Driving community engagement with digital assets
After successfully securing funding from Historic England to support local heritage initiatives, Lancaster City Council used Esri’s ArcGIS software to create digital assets, to display research and outputs from the Lancaster High Streets Heritage Action Zone programme. The aim was to help multiple audiences better understand the city’s heritage while informing more insightful decision-making about future developments.
The in-house team can spin up new digital assets using out-of-the-box ArcGIS tools without having extensive development expertise.
With heritage assets now digitised council no longer have to perform lengthy and laborious archival searches to fulfil enquiries.
Accessible and interactive digital tools deepen the public’s understanding of the city’s rich industrial heritage.
The Challenge
In 2020, Lancaster City Council secured match funding from Historic England through the High Streets Heritage Action Zone (HSHAZ) programme. The funding, one of over 60 grants awarded across England, was to help create and deliver an exciting programme of investment in buildings and spaces together with community engagement and capacity building focusing on a historic part of Lancaster’s city centre.
The brief was challenging: to create live and digital assets that would share information, spark curiosity and reshape perceptions to support and enhance the wider HSHAZ regeneration programme.
Key to the success and legacy of the project was engaging the community, especially younger generations, who are often under-represented in consultations around planning processes. Digital tools to bridge the gap between heritage, conservation management and public participation were essential, as was leveraging Lancaster’s rich archive of historical materials and data to connect past and present in meaningful and engaging ways.
“Our approach focused on leveraging existing software – the ArcGIS System – rather than reinventing the wheel. It’s easily replicable and scalable for other local authorities without compromising on the quality of these exciting new engagement tools.”
Elanor Brown, GIS Officer, Lancaster City Council
The Solution
Throughout the project Lancaster City Council’s GIS team sought to bridge a stronger connection between conservation management planning and public engagement. Their goal was to help audiences understand why buildings look the way they do and visualise how appropriate interventions could transform them.
Esri StoryMaps and ArcGIS Experience Builder were identified as the ideal tools to present research and outputs from the HSHAZ initiative with a focus on the Mill Race area - a historically significant area enjoying ongoing regeneration. The apps traced the project’s evolution from 2D representations, including archival data and a new conservation management plan, to 3D visualisations.
The team further built on the HSHAZ work with funding from the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government PropTech Round 4, collaborating with Lancaster University and other partners. Using advanced geospatial analysis tools in ArcGIS City Engine, they imported historical CAD drawings from SketchUp for more detailed evaluations of designs, environmental and spatial factors.
StoryMaps play a vital role in displaying these outputs and were selected for their ability to effectively engage younger audiences, learning online. Their multimedia capabilities and integrations including the Mill Race Area 3D point cloud provide a dynamic and immersive storytelling experience. The use of historical maps has been particularly impactful, offering enriched insights into the evolution of spatial data over time.
Key innovations include the integration of 2D and 3D datasets to create comprehensive visualisations, using historical maps to highlight the evolution of the urban landscape and presenting a data-rich resource for local historians, building owners, planners and architects. Users can navigate freely in the model, exploring old planning application data, the heritage plaques in the Mill Race Are and how renovations completed under the new conservation management plan would look.
“By improving understanding of the heritage significance of the area we can support high-quality and sympathetic future development and help aid better decision-making.”
Jonathan Noad, Chief Officer Sustainable Growth, Lancaster City Council
Benefits
User-friendly software
The team leveraged Esri’s ArcGIS System to create impactful apps without the need for extensive development expertise. The outputs, including the StoryMaps, are accessible to a broad range of users including those without a technical background and feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, highlighting how intuitive and easy it is to navigate and use the 3D app.
Time-savings
Previously, requests to review archive data, historical maps and datasets would have been time-consuming and laborious for the GIS team to fulfil. Similarly, interested parties no longer have to submit formal requests to the city council or county records office and can now access, view and interrogate a wealth of vital historical records by clicking the online links.
More effective communication
By blending archive data with cutting edge GIS technologies, the GIS team has created accessible tools that deepen public understanding of the past, while supporting informed planning for the future. The StoryMap and apps bring the city’s rich heritage to life, sharing data in an easy-to-understand way that would otherwise have been inaccessible to many interested parties and members of the public.
Preserving the city’s heritage
Better access to the legacy of the architecture of the city will help future generations make better planning decisions about the city’s future. Audiences have an insightful perspective into the evolution of spatial data over time, which will help to shape and inform new developments that will enhance the city’s historical status and protect its rich industrial heritage.
