Access to dependable, high speed mobile connectivity is essential for residents, businesses and organisations across the country. Like many regions, Nottinghamshire has faced varying levels of mobile signal coverage, and the 4G and 5G connectivity maps provided by network operators often fail to accurately reflect real-world conditions faced by residents, businesses and public sector organisations.

Recognising this gap, the Digital Connectivity team was successful in securing funding from the Local Government Association’s (LGA) ‘Digital Pathfinders Programme’, and selected Birmingham City University (BCU) as the academic partner for the project to collect data and map actual mobile connectivity across the county (see footnote reference 1). Over an 18-month period, data was collected by a network monitoring device that synchronously measured all four Mobile Network Operators’ (MNOs) 4G and 5G mobile signal coverage across the refuse collection routes operated by the seven District Local Authorities in Nottinghamshire. The survey collected data across 7,723 roads across Nottinghamshire’s districts and boroughs, resulting in 7.7 million data points being collected.

Whilst this vast amount of data was held in Excel files, it was difficult to analyse efficiently and present to those who could benefit most from it. Without the ability to visualise the data it is virtually impossible to interpret and to effectively present the results to MNOs and other key stakeholders. The Digital Connectivity team realised it was vital to bring this data to life, creating use-friendly visuals that clearly highlight connectivity across all MNOs with a focus on areas of poor signal and gaps in coverage. These visuals would then be used in discussions to influence interventions and investment in improved network coverage.

Nottinghamshire County Council provides public access to real-time insights and in-depth analysis of local trends through the Nottinghamshire Observatory, which is fully hosted and managed using Esri UK’s Data Observatory. Already leveraging Report Builder for ArcGIS to create detailed reports and visualisations, the Council identified the Observatory as the ideal platform for presenting the results of the Digital Pathfinders Project.

To map and share the huge amounts of data surveyed, the Digital Connectivity team chose ArcGIS Experience Builder, a commercial off-the-shelf solution, which empowers users to create a high quality interactive and compelling website without the need for complicated coding. The process was streamlined, enabling the team to create the maps and then to build the web pages, starting with an existing web page template and then using the customised widgets and design preferences as needed.

Colour-blind palettes were selected for the maps, ensuring the maps are accessible to users with colour vision deficiencies, aligning with the Council’s accessibility and inclusion goals. “A clear and accessible viewing experience offered on all platforms, especially mobile devices was essential to the council’s own brand, credibility, and reputation, and Experience Builder certainly fulfilled this requirement,” commented Jonathan Hall, GIS Officer – Digital Connectivity, Nottinghamshire County Council.

Users can now explore the findings through mobile-friendly maps, zoom into specific areas, flip between separate webpages of the four MNOs in Nottinghamshire (Three, EE, Virgin Media O2 and Vodafone) whilst ensuring that the maps retain the same zoom and extent, and check 4G and 5G availability – from ‘not spots’ (no network coverage) to areas with excellent connectivity. The maps are optimised for various screen sizes including large screens, tablets and mobiles, thus giving a pleasant viewing experience.

By identifying areas with poor connectivity and ‘not spots’, the team can now prioritise these areas for intervention and engage with the MNOs and other relevant partners/stakeholders to devise solutions to drive improved mobile connectivity.

Delivering mobile equality
By visualising its mobile connectivity data, Nottinghamshire County Council has a clearer view of the ‘not spots’ and poor signal areas and can have meaningful and collaborative conversations with mobile network operators to address poor connectivity issues. The maps will also be used to track developments and changes in mobile connectivity as 6G is trialled and previous generations of mobile communications (eg 3G) become obsolete.

Updatable
Future data additions can now be seamlessly integrated, enabling clear visualisation of progress and changes. This allows for continuous mapping of underserved areas, including public spaces inaccessible to refuse collection lorries, ensuring comprehensive coverage and targeted improvements.

Demonstrating insights
Maps have been created to visualise the seven million plus data points, allowing users and stakeholders to uncover insights that were previously hidden in Excel files. The interactive, zoomable maps with multiple user features demonstrate the impact of the collected data, enabling the Digital Connectivity team to showcase the results of its work to the LGA, which funded the Digital Pathfinders Project.

Better viewing experience
Residents and businesses can view the maps on a variety of devices with different screen sizes, thanks to the technology employed in Experience Builder. These web apps automatically adapt to the user’s screen size, ensuring a seamless experience across devices. Features like the colour-blind palette also make the maps accessible to users with colour vision deficiencies, allowing everyone to read and understand the maps clearly.

Sustrans’ goal is to improve the safety and accessibility of the 12,786-mile National Cycle Network and provide quality paths where everyone can enjoy walking, cycling and wheeling. The charity formulated an ambitious Network Development Plan, but some improvement initiatives were hampered by insufficient data on land ownership. Recognising this, Sustrans decided to use its existing ArcGIS system to give its employees access to additional land data, which they could then use to improve the implementation of network improvements.

Initially, Sustrans collected additional land ownership data by contacting around 150 local authorities individually. Then, at an Esri UK Conference, Sustrans met with LANDCLAN, an Esri UK partner that provides spatially-joined land and property data for use in ArcGIS. Through its government sponsors, Sustrans entered into a licence agreement for selected LANDCLAN datasets, including data on land ownership, public rights of way, habitats and transport.

At the same time, Sustrans began to make greater use of data from the Esri Living Atlas of the World. This global, online resource provides easy access to authoritative maps, apps and data layers that can be easily integrated into ArcGIS projects. Sustrans discovered valuable data in the Living Atlas on everything from environmental changes and flood risks to heritage sites that could support its decision-making.

Sustrans’ employees now consume the additional data from the Living Atlas and LANDCLAN using a variety of ArcGIS apps, maps and dashboards, including ArcGIS Pro on desktops and hundreds of project-specific web apps developed with ArcGIS Experience Builder. Network Development Teams, for example, can click on the ‘add data widget’ in ArcGIS Experience Builder to browse and select data from the Living Atlas and/or the curated LANDCLAN datasets, which are organised in eight themes.

The new data from the Living Atlas and LANDCLAN is proving especially useful for users of the charity’s ArcGIS-based Network Development Tool. Employees can zoom into the National Cycle Network, geolocate sections of the route that need improvement, understand constraints arising from land ownership or flood risks and draw in planned improvements. For example, they can see where land boundaries are and identify the owners of adjacent fields when considering if there might be support for widening a section of path.

When individual improvement projects are ready to proceed, ArcGIS is used in many different ways to support their implementation. In particular, Sustrans has created a Network Development Plan Dashboard in ArcGIS Online to enable senior managers and stakeholders to monitor the status of around 17,000 individual improvement projects that are planned, in progress or completed. Updated daily, the dashboard shows them key KPIs such as the number of barriers that have been removed to improve accessibility.

A shared understanding of land ownership
As Sustrans is now making more data available via its ArcGIS apps, tools and dashboards, everyone in the organisation has an improved, shared understanding of landownership within a 50 metre radius of the National Cycle Network. According to Ralph Hughes, GIS Manager at Sustrans, “ArcGIS has all the functionality Sustrans needs to bring together vast amounts of data, from many different sources, and make it available across the organisation in a variety of apps.”

Improved visibility of potential project constraints
Using ArcGIS apps, such as the Network Development Tool, employees can now clearly see which areas of land are in private, corporate or public ownership and identify locations where planned network improvement projects may meet resistance from land owners. “Using land ownership data from LANDCLAN in ArcGIS helps us to understand the risks and constraints of future projects—and that is invaluable,” says Simon Pratt, Head of Network Development at Sustrans.

Faster decisions to accelerate network improvements
With easy access to additional land data via their ArcGIS apps, Sustrans’ employees can make faster decisions and accelerate the delivery of the National Network Development Plan. “Having fast information about land ownership means that ideas about potential new improvements to paths can be discussed, evaluated and moved forwards quickly,” says Pratt. “The right improvement projects can be prioritised to deliver the greatest benefit for path users.”

Hours of effort removed by streaming data
While the amount of data that Sustrans uses has increased immeasurably, the amount of time spent by the in-house GIS team preparing and managing data has reduced considerably. “The best thing about streaming data from the Esri Living Atlas and LANDCLAN is that it is always up-to-date,” says Hughes. “Hours of effort sourcing, maintaining and updating data in-house are completely removed.”

More effective and collaborative project management
Sustrans’ decision to supplement its own in-house data with additional land data from third parties will undoubtedly help it to deliver its vision of ‘paths for everyone’. Senior managers have greater insight into the locations of planned projects, can collaborate with the right landowners early on and monitor projects in a live ArcGIS Dashboard. As Hughes says, “The additional data that we are now using within ArcGIS is helping us to drive change.”

Public and private sector organisations across the UK have aspirations to achieve net zero—but it can be incredibly difficult to understand where to begin. The independent research and technology company, Energy Systems Catapult realised that local authorities, in particular, were setting carbon targets without fully understanding where they could achieve the largest reductions in carbon emissions or which low carbon energy schemes might deliver the best results across their regions.

A lot of open source data was available to local authorities, but it wasn’t always clear which datasets met their needs, were authoritative, could be relied upon, and covered all key use cases. Furthermore, although the data was free to use, there was a hidden cost involved in formatting and analysing it, before it could be used to inform significant investments in decarbonisation strategies and green energy.

Energy Systems Catapult has strong expertise in this field, having developed the Local Area Energy Planning (LAEP) guidance that is widely used across the public sector for producing sustainable energy plans. It also has employees with 30 years’ combined experience of using Esri’s geographic information system (GIS) technology, ArcGIS, with open source, commercial, and in-house developed data. It therefore had the technical skills and knowledge in-house to support local authorities and help them realise their net zero goals.

The company used ArcGIS Pro to collate, process and analyse a vast amount of open, commercial and in-house developed data from around thirty different, trusted input sources. It used tools available within ArcGIS Pro, including Spatial Analyst, to determine the precise attributes of buildings, such as roof shapes and side access, and scientifically calculated the relative decarbonisation potential of each property in Great Britain. It then packaged this intelligence into a suite of datasets in the Net Zero Data range.

Customers can quickly purchase Net Zero Data online through Energy Systems Catapult’s online data marketplace, import it into their own ArcGIS systems, access it via an application programming interface (API) or purchase it as part of a data visualisation package. They can then explore the data on interactive maps to understand the indicative suitability of each building for low carbon and renewable technologies, such as air source heat pumps and photovoltaic panels. Buildings are colour coded on the maps, making it very easy for councils to see and prioritise areas with high concentrations of ‘red’ buildings where decarbonisation projects could have the greatest positive impact.

Energy Systems Catapult uses ArcPy to automate daily updates to the data product range in Net Zero Data. For instance, ArcPy automatically recalculates the potential of different types of green energy at each property, daily, to take into account changes to housing data and other new data sources.

To support the sale process, sales personnel within Energy Systems Catapult use ArcGIS Online to create custom web apps, as demonstrations for customers. They have also created engaging stories with the ArcGIS StoryMaps app. Available via the company’s website, these interactive sales tools provide a clear and engaging introduction to the benefits and uses of Net Zero Data.

An innovative and authoritative suite of data products
Through the use of ArcGIS, Energy Systems Catapult has been able to develop and launch an innovative and authoritative new data product that adds value for local authorities and other organisations that are working towards net zero. Net Zero Data enables users to answer specific questions ranging from which social housing stock do we insulate first to where do we put electric vehicle charging hubs. “All the data needed to answer questions is now in one place, in a standardised, easy-to-use, pre-packaged datasets,” says Sandeep Kang, Senior Product Manager at Energy Systems Catapult.

An automated mechanism for updating data
The automated mechanism that Energy Systems Catapult has developed with ArcPy enables it to ensure its Net Zero Data product is constantly refreshed and relevant for its customers. “As we are using ArcPy instead of applying updates manually, we can ensure a highly accurate and consistent approach,” explains Ben Walters, Senior Modelling Consultant at Energy Systems Catapult. “Local authorities don’t need to worry about whether the data is out-of-date and can trust it for their decision-making.”

Lower cost and faster sales cycles
Energy Systems Catapult has used ArcGIS to create a portfolio of versatile and cost-effective tools for promoting its Net Zero Data product. Web apps and story maps are quick and easy to produce, which helps to reduce the cost of sale. “ArcGIS is super, super intuitive,” says Kang. “I have not had any formal GIS training but can build customised web apps as demostrations for customers in ArcGIS very quickly. The flexibility of ArcGIS goes a long way to supporting our sales process.”

Faster achievement of net zero targets
Energy Systems Catapult is certain that its ArcGIS-driven initiative to make better data available will accelerate its customers’ journeys to net zero. One customer recently used Net Zero Data to prioritise the installation of solar panels on village halls, based on their energy usage. “Our customers can see exactly where to focus their attention and investments to decarbonise faster,” says Walters. “Without ArcGIS, we wouldn’t have been able to deliver that level of accuracy.”

Carbon storage will play a key role in helping the UK to achieve net zero, and there is significant potential to store carbon offshore. In 2022, NSTA announced that it would be holding the world’s first large-scale, competitive bid process to award licences for the development of carbon storage facilities at thirteen marine sites. Located off the coasts of Norfolk, Teesside, Liverpool and Aberdeen, these sites, together, are capable of storing almost 10% of the UK’s total greenhouse gas emissions.

Organising a licensing round of such national importance was a major undertaking for NSTA. It needed to find an effective way to share information with all potential bidders and manage the application process efficiently. At the same time, NSTA needed to ensure that the process was equitable and open to all kinds of potential operators, from the large energy companies already operating in the North Sea to small, niche carbon storage companies.

NSTA had been using Esri’s geographic information system (GIS) technology for many years to share geospatial information both externally and internally, enabling people to make fast, informed decisions. It decided to use a combination of products from Esri’s ArcGIS suite to create new datasets, processes and mapping applications to support the carbon storage licensing process, from start to finish.

The organisation began by using ArcGIS Pro to compile all available data about the thirteen designated carbon storage zones and surrounding marine areas. It included vital information like bidding area boundaries, along with data from The Crown Estate and Crown Estate Scotland, to create a ‘single source of the truth’ that could be used not only internally but also shared with potential bidders.

NSTA then made all this data, covering 12,000 km2 of seabed, available to any company interested in bidding for a carbon storage licence, via its open data portal. Built with ArcGIS Hub technology, the portal enabled bidders to either download or stream the information they were interested in directly into their own systems.

To complement the open data portal, NSTA created an external web app, using ArcGIS Online, that allowed potential bidders to explore live maps and analyse all of the available datasets online, without the need for specialist software or skills. Bidders could see the zones that were available and identify factors that could affect any future appraisal and development including nearby infrastructure, wind farms, and seismic surveys.

NSTA also built an internal web app in ArcGIS Online to support the administration of the licensing process. This app provided a central portal for access to all available information and applications from interested organisations. It facilitated effective collaboration between NSTA’s employees and supported the end-to-end process of communicating with potential bidders, receiving and assessing applications and awarding contracts.

An efficient, end-to-end licensing process
NSTA’s streamlined, ArcGIS-driven process helped to avoid duplicated tasks and created efficiencies throughout the administration of this first-of-its-kind carbon storage bidding process. All of the bids were submitted in the same format, which helped to create a level playing field for organisations competing for carbon capture licences in the North Sea. The organisation successfully awarded 14 companies 21 licences to store carbon in depleted oil and gas reservoirs and saline aquifers, paving the way for up to 30 million tonnes of carbon dioxide to be stored annually by 2030.

A broad range of applications
The external ArcGIS web app helped to encourage a broad range of applications by making the application process accessible to small, niche carbon capture companies as well as the giants of the energy industry. Regardless of whether they were experienced or novice GIS users, applicants could visualise sites on the ArcGIS web app, find pertinent data about the seabed and historic activity, and assess the potential of the licence areas. “We were genuinely delighted by the number and quality of applications that we received and the breadth of organisations that these bids came from,” says Nick Richardson, Head of Exploration & New Ventures at NSTA.

Lower cost to market for successful bidders
By using ArcGIS Hub technology and an ArcGIS web app to share information that is already available, NSTA is reducing costs for the successful bidders. There are 60+ years of subsurface surveys in its National Data Repository, originally conducted for the oil and gas industry, that can be reused to support the nascent carbon capture industry. Sharing data with ArcGIS in this way has the potential to reduce the cost to market for carbon storage quite significantly, as organisations do not have to go out and repeat the same initial geological surveys.

A proven approach for future licensing rounds
NSTA’s ArcGIS-based approach to transforming access to information has captured international attention, and the organisation was presented with a Special Achievement in GIS award at the Esri User Conference in San Diego in 2024. “We have created a process with ArcGIS that is adaptable to accommodate different user needs and that is malleable to future requirements,” says Tanya Knowles, Head of Digital Services at NSTA. “We will now use this process as the basis for a future process that will be even more sophisticated and robust.”

The Rivers Trust is the umbrella organisation for 65+ individual member river trusts and a strong advocate for Natural Flood Management (NFM). This nature-based approach to minimising flood risks involves building ‘leaky barriers’, planting trees and implementing other nature-based flow management measures, to slow, intercept and store flood water upstream and, thereby, reduce flood risks for communities downstream.

As an expert in river catchment conservation, The Rivers Trust has a wealth of data at its disposal that can be used to inform the implementation of NFM schemes. It wanted to make this insight available to member river trusts, local conservation groups and residents to help them track NFM projects. At the same time, the organisation also wanted to improve collaboration between groups working in similar locations, to accelerate the implementation of NFM schemes and improve their effectiveness.

The Rivers Trust is a longstanding user of Esri’s geographic information system (GIS) technology. With support and funding from the Environment Agency, it used Esri’s ArcGIS Hub Premium and ArcGIS Experience Builder solutions to create a national database of information on river catchments, including NFM projects that are planned, in progress or completed throughout England and Wales, so far.

Called the NFM Hub, the solution was specifically designed to be easy to use by people without any experience of GIS. It is now used by around 80 groups, and growing, from member river trusts and conservation charities to small community-led flood action groups, enabling all these organisations to discover information about their local river environments and gather evidence of the need for nature-based solutions such as wetlands, river meandering and riparian tree planting.

Within the NFM Hub, each organisation has secure access to its own dashboards and can view information visually on interactive maps. Users can take advantage of integrated survey forms, built with ArcGIS Survey123, to collect and upload information about their own projects. They can explore other nearby projects, identify opportunities for collaboration and edit their own data all in one place.

Currently, the NFM Hub shows the locations of more than 5,700 NFM interventions and records the creation of over 1.7 million m3 of water storage and more than 43.3 million m3 of surface ‘roughness’ for slowing the flow of flood water. “The NFM Hub is the largest map database of community-managed nature-based solutions that we are aware of,” says Heather Bell, Senior Technical Analyst at The Rivers Trust.

Easy access to river catchment data
The NFM Hub provides local organisations with easy access to high quality data and evidence that they can use to inform new NFM schemes and better protect communities. For example, the Wyre Rivers Trust has used the NFM Hub in its work with the Churchtown Flood Action Group, a group formed to help prevent a repeat of the devasting flooding of 2015. “ArcGIS is an incredibly powerful tool,” says Thomas Myerscough, General Manager of Wyre Rivers Trust. “We couldn’t have done anything about the issues seen in our catchment without looking at data and evidence.”

Improved collaboration between organisations
As the above example clearly illustrates, the NFM Hub is proving highly effective in supporting and facilitating collaboration between river trusts and community groups. “It’s only by working together that we are actually going to see the changes that we need in the environment,” observes Bell. “The NFM Hub makes sure that everyone can see what is happening in their local area and maximises opportunities for collaboration.”

Effective empowerment of local communities
The NFM Hub has empowered local communities, including residents, landowners and volunteers, to drive change, by giving them the information they need in a format that is easy to understand. Andrew Metcalf is a farmer in Wyresdale, who has been supporting the creation of leaky dams, buffer strips and woodland blocks on his land. “To see it on a map puts it all into place,” he says. “From the Wyre Rivers Trust to farmers to individual people in the communities, we can do so much if we work together.”

A mechanism for attracting investment
By recording planned NFM projects, as well as completed ones, the NFM Hub displays a pipeline of investible projects which investors can see and then fund. Consequently, The River Trust’s work on the NFM Hub has provided a mechanism to encourage investment in regional NFM projects. The Wyre NFM project, mentioned above, has successfully raised £1.5million of green and blended finance and uses the NFM Hub to engage with stakeholders.

Accelerated delivery of nature-based solutions
The Rivers Trust anticipates that the NFM Hub will ultimately help to accelerate the delivery of nature-based flood solutions, by speeding up the process of engaging with stakeholders and contributing to faster decision-making. The NFM Hub will support a data- and evidence-based approach to the collaborative delivery of NFM that is already being used to plan and deliver £25 million of future investment, which will hopefully increase in the future as confidence in Nature Based Solutions grows.

All public authorities in Wales have a statutory duty to maintain and enhance biodiversity on their land. Under the terms of Section Six of the Environment (Wales) Act 2016, public sector organisations, including health boards and health trusts, are required to consider their impact on ecosystems and publish a plan explaining what they will do to maintain and enhance biodiversity and promote resilience.

Faced with this responsibility, two hospital groups in Wales, Powys Teaching Health Board and Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, asked Mott MacDonald to survey their estates and provide nature enhancement recommendations. This was a huge undertaking because, across the two organisations, there were 14 separate hospital sites, of different ages and sizes, ranging from vast general hospitals to small mental health facilities.

Mott MacDonald is an established and experienced user of Esri’s ArcGIS technology.  It has a single, global ArcGIS platform, through which it makes advanced geospatial tools and data accessible to all of its global employees. Right from the outset, it was clear that ArcGIS would play a central role in the biodiversity project for Powys Teaching Health Board and Aneurin Bevan University Health Board.

First, Mott MacDonald created base maps for the project with Ordnance Survey MasterMap data. It used ArcGIS Pro and FME software, accessed via the ArcGIS Data Interoperability Suite, to carry out a pre-classification process and assign likely habitat types to each parcel of land, across the 14 sites, according to the UK Habitat Classification System.

These base maps, showing probable habitats, were then used as the foundation data layer in a mobile data collection app, built with ArcGIS Field Maps. Ecologists from Mott MacDonald’s Cardiff office used this solution to survey each of the 14 sites, verifying the habitat types, collecting evidence of species, recording locations for habitat improvements and taking photos. “The pre-classification process proved highly valuable as it meant that ecologists weren’t starting from scratch in the field,” explains Matthew Law, GIS Consultant, Mott MacDonald. “They could edit areas and amend habitat classifications but didn’t have to draw everything, which saved time and improved accuracy.”

Once every site had been surveyed, Mott MacDonald used ArcGIS Pro and FME as part of the process for creating 28 high-quality, map-based plans, two for each site, showing which habitats exist and opportunities for enhancements, such as hedgehog boxes and orchard restoration. The organisation used ArcGIS Pro to set up symbology and layout templates, to ensure consistency across all sites. The plans were then produced as hard copy, full-colour, A3 visuals, providing an attractive and easy-to-understand overview of the full ecology reports.

As an extension to the project, Mott MacDonald created a web map for one of the hospital boards, enabling it to explore its biodiversity data, add more data and make comparisons over time. Created with ArcGIS Online, this web app was made available to the hospital board using Esri’s AEC Project Delivery mechanism, a subscription service that enables professional service companies to share their internal GIS content securely with their clients.

Consistent, accurate survey method
ArcGIS Field Maps provided an effective way for ecologists to collect baseline habitat and biodiversity data in the field, while retaining the accurate geometry of features. At the same time, Mott MacDonald could ensure that the data was recorded in the same way, at every location. “ArcGIS Field Maps enabled us to collect consistent, geographically accurate data,” says Law. “This was especially important in a project of this size, in which we had to collect data in a standardised way across 14 sites.”

Fast, high-quality project delivery
Taking advantage of ArcGIS tools enabled Mott MacDonald to deliver this client project very efficiently and deliver the final reports and visualisations on schedule. In particular, the use of ArcGIS Pro helped to minimise post-survey data cleansing, and processes that could easily have taken days only took a few hours. Anthony Fenn, Head of Technical Services at Powys Teaching Health Board, testified that “The project has been accomplished and delivered on time, on budget and above and beyond the expectations of the project brief.”

Clear visualisations of biodiversity plans
Mott MacDonald was able to take advantage of the sophisticated cartography tools in ArcGIS to present fairly complex plans, incorporating maps, aerial imagery, text boxes and symbology, in a clear and attractive way. The organisation’s GIS team produced 28 plans of 14 sites in under a month, and Lorraine Woolley, Ecology Team Lead at Mott MacDonald, was delighted with the results. “We had a meeting with the clients and they were extremely excited about the plans, which are beautiful, engaging and informative,” she related.

Effective management of biodiversity improvements
The ArcGIS Online web app, developed for Powys Teaching Health Board, provides a platform that this client can use to manage biodiversity enhancements effectively. It can view, analyse and update the baseline biodiversity data collected by Mott MacDonald’s ecologists and explore the recommendations in the reports and plans in more detail. The health board can also add more information over time, to build up a record of how it is meeting the statutory regulations and achieving biodiversity improvement.

RSK Group is the driving force behind diverse global projects, across sectors including water, energy, food and drink, infrastructure, urban development, mining and waste. The group has grown through acquisitions and currently comprises more than 200 businesses, many of which use geographic information system (GIS) solutions routinely for collecting, analysing and sharing geospatial data.

An audit of GIS usage revealed that, within RSK, there were twelve separate licence agreements with Esri UK for Esri’s GIS software. In addition, across the group, RSK businesses were making use of a variety of GIS software solutions but wanted the opportunity to expand their use of GIS to improve their process efficiency. It became clear that there was an opportunity to centralise access to GIS services and data and, thereby, make more licences and capabilities available to more businesses within the group.

In place of the twelve separate licence agreements, RSK Group entered instead into an Enterprise Licence Agreement (ELA) with Esri UK. This strategic decision enabled RSK Group to make GIS services and solutions available to more teams throughout the organisation and opened up a plethora of new opportunities.

The ELA provided a catalyst for the creation of a centralised repository for geospatial data and apps in ArcGIS Online, known internally as RSK Atlas. “For the first time ever, we now have a central GIS hub that is available to everyone across the business and provides access to a growing amount of data and content,” says Anthony Jones, Principal GIS Consultant, RSK Group.

Within the group, many teams now use ArGIS Online and ArcGIS Pro for data management, data analysis, data interpretation and data sharing. For example, ArcGIS Pro is used for interpolating survey data, producing visual impact assessments and mapping land use in agricultural land management.

In the field, several businesses rely on ArcGIS mobile solutions, including ArcGIS Survey123 and ArcGIS Field Maps, to collect data efficiently and accurately on everything from ecological surveys and landscape assessments to building structural surveys and social questionnaires. In social surveys across Europe, Africa and the Middle East, for example, ArcGIS Survey123 has been used to solicit the views and status of local communities about proposed developments.

ArcGIS Experience Builder is used extensively for building interactive web apps and websites for sharing project information with colleagues, clients and subcontractors.  Indeed, RSK Group has developed literally thousands of web maps within its ArcGIS Online portal supporting hundreds of projects across the world. Such web apps provide a central “single source of truth” for projects that include a variety of stakeholders and can cover large geographical areas, making collaboration and coordination of project resources far easier.

Some teams have used ArcGIS Experience Builder and the ArcGIS StoryMaps app to create engaging stories for sharing information with the public and other stakeholders.  ArcGIS Experience Builder has been used to support a variety of public consultations, allowing stakeholders to visualise proposed developments in the context of their own location and in some cases provide feedback via embedded forms.

Wider access to advanced GIS tools
With its ELA providing more licences, RSK Group has been able to make the sophisticated functionality of ArcGIS available to more teams and businesses, throughout the group. “ArcGIS has become such an integral part of many of our processes that it is difficult to imagine how we could deliver our work these days without the tools that we have access to now,” comments Jones. “ArcGIS offers advanced functionality that allows our GIS professionals to develop bespoke tools and automate previously manual processes.”

Cost-efficient business processes
Those teams that have replaced paper-based data collection methods with ArcGIS mobile apps have significantly improved the efficiency of their processes. They no longer have to enter data manually or carry out lengthy data quality checks, saving hours of effort on every project. “The efficiencies we make with ArcGIS are helping to reduce survey times and the amount of post-processing required, allowing us to undertake projects of greater scope that otherwise may not have been possible,” Jones says.

Effective communication with stakeholders
ArcGIS supports effective communication with a wide range of stakeholders, by making complex project data easy to understand. ArcGIS can be used to facilitate collaboration between colleagues on multi-disciplinary projects, as well as improve engagement with the public and clients. In one recent initiative, RSK used ArcGIS Online to published a digital preliminary environmental information report summary, making it easier for people to explore information about the environment in the study area and see the significant effects in a geographical context.

Opportunities for business development
RSK Group now intends to make more strategic use of ArcGIS to help it grow and win more business. It is already using ArcGIS to gain a deeper understanding of projects at the tender stage, fine tune costings and prepare detailed, competitive bids. Next, it plans to use ArcGIS to improve understanding of where its specialist teams are located and where opportunities exist for new acquisitions or new project proposals. “There is real potential to use ArcGIS more as a business development tool, rather than just as a project support tool,” notes Jones. “There are so many possibilites for using ArcGIS throughout the group.”

Geospatial information plays a critical and central role in all the work that TACP does.  Whether the organisation is designing nature-friendly urban centres, monitoring the environmental impacts of major construction projects, exploring cultural connections with the landscape or devising green infrastructure strategies, it needs to have an effective way to collect, visualise, analyse and share geospatial data throughout its projects.

In 2015, TACP migrated from legacy and open source geographic information system (GIS) products to Esri’s ArcGIS suite of solutions.  “ArcGIS provided the complete holistic package,” recalls Tim Wroblewski, Associate Director at TACP.  “With its wealth of apps, tools and capabilities, ArcGIS now supports the entire lifecycle of our projects, from initial strategy to construction, aftercare and evaluation.”

Ecologists use mobile apps including ArcGIS Sweet, ArcGIS Survey123, ArcGIS QuickCapture and ArcGIS Field Maps to record environmental observations and conduct surveys in the field.  Teams collect data in a consistent and time-efficient way for a wide range of activities from bat and dormouse sightings to the brightness of lights at night and the potential visual impacts of new developments on landscape and residential views.

Using ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Experience Builder, TACP has created a wide range of web apps that give project teams, clients and contractors instant access to project data, whether they are working in the office, at home or on a site.  During the landscape monitoring phase of a project, landscape architects use ArcGIS Field Maps on site to identify their location and associated landscape plot, input data on the success of planting and seeding, and confirm requirements for maintenance and plant replacement.

TACP makes extensive use of ArcGIS Online for visualising data and sharing information with stakeholders, including clients, subcontractors and the public.  It has created several operational dashboards, using the ArcGIS Dashboards tool, which are especially useful in the construction phases of projects for keeping contractors aware of environmental constraints, such as the locations of badger setts and environmental incidents that require contractor attention.

Teams throughout the organisation use ArcGIS Pro to conduct detailed spatial analysis of proprietary, open and third party data.  For instance, they can identify hot spots of reptile activity and create buffer zones around ponds occupied by protected great crested newts.  TACP has also used ArcGIS Pro to analyse and prepare inputs and updates for LANDMAP, a nationally consistent landscape baseline for Wales, managed by Natural Resources Wales.

TACP appreciates how well ArcGIS integrates with other third party software, including computer-aided design (CAD) packages and process automation software.  This has enabled the organisation to create highly efficient workflows for escalating health and safety concerns, and it has recently developed a robust permit-to-work system that is being used on the Banwell Bypass project in North Somerset to enhance environmental compliance.

Significant improvement in operational efficiency
Since the migration to ArcGIS, TACP has witnessed a significant improvement in the efficiency of its data collection processes, including habitat surveys. Teams no longer have to type up hand-written notes, degraded by the weather, and the data collected can be mapped in minutes. “We save hours of time for each project helping ensure that projects are delivered to time and under budget,” says Wroblewski.

Time- and cost-effective service for clients
TACP is confident that its operational efficiencies are contributing to cost savings, enabling it to offer a more time- and cost-effective service to its clients. For instance, for the A487 Caernarfon to Bontnewydd Bypass project, TACP’s subcontractors used to conduct bat surveys on paper. By using ArcGIS Survey123 and ArcGIS Quick Capture, and providing licences to its subconsultants, TACP has enabled bat surveys to be conducted and processed more time efficiently and cost effectively.

Well-informed project proposals
TACP relies on ArcGIS Pro to help it analyse data and put forward well-informed, statistically-accurate project proposals. In a recent project, the organisation used ArcGIS Pro to undertake multi-criteria analysis and objectively weight opportunities for woodland planting, solar and wind developments in the Marches region (Herefordshire, Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin). “The ArcGIS outputs were graphically engaging and provided a clear direction to identify optimal land use,” says Zoë Maddocks-Dodson, GIS Analyst at TACP.

Effective collaboration and data sharing
Through the use of ArcGIS web apps, TACP’s employees, subcontractors and partners have access to all the data they need to do their work, whenever they need it. In the A465 Section 5 and 6 project, for instance, TACP is one of nine contractors who share project information via an ArcGIS-based project portal created by the principal contractor and TACP’s client, FCC Construcción. As Juan Ramon Mena from FCC Construcción says, “Collaborating with TACP via the ArcGIS platform has helped all stakeholders work towards meeting project programme and budgets.”

Clearer understanding of local issues
Using ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS StoryMaps, TACP can present information clearly to stakeholders, such as local residents and community groups, helping them to understand environmental or local issues that impact them. For a Welsh language and landscape initiative in South East Wales, TACP created a story map to engage a group of local people in a discussion about how local place names were being lost. “The story map was a great way of connecting people with the local, physical and cultural landscape,” says Harri Evans from TACP’s client, Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council.

It has been estimated that there are over 50,000 carefully preserved paper maps still in existence, showing the estates, townships and parishes of Wales as they looked in the 17th to 19th centuries.  These precious historical documents are dispersed across national archives, regional museums and private estates all around the world, making them not only hard to access, but also unknown to most people who have an interest in Welsh history.

The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (RCAHMW) or Comisiwn Brenhinol Henebion Cymru in Welsh, in conjunction with Bangor University, wanted to find a way to collate these invaluable ancient maps of Wales and make them accessible to everyone.  Rather than simply scanning each map and creating a database of digital copies, however, the organisation wanted to knit them all together and overlay them onto modern day mapping to help people see and understand land changes over centuries.

Initially, RCAHMW focused on six parishes in North East Wales and assembled maps from dozens of sources, including the Duke of Westminster’s Grosvenor Estate.  These ancient maps included tithe maps, originally commissioned to support the collection of taxation between 1836 and 1860, as well as enclosure maps from 1800 to 1830, drawn up at the start of the industrial revolution in Wales.  Looking further back in time, the project team compiled hand-drawn estate maps from the early 1700s, and some even older old estate maps dating from 1620, decades before the English Civil Wars.

RCAHMW digitised these old maps, along with the earliest Ordnance Survey maps, created in three scales between 1869 and 1874.  It used ArcGIS Pro to geographically align all these historic resources with modern mapping.  This was achieved by creating as many as 500 control points, such as the corners of fields, which are unlikely to have changed much over time.  The organisation then used the spline feature in ArcGIS Pro to gently adjust the hand drawn lines and features from the ancient maps until they lined up with the same features in the most up-to-date geographical surveys.

As part of this georeferencing process, RCAHMW vectorised 35,000 individual polygons (such as fields and rivers) over an area of 125 km².  It also captured supplementary information from the ancient paper maps that may have been forgotten over time, such as the names of landowners, commonly used field names, tenants, land use, the extent of common areas, township boundaries and the usage of estate buildings.

Next RCAHMW created a web app in ArcGIS Online, called Deep Mapping Estate Archives, that allows people to explore the maps through the ages and carry out geospatial analysis.  Users can compare landscapes at different points in history and click on any location to open a pop-up box and discover who the landowners or tenants were hundreds of years ago, for example.  The web app is presented in a Deep Mapping website, originally created with ArcGIS Web App Builder and recently updated to ArcGIS Experience Builder, that presents information about the project bilingually in English and Welsh.  Some of the maps are also available to be viewed in 3D, utilising ArcGIS Web Scene.

Modern-day accuracy applied to ancient maps
Through this project, RCAHMW has demonstrated how ArcGIS Pro can be used to effectively capture, geo-reference and vectorise ancient maps. The organisation has transformed historic documents with variable quality into a geographically-accurate, modern-day digital atlas. Recognising this, Jon Dollery, Mapping Officer at RCAHMW, observes, “ArcGIS Pro has enabled RCAHMW to take the accuracy of today and apply it to the past.”

Easy access to rare archived records for everyone
By creating a Deep Mapping app with ArcGIS Experience Builder in ArcGIS Online, RCAHMW has achieved its goal of making exceptionally rare, archived, paper maps acessible to everyone. Free to use, the app is already igniting the interest of members of the public, local historians, educators, academics, social history researchers, local developers and environmental consultants. “Maps that were locked away in archives around the country are now in one place, where everyone can find and enjoy them,” Dollery says.

Greater insight into 400 years of landscape change
By enabling historic maps to be analysed and compared with modern maps, the Deep Mapping app reveals 400 years of landscape changes in Wales that were previously unknown or unrecorded. It is possible to see, for example, where hedgerows have been lost and how river courses have moved over time. RCAHMW anticipates that this insight will be used by developers, environmental consultants and local councils to inform development and conservation initiatives, such reinstating woodland in places where it used to exist.

A deeper appreciation of local history
The Deep Mapping app has received enthusiastic feedback from the residents North East Wales who are fascinated to learn more about their villages and towns. People are using it to see who common land was awarded to 300 years ago, learn where medieval strip farming took place, rediscover lost place names, explore historic estates and gain a deeper appreciation of their local areas. As Dollery concludes with pride, “This initiative really is stimulating interest in local history, and we look forward to expanding it to cover the whole of Wales.”

SFRS operates across an area of 79,900 km² and responds to emergencies in large cities as well as on busy motorways, remote villages, narrow mountain passes and inhabited islands. Given the diverse geography of Scotland, the risks from fire, traffic accidents, flooding and other incidents varies enormously from one location to another. SFRS wanted to find a way to measure and compare risk levels in every community to give it a better understanding of how to optimally allocate its resources.

Identifying that a spatial approach would be needed to address this challenge, SFRS decided to make better use of Esri’s geographic information system (GIS) technology. The organisation already had ArcGIS licenses but had not been making full use of the product’s capabilities. “We effectively had a Formula One racing car in the garage, but no-one was really putting it to the test,” says Damien Griffith, Community Risk Manager at SFRS. “This project was the ideal opportunity to show what ArcGIS could really deliver.”

SFRS started by mapping historic fires and emergencies over the previous ten years in ArcGIS Pro and ranking them from higher priority (e.g. dwelling fires) to lower priority (e.g. animal assistance). It organised this incident data by local area, using Scotland’s 6,976 data zones, adding supplementary data on socio-economic indicators, including the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation and household profiles from Acorn. It then tested relationships between variables using two regression models within a customised R script to generate a risk metric value for each of the 6,976 areas, forming the baseline Community Risk Index Model (CRIM^©).

With assistance from Sweco, a leading European engineering and environment consultancy, SFRS then enhanced CRIM^© by incorporating natural and built environment risk factors, including data on flooding, built-up areas, road networks, land use, buildings and addresses across Scotland. At various stages during the project, SFRS also engaged statisticians from the University of Nottingham and the University of Edinburgh to validate the risk calculations and provide statistical proofing using machine learning algorithms.

Using the risk intelligence derived from the enhanced model, SFRS created an interactive ArcGIS Dashboard that allows senior officers to zoom into any area of the country and see colour-coded risk levels. SFRS and Sweco also developed dedicated ArcGIS Dashboards for the flood and built environment risks, as well as a compelling ArcGIS Experience Builder web app that captures Scotland’s 3.8 million individual buildings in 3D, colour-coded according to risk level. With these intuitive online solutions, senior officers can view the risk profiles of communities, pinpoint high-risk buildings in context and run fly-throughs to identify where risks are greatest.

Deeper understanding of risk across diverse communities
Through the use of ArcGIS, SFRS now has a deeper understanding of risk across the different urban, suburban, rural and island communities of Scotland. It can see patterns and relationships between areas and clearly identify buildings with large numbers of residents, including multi-storey buildings, while using these insights to be better prepared in the event of an emergency. Griffith comments, “We cannot predict where the next fire will be, but we can use the digital portfolio of meaningful risk data that we now hold to focus on more vulnerable communities and become better prepared for the future.”

Precisely targeted fire prevention activities
SFRS is now using its ArcGIS-based risk model to carry out targeted interventions as part of its prevention work, to keep communities safe from the risk of fire and other hazards. For example, Operational Intelligence teams use the built environment web apps to identify high risk buildings and organise risk assessment visits. In the lead up to the United Nations’ COP26 Conference in Glasgow, SFRS used the risk model to assess the risk profiles of properties within a mile of key venues and put effective mitigation plans in place for any high-profiled event.

Well-informed, strategic resource deployment decisions
The ArcGIS-based risk model is currently being used by SFRS to help inform its Strategic Service Review. Senior officers can use the ArcGIS web apps and dashboards to investigate alternative operational asset configurations and align services and resources with the geographical risk levels identified by the risk model. For instance, the service is ensuring that its high-reach appliances are based in the higher-risk locations with the largest concentration of high-rise buildings, where they are most likely to be needed. “It is well-informed decisions like this that help to make communities safer,” Griffith says.

Increased public awareness of fire risks
SFRS plans to continue to develop its risk model in ArcGIS by, for example, adding data on anonymised population health and wildfire risk locations. SFRS will also consider making a dedicated ArcGIS web app publicly available, to enable property owners to check the risk rating for their own properties and encourage them to take precautions to reduce the risk. “There is huge potential to use ArcGIS to increase public awareness of fire risks,” comments Griffith. “This risk model project has so many possible offshoot benefits for other parts of the service, as well as for protection, prevention and preparedness measures.”