematic way and the calculation of new attributes can be achieved by using new or improved datasets, as they become available. The advantage of such a system is threefold:
1. By having raster datasets attributes can be extracted for any 50m cell on the river network.
2. Any relationships discovered during analysis can easily be applied to the whole river network.
3. Any dataset alterations or improvements can easily be applied.

Lesson Learned
Derived dataset production is time consuming (processing time on PC) and recent introduction of ArcGIS 9.x with model builder and scripting would allow for better implementation by running of batch processes to completion rather than requiring manual intervention at the end of each stage.

NextMap surface model DEM (re-sampled to 50m resolution, method independent of a specific DEM but this one chosen for the study).
Land Cover 2000 (LCM 2000).
CEH 1:50,000 blue-line river network (method independent of a specific river network but this one chosen for the study).
OS Meridian 2 - mean High Water Mark coastline for clipping of boundaries.
OS Strategi data based 1: 250,000 scale urban areas polygons.
National Fisheries Population data from the Environment Agency NFPD fisheries survey database.

Derived datasets using a combination of some or all of the above

Other Datasets
LCM 2000
1:50k River network
NextMap DEM

Software
ESRI
ArcGIS
ArcView
ArcEditor
ArcGIS extension (Spatial Analyst)

The general method is now recognised but it is likely to be run at a more detailed scale when the Environment Agency's new Detailed River Network (DRN) is ready.

The derived datasets will be made available more widely in the business so that data can be extracted by non GIS specialist staff quickly for a specific survey site to "plug in to" a specific fisheries or other environmental modelling package. This will reduce the time spent on collecting such data and reduce the likely level of human-induced error in any manual collection of the data.

Coley A, 2003 Relationship between juvenile salmonid populations and catchment features. Environment Agency R&D W2-065 Technical Report

Almost everything we need to sustain modern life comes from the soils and rocks beneath our feet. Most of our water passes over and through the Earth in the hydrologic cycle; our food grows upon its thin fragile skin of soil; mines and quarries yield industrial and construction materials; and hydrocarbons provide most of our energy and an ever-increasing range of plastic products. And we continue to dispose of increasing volumes of waste in this same zone, where it remains a potential source of pollution into the future.

For optimum land-use planning and to manage the development of resources we need the best available information about geology and the physical and chemical characteristics of rocks, soils and waters. Through the Tellus project, GSNI has delivered a new series of detailed geophysical and geochemical maps, images and digital datasets of Northern Ireland.

Tellus was managed by the Geological Survey of Northern Ireland (GSNI) and financed by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment of Northern Ireland (DETI), with retrospective contributions from the EU-funded ‘Building Sustainable Prosperity’ scheme of the Rural Development Programme and from the NI Environment Agency.

Prior to Tellus, geophysical and geochemical data of Northern Ireland were relatively limited. Previous regional geophysical coverage was recorded in 1959-60, with only low sensitivity. Historical geochemistry was restricted in terms of area cover and in range of analytes.

To provide new comprehensive geophysical and geochemical cover GSNI commissioned geophysical and geochemical surveys of Northern Ireland between 2004 and 2006. The British Geological Survey (BGS), in partnership the Geological Survey of Finland (GTK), flew a low-level airborne geophysical survey at a line spacing of 200m and a height of 56m, collecting magnetic field, electrical conductivity and terrestrial gamma-radiation measurements. GSNI and BGS teams collected 28,000 soil, stream-sediment and stream-water samples, at a nominal interval of one soil and one stream site per 2 km2.

Airborne geophysical data were standardised, levelled and adjusted by proprietary BGS and GTK software suites. Data were spatially referenced to the Irish Grid (1975) and delivered in ASCII format for contouring and imaging. Corrected data were imaged and transformed by Geosoft Oasis montaj™. Geochemistry data were quality-controlled using in-house processes and imaged in ESRI ArcGIS v 9.2 using the Spatial Analyst extension. Images of the principal geophysical parameters, geophysical transformations and multi-element geochemistry were imported into ESRI ArcGIS v 9.2 for analysis. Other layers included topography, high resolution aerial photography, digital geology, and gravity. Field and processed data are archived in an Oracle database.

The geophysical results provide new insights into Northern Ireland’s geology and geological structure, particularly where bedrock is obscured by glacial cover and peat. Delineation of faults, dykes and the major volcanic complexes has been greatly improved. The complementary imagery of magnetics, electrical conductivity and radioactivity facilitate improved mapping of soils and rock types. The geochemical results provide a new and consistent baseline standard for some 55 elements and compounds across rural Northern Ireland and in the main metropolitan centres.

The improved geophysical mapping and new regional geochemical maps have prompted renewed interest in mineral prospecting. New anomalies in gold, platinum group elements and base metals have been mapped. Since the data were launched, 70% of Northern Ireland has been licensed for mineral exploration, with short-term inward exploration investment commitments of nearly three times the project cost.

The geochemical results provide a standard against which to monitor environmental change and a means of identifying abnormal levels of key elements or compounds. With this information we can identify areas for remediation or control, particularly in the context of the Soil Guideline Values and the EU Directives on nitrates and other parameters.

The dataset is a rich resource for health research. Correlation of cancer distribution and geochemistry is being researched. Tellus data have provided an improved means of mapping the potential distribution of the naturally occurring gas radon, a principal cause of lung cancer. The first map of the distribution in Northern Ireland of the artificial radio-nuclide, caesium-137 has also been generated, showing current levels of historic radioactive fall-out.

Lessons learned
Tellus is the largest integrated geophysics/geochemistry survey project ever undertaken in the UK. The value of collecting and interpreting integrated coherent datasets has been confirmed by the wide uptake of data by companies, government and academia for use in industrial, environmental, agricultural, health and research sectors.

Software
- Geosoft Oasis montaj
- ArcInfo v9.2
- Oracle
- Javad Pinnacle

OSNI – topographic data
OSNI – high resolution aerial photography
OSNI – Pointer address database
GSNI - gravity data
GSNI - digital bedrock and superficial geology
DARDNI – IACS land holdings database
Meteorological Office – rainfall database

Between 2008 and 2011 GSNI and BGS will continue to improve accessibility, add value to the data through interpretation, and undertake research, particularly in collaboration with universities. Tasks already underway or scheduled include:

• Web-delivery of data through the Northern Ireland GeoHub facility
• Data capture of some 100,000 boreholes and integration with Tellus and other GSNI data in a web-accessible data index
• Web-delivery of value-added reports on geology, ground stability, radon, ground-source heat-pumps, etc
• 3D geological modelling
• Assessment of shallow mineral resources
• Minerals prospectivity analysis
• Geo-statistical analysis.

Tellus Project: Tellus

High resolution resource and environmental surveys: (HiRES)

Geochemical Baseline Survey of the Environment: (G-BASE)

As part of the Government agenda to make £100m savings across the estate, GIS maps of office and staff locations were produced to inform the geographical position to look at ease staff of travel to potentially new offices and provide a reference in the published review of the proposals for closures and retentions of offices.

Internet search revealed several sources for the traditional tube maps, but I came across an entry in Wikimedia that used GPS data for station locations. Using MapInfo as the geographical software the process to load the GPS data was fairly straightforward. The vector drawing tool was used to ‘join the dots’ and the lines were coloured (approximately) to the traditional tube line colours. Separate files for each tube ‘line’ were then created.

MapInfo Professional V8.0
Ordnance Survey ‘Boundary Line’ – to ensure ‘fit’ with major rail stations

PGA
Boundary Line
Code Pointand Code Point Polygons
Meridian 2
Other Datasets
MapInfo
Professional

Need to find a more accurate method of creating the ‘tube’ lines as zooming in shows a discrepancy in the positioning. Will also be looking at sources of GPS data to produce similar maps for underground/tram maps of other UK cities.
Data available in various formats.

By definition a collection of Discovery Metadata is designed to be made available to the public and shared with them, so that it can be accessed and searched by as wide a group of potential users as possible.

Standards/Technology
The BGS has implemented BS ISO 19115:2003. Metadata records are held and managed within an Oracle® RDBMS, which provides security, sustainability and ease of searching.

The Challenge
It is part of the BGS mission to disseminate information in the community, to promote the public understanding of science, and to demonstrate the importance of the geosciences to resource and environmental issues. The importance of metadata is recognised within the e-Government Interoperability Framework (e-GIF) by the UK government, which has mandated that all government-related information systems should create metadata.
Standards for geographic metadata have changed since our initial records were collated; we needed to gather up to date information compliant with current standards on more than 400 datasets and develop the systems needed to hold and distribute them effectively.

Solution

Collated information regarding significant BGS datasets has been entered into a database within the corporate Oracle® RDBMS (Relational Database Management System) that has been specifically designed to comply with ISO 19115 2003, Geographic information – Metadata. For each dataset the information collected complies with the minimum requirements for the standard together with some additional elements relevant to BGS.

The metadata records are available internally via the BGS Intranet and copies are accessible to the general public via the BGS website ( http://www.bgs.ac.uk ). The static copies displayed on the website are updated periodically from the database as new records are added and existing records amended.

Lessons Learned

To ensure that the best possible information is provided the metadata compiler needs a clear understanding of the metadata field definitions and a detailed perception of the types and levels of information that are needed. In most instances it is more efficient, and a more satisfactory record is obtained, if an experienced metadata professional works with the dataset manager to compile the metadata record.

Currently the metadata system holds Discovery Metadata details alongside other datasets that use the same core tables together with extra tables that cover fields specific to particular collections, e.g. 3D modelling or maps. An increase in the number of metadata collections is planned and work has started on designing the database tables required to store metadata relevant to GIS shape files.

An automated mapping system is essential for the Census because of the large numbers of maps required (approximately 117,000 unique ED maps and 376 unique Local Authority maps were produced for the 2001 Census). The system needs to be able to cope with the wide variation in area characteristics (from very urban to very rural), and also to be able to produce maps at different scales, page sizes, and paper orientations. It is also important to take account of the successes from the methods used for the 2001 Census and the areas identified for improvement.

In addition to the census requirements we wanted to create a system that could be used for other purposes (e.g. producing maps of Super Output Areas within different Local Authorities) to maximise value for money.

The system was developed using ESRI’s ArcGIS 9.1 software and Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) macros because this is the standard GIS software in ONS, and because it had all the capabilities necessary to meet the requirements. However, it should be possible to produce a system using any GIS software.

The system needed to be able to handle different input layers and creation of different types of maps. To achieve this it was decided to allow the user to select the input layers, page size, symbology, and label settings in ArcMap before starting the tool.

A dialog box is displayed to collect information from the user about what is required.

The tool zooms to each area, calculates the appropriate page orientation, adds map furniture (title, scale text, legend, and purpose/copyright statements) and exports the map to a PDF file. The PDF files can be sent to a printer in batches.

Solution
The requirement for the ED maps is to clearly show the area that each enumerator is responsible for. This means that the boundary of the area needs to be clear on the map, and where possible street names are included on the raster backgrounds to aid navigation. Only the boundary of the specific ED is shown to avoid confusion with neighbouring areas. Colour raster backgrounds were chosen because it is easier to distinguish different types of features compared with black and white rasters.

The ED boundary and raster datasets are used on all the ED maps. Scale thresholds are used to control which raster dataset is the most appropriate one to be displayed on each specific map. The postcode data is only shown on maps of rural areas to assist the enumerator with matching the address details to the map where street names are less common. Rural areas were identified by plotting Output Area centroids against the ED boundaries and using the ONS Area Classification at Output Area level to define area type. This is a reasonable although not perfect method.

The Automated Mapping Tool is an efficient way of creating maps. For the Census Test it was used to produce about 800 maps in 4 hours (excluding printing time), although this does depend on page size. In fact, the majority of the time required to produce the maps is taken up with printing. This is a much more efficient way of producing maps than creating them manually (even for small numbers of maps). It is also a more consistent way of producing maps because the map furniture is added automatically by the tool using information in the files which gives all the maps the same look and feel and should prevent errors.

Another benefit is that we are now able to offer a service to customers to produce series’ of maps, and crucially not just for census purposes. ONS would be very happy to discuss this further and share this tool with other IGGI members, contact Donna Viney for information.

Lessons Learned
The decision to use as much core functionality as we could was important in making the application as easy as possible to migrate between different software versions. The code used in the application is also split into lots of different modules which helps with changing the functionality and locating problems.

Allowing the user to specify inputs, symbology etc has proved very important in allowing the use of the tool for many different purposes.

For the Census Test Enumeration District (ED) maps:

• 2001 ED boundaries (ONS)


• Full range of Colour Raster Datasets (Ordnance Survey)


• National Statistics Postcode Directory (ONS)

The Automated Mapping Tool was developed as a pragmatic solution for the 2007 Census Test using desktop technology. A full enterprise system will need to be developed for the 2011 Census.

There are some extra pieces of functionality that could be added to the Automated Mapping Tool like increasing the font size of the title as page size increases, and positioning the legend more precisely. Also the identification of rural areas could be refined by checking the assignment from the Area Classification against the scale of the map at certain page sizes (e.g. at A4 a very rural area would be a much smaller scale than a very urban area).

Further work could also be undertaken to investigate the use of the mapping tool for statistical (e.g. choropleth) as well as reference maps. There is no reason why the tool could not be used for this purpose.

The webpage National Statistics Census Geography provides more information about the geographies used in the Census.

The ESRI online support website and the
ESRI Developer Network proved useful for sample scripts and help information. Also the sample scripts provided with the ArcGIS software were useful.

The Ordnance Survey website provides information about the raster datasets.

Planting returns data is vitally important to us. We raise bills based on it, so we need to be able to validate that data (area checking) by visiting and/or flying over a proportion of fields each year.

GIS strategy has developed steadily over several years. Initially the position of a field was indicated via a map reference provided by the grower, and this was used to display the data on a map enquiry system. When this revealed many inaccuracies in the positional accuracy of the map references being used by growers, it was decided to integrate maps with the paper planting returns, and ask growers to mark their potato fields on the maps. This had the immediate effect of greatly improving the accuracy of our data.

Another key development was the transference of planting returns data onto a Tablet PC which was connected to the GPS system of the helicopter (instead of paper maps) when field staff flew over potato growing areas to check the accuracy of returns. At a stroke, field staff were able to cover much larger areas of country in a helicopter flight. This meant they had the option of covering a much wider area for their money, or of reducing their flying costs.

Like most of our bespoke internal systems, the On-Line Returns System was developed using Delphi and SQL Server. The GIS element was provided by TatukGIS’s Developer Kernel: these components were chosen because they could be used with Intraweb to develop internet systems, and also because they had gained a reputation for speed. This was important because it was vital that the system was both easy to use (a question of design) and fast, even over relatively poor lines.

Software
I originally used ESRI's MapObjects components with Delphi to develop GIS systems.
Later, I used TatukGIS's Developer Kernel Toolkit with Delphi to develop Intranet and Internet systems.
I use ESRI's ArcGIS for one-off analysis and map generation.

The immediate future involves trying to persuade as many growers as possible to use the on-line returns system for the 2009 season. This will be greatly helped by the very positive feedback we have received from growers who trialed it this year. Many commented on how easy it was to use, and how it was quicker than filling in paper forms. From the PCL’s point of view, we save time in not having to print out maps for on-line customers and in not having to check and key in the data when the forms are posted back. An on-line returns system seems to be a win-win situation!

Supplier of GIS Components: www.tatukGIS.com