The National Trust has over 60,000 volunteers who play a vital role in helping the charity to manage 250,000 hectares of land, 778 miles of coastline, 80,000 archaeological features and 28,000 buildings. The organisation wanted to optimise the role played by this enthusiastic group and find a way to engage even more people in its activities. At the same time, it wanted to show its volunteers the value of their contribution and help them to feel more involved in conservation projects.

The National Trust is now pioneering new ways to engage with volunteers using Esri’s ArcGIS platform.  In a series of pilot projects, the organisation is beginning to use ArcGIS mobile solutions, including Collector for ArcGIS and Survey123 for ArcGIS, to allow volunteers to upload information from their smartphones and tablets to a central portal.  Called ArcGIS Hub Premium, this portal provides secure, authenticated identity for huge numbers of volunteers, which allows them to see the data they have collected, in the context of the wider project.  Volunteers can therefore appreciate what they have done and the value of their contribution to the National Trust’s conservation schemes.

In the first of the National Trust’s pilot solutions, volunteers in the Peak District are gathering data on the condition of archaeological features on National Trust land, including barrows, ruins and ancient quarries.  They are then uploading and sharing this data via ArcGIS Hub Premium, helping the National Trust to build up a clearer picture of the condition of ancient sites that are rarely visited but are nonetheless important to the history of the nation.

A second, similar pilot solution allows people to record and share information on the condition of styles, gates and steps when walking along the 25,000 km of footpaths that cross National Trust land.  This app is currently being trialled by National Trust staff members, but will be rolled out to volunteers and members of the public in the near future, so that more information can be obtained to help the organisation plan footpath maintenance activities.

The National Trust has also developed a volunteering solution for a Riverlands conservation project near Manchester, which will be used by its own volunteers, as well as partner organisations and their teams of volunteers.  Large numbers of people will be able to use the same ArcGIS apps to collect data on everything from biodiversity and invasive species to water quality.  They will then all be able to view this data on the ArcGIS Hub Premium portal and gain a shared understanding of the conservation challenges along the river valley.

A positive experience of volunteering with the National Trust
When these pilot projects are fully implemented they will help the National Trust to provide a more engaging experience for visitors and volunteers. It will be far easier for volunteers to collect data on their mobile devices than on paper and, using ArcGIS Hub Premium, they will be able to see the data they have collected and understand the bigger picture. Huw Davies, Head of Conservation at the National Trust explains, “ArcGIS Hub Premium will allow individual volunteers to see the emergence of critical conservation issues and appreciate the importance of their contribution to the project.”

An effective way to engage larger numbers of volunteers
The rollout of ArcGIS volunteering apps will eventually help the National Trust to significantly expand its volunteer base. For the first time, students, families and corporate groups will be able to play a role in conservation activities on a casual basis, without having to commit a minimum amount of time or apply through the National Trust’s formal volunteer application process. For example, the National Trust is currently planning a new pilot project for litter collections on beaches, which will eventually enable the organisation to crowdsource data from the general public, significantly increasing the number of people who can support its coastal conservation projects.

Well-informed decisions about conservation and maintenance
Over time, the use of the new ArcGIS volunteering apps will enable the National Trust to collect a larger quantity of high quality data, which it can use to support its decision making. In particular, the organisation anticipates that volunteers will be able to help it build up a far more comprehensive picture of the condition of assets and habitats, such as signs and ponds. It can then use this information to see where it should prioritise its conservation activities and how best to plan effective, proactive maintenance programmes.

More successful collaborative conservation projects
Although it is still early days, the National Trust already recognises that ArcGIS Hub Premium is a highly effective tool for improving collaboration with large numbers of volunteers and partners. In initiatives such as the Riverlands project near Manchester, the organisation expects ArcGIS Hub Premium to play a pivotal role in enabling large numbers of people to share data and work together. “It feels exciting,” Davies says. “Our pilots are putting crowdsourcing into practice and demonstrating how volunteering programmes can be managed more successfully in the future.”

When four housing associations came together in July 2017 to establish Thirteen, the newly founded company found itself faced with the enormous challenge of managing thirty seven separate IT systems. Data about the organisation’s 70,000 customers and 34,000 properties was spread across a myriad of databases and spreadsheets with little or no integration. Consequently, employees could not easily access the information they needed to enhance the quality of services for tenants and improve the operational efficiency of the new business.

The organisation began to investigate ways to simplify its IT landscape and integrate data from all parts of the business.  “Discovering ArcGIS was a lightbulb moment,” says Mark Arnold, Senior Sustainability Manager at Thirteen.  “The challenge of how to integrate data went from extremely complicated to extremely simple.”

Thirteen now has twelve different IT systems, but does not integrate them directly.  Instead it has assigned a geospatial reference to all its business data and links everything together through the medium of Esri’s ArcGIS.  “We can use the right systems for the business, without having to worry about integration,” Arnold says.

The organisation also streams data from external sources, such as government data on deprivation, and makes this external data, together with its own internal data, instantly available to employees through a range of ArcGIS apps.  Rapidly growing in number, these bespoke solutions currently include:

• An ArcGIS web app for neighbourhood teams, allowing them to access customer information on mobile devices about everything from recent property repairs and rent arears to anti-social behaviour reports.
• An ArcGIS web app showing grounds maintenance teams the land owned (and not owned) by Thirteen and the precise locations of the hedges, grass and flower beds they need to maintain.
• Collector for ArcGIS apps enabling employees to report changes and issues, ranging from flower beds that have been grassed over to fly tipping and graffiti.
• An Esri Operations Dashboard, known as the Sustainability Modelling and Regeneration Tool (SMART), that brings together data about repair costs, property values, investments, and social and environmental factors and assigns a performance score to each property between 1 (best) and 5 (worst).

“Game-changing” intelligence about the business
Using ArcGIS, Thirteen has been able to take information from multiple IT systems and external sources and turn it into true business intelligence. For the first time, it can clearly see how external factors such as anti-social behaviour impact on the condition of its properties and monitor property ceiling prices by street, to understand return on investment at individual properties. “ArcGIS has been a game changer for us,” Arnold says. “Before, we may have had an intuition about why properties remained empty or needed repeated repairs, but now we have hard evidence. We can see the correlation between crime, anti-social behaviour and empty properties and make smarter decisions.”

Significantly improved financial performance
The development of the SMART dashboard has given senior managers an unprecedented overview of the financial performance of Thirteen’s assets and provided a springboard for significant business improvement. “The Esri dashboard helps us make smarter decisions about where to invest to convert underperforming assets into financially sustainable ones,” Arnold explains. “When the dashboard was first launched, 10% of the organisation’s assets had a score of 4 or 5 and were therefore deemed to be underperforming; now, using this same scoring system, the number of underperforming assets has reduced to zero.”

£158,000 annual saving on grounds maintenance
Thirteen has been able to significantly reduce its ground maintenance costs, because the organisation can now see how to allocate its grounds maintenance staff and equipment more appropriately. According to Arnold, “Thirteen is making annual cost savings of £158,000, by allocating grounds maintenance staff to the right places with the right equipment. We can now be confident that we are only maintaining land owned by Thirteen and only investing in the right quantity of high-value equipment, such as ride-on lawn mowers.”

Personalised and professional customer services
Teams working in neighbourhoods from the Scottish Borders to Suffolk have data about customers at their fingertips, which they can use to deliver highly personalised and professional services for customers. They can see information on rent arrears, voids, customer satisfaction feedback, local anti-social behaviour and outstanding property repairs, all on one screen, and have more meaningful conversations with their customers as a result.
“ArcGIS gives our employees working in communities the data they need, when they need it,” Arnold adds. “We can therefore customise our services for our customers and treat each tenant as an individual person.”

Oxfordshire County Council’s GIS (Geographic Information Systems) team has an extremely broad brief to provide ICT support across the organisation, including Oxfordshire County Council’s Fire & Rescue Service. This small team assesses requirements and requests, gathers business analysis and provides user support while building interactive dashboards and web and mobile apps for internal and external use.

Fire prevention is a core function of the Fire & Rescue Service and is the way in which the Council reduces demand on its services and helps to protect its residents. Safe and Well visits are a key part of prevention work, where firefighters make visits to vulnerable residents to decrease the risk of fire in their homes.

Previously, assessment data obtained during home visits had been recorded straight onto spreadsheets, an unwieldy and time-consuming process. This also created a challenge for safeguarding purposes: LGTBQ+ data needs to be collected anonymously ensuring that individuals are not identifiable by tracking down their responses to different questions.

Furthermore, vulnerable individuals, particularly the elderly, often find it difficult to talk about their gender. A more sophisticated but simple-to-use self-service digital approach was needed, ensuring complete anonymity, while giving the Council the data it requires to ensure the services it provides to its residents is inclusive to those of all identities and sexual orientations.

Under its Enterprise Licence Agreement, Oxfordshire County Council has been using Esri’s ArcGIS platform exclusively since 2017 as its corporate GIS infrastructure. This has enabled the GIS team to build out a greater number of requirements, more quickly and efficiently, and help transform service delivery.

In March 2019 the Safe and Well service went digital. Workforce for ArcGIS was used to coordinate and allocate daily visits before crews left their stations and questionnaires incorporating broader health messages from the public health team were built using Survey123 for ArcGIS. The electronic forms were filled in onsite at residents’ homes and when there was no signal or internet available, users could carry on working and save a copy of the form on their mobile device. When the devices were next connected, completed surveys were synced directly back to the database in the office so colleagues could see which assessments had been undertaken, and the data visible on a central management dashboard.

The GIS team identified the opportunity to redesign the service so that fire crews could capture information on the demographics of their service users and capture this anonymously. A separate questionnaire from the Safe & Well form was created with Survey123, for vulnerable residents to fill out themselves during their visit using the firefighter’s device. This form now collects information on age, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation and gender identity.

Three back-end reporting apps have also been built:

The Safe & Well Administration app: an overall map view of survey outputs enabling the business support team to easily manage tasks, query datasets and export visit information requested by managers.

Equal Opportunities app: an interactive dashboard showing the output from anonymised data collected separately to the core Safe & Well questionnaire, relating to Equal Opportunities. Users can check whether the service is being accessed by diverse groups and see how different groups rate the service to ensure the Council is meeting their needs.

Safe & Well reporting app: instantly shows key statistics and data from Safe and Well visits for central reporting to senior management, with no processing time required.

Supporting Diversity
The redesigned service demonstrates Oxfordshire County Council’s responsibility as a Stonewall Diversity Champion, committed to sexual orientation and gender identify equality. In its second year of inclusion the Council now ranks at 127 (out of 503 organisations) in the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index, compared to its previous ranking at 220 out of 445.

Secure data collection
Users can confidently collect anonymous data, securely, enabling the Council to collect vital information which ensures that the service it provides residents is inclusive to those of all identities and orientations, as well as help the organisation climb the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index.

Saving time
The use of ArcGIS apps has significantly enhanced the efficiency of reporting in the field as well as back in the office. Firefighters making home visits report that the quality of their visits and range of services offered has improved, and they feel more confident and competent in carrying out their work. The administration process has also been streamlined as admin staff no longer have to input data collected from paper-based surveys, reducing the potential for human error.

Improved reporting
Performance and productivity figures are now displayed in dashboard format which makes them easy to analyse for day-to-day management and reporting purposes, and reports can easily be shared upwards to the Senior Leadership Team as required.

Every year, over 200 community events take place in Dover, Deal, Sandwich and the surrounding areas, including carnivals, regattas and festivals. Whenever a member of the public or local organisation wants to put on a new event, Dover District Council has to liaise with partners to consider requirements for road closures, health & safety measures and licensing requirements, before permission can be granted for the event to go ahead.

This event approval process used to be extremely time-consuming, as it relied on paper-based forms and emails. Dover District Council wanted to streamline the entire process, to save time not only for staff in its internal events team, but also for its partners including the police and ambulance service. The council also wanted to make the event application process easier to use for members of the public, to help it support a thriving and varied programme of events in the Dover region.

Initially, Dover District Council evaluated a specialist event planning tool, used by a neighbouring local authority. However, it then realised that it could transform its event approval process using Esri’s Events Coordination app, a web-based geographic information system (GIS) solution available as part of the Esri ArcGIS. As Dover District Council already had an Enterprise License Agreement for ArcGIS, it could implement the Esri Events Coordination app for no additional cost.

Now, using the Esri Events Coordination app:

• Applicants fill out an online form with details about their proposed event, which is automatically sent to the council’s events team
• An administrator uses an ArcGIS web app to plot the event on an interactive map, including details such as road closures required or the locations of emergency services
• An email notification is automatically sent to partners including the police with an authenticated link so they can view the proposed event in ArcGIS and make comments within map layers
• Real-time email updates are created using a data integration platform (FME) which allows data to be read from one source, manipulated and written to another source
• All stakeholders are automatically notified by email when new comments are made, enabling the partners to share concerns and easily collaborate on plans surrounding the event
• The administrator can make further changes to the map and communicate any requirements to the applicant
• When approved, the status of the event is changed to ‘approved’ and the applicant is notified
• All information relating to the event is stored in ArcGIS Online and can be reused to provide information on public websites, such as maps of road closures
• A full record of the event approval process is recorded in a single system, ArcGIS Online, providing a complete audit trail
• The council can repurpose any of the data collected to create end of year summary reports or support GDPR compliance.

Up to 400 hours of administration removed
The Esri Event Coordination app has completely transformed the council’s community event approval process, creating a fully integrated, automated workflow. Administrators no longer need to send information by email, chase up feedback from partners and collate responses, which has led to significant time savings. Indeed, the council estimates that it saves between half an hour and two hours per event, which equates to between 100 and 400 hours saved annually, based on 200 events per year.

More efficient collaboration with partners
Critically, the new process makes it far easier for the council and its partners to collaborate on plans for events. The use of the ArcGIS web app reduces the back-and-forth of emails, as everyone shares information in the same place. The ArcGIS app is also used at meetings relating to major events, during which the maps can be edited in real-time to depict decisions such as access routes and road closures. The heightened efficiency of the entire process, for all parties, is expected to lead to faster event approvals in the future.

Cost saving of £40,000 from avoided expenditure
Dover District Council was able to save around £40,000, as well as avoid a lengthy and costly tender process, by using the ArcGIS solution rather than buying a separate software package. “The research we did into the full capabilities of ArcGIS really paid off,” says Josh Cone, Web Developer and Analyst at Dover District Council. “Other local authorities in the South East of England have invested a significant amount of money in software solutions specifically for event planning, but we have been able to modernise our event approval service using our existing Esri platform at very little cost.”

Improved experience for event organisers
The new event application process is much easier for members of the public to use and keeps them up-to-date on the status of their application. The Esri solution also generates high quality event maps, which can be made available on the council’s website and through other channels to help advertise events and provide improved public information about access and road closures. “This project is a great example of how Dover District Council has maximised the return on investment from its ArcGIS and used GIS technology to deliver improved services for citizens in the Dover area,” says Abi Robinson, Digital Services Manager at Dover District Council.

Seventy years after legislation was first passed to protect England’s finest landscapes, the government commissioned an independent review of the country’s 10 National Parks and 34 AONBs. This review was a direct response to a commitment in the government’s 25-year Environment Plan and was led by Julian Glover and a panel of experts. It aimed to understand how to do things better, including how to connect more people with these landscapes and how to enhance biodiversity.

The Glover Review panel issued a public call for evidence, asking a range of questions about how National Parks and AONBs could be improved in the future. CPRE, the countryside charity, aimed to submit a detailed response and wanted an innovative way to communicate the value of these landscapes. It therefore appointed LUC to conduct geospatial analysis and uncover factual information that it could use to support its recommendations and have a significant impact.

LUC used Esri’s ArcGIS platform, including the Esri Network Analyst and Spatial Analyst tools, to investigate a wide range of societal, environmental and cultural issues relating to the National Parks and AONBs. LUC searched Esri’s Living Atlas for relevant data, used open data from government sources and its own extensive data libraries. “We put Esri's geoprocessing tools to the test with a range of national datasets,” says Diana Manson, Head of GIS and Visualisation at LUC. “ArcGIS enabled us to delve into diverse topics and analyse over 30 layers of data to gain a far deeper understanding of issues relating to the role of England’s protected landscapes today.”

As part of the project, LUC recommended presenting the ArcGIS analysis in a story map format, an idea that CPRE’s Rural Enhancement Lead, Emma Marrington, describes as “completely genius!” LUC used Esri’s ‘Cascade’ story map format to display its ArcGIS analysis in a series of maps, with short explanations of key points, and communicate its findings in a very visual way. This story map succeeded in making CPRE’s submission really stand out from the other 2,500 contributions, which were made to the landscapes review.

While the ArcGIS story map was created specifically for the review panel, it actually reached a much wider audience. Julian Glover shared the story map publically on Twitter, describing it as “brilliant and fascinating” (29 January 2019). CPRE subsequently promoted the story map in the media, gaining coverage in national newspapers and national and regional TV. During the consultation period alone, the story map was viewed over 2,100 times, with more than 200 views on a single day.

Greater clarity about the role of National Parks and AONBs
The spatial analysis that LUC undertook using ArcGIS enabled CPRE to evaluate the significance of protected landscapes more precisely. For example, the ArcGIS analysis revealed that National Parks and AONBs are home to an enormous number of cultural heritage assets, including 41% of England’s Scheduled Monuments, 27% of Registered Parks and Gardens, 17% of listed buildings and 92% of World Heritage Sites (increased by the Lake District being awarded the status in 2017). This helped CPRE to demonstrate how important protected landscapes are for preserving the nation’s cultural heritage.

Strong evidence to inform recommendations
Critically, the ArcGIS analysis and story map gave the independent review panel accurate, statistical evidence that it could use to help formulate its recommendations. For example, this evidence meant that the panel could see that 36% of the population (19 million people) live more than 15 miles by road from a National Park or AONB, and almost half of people in the most deprived communities are not well-served by the current network of protected landscapes. “The ArcGIS story map provided the panel with hard evidence for why there needs to be improved access to National Parks and AONBs for everyone, wherever they live,” says Marrington. “We had very positive feedback from the review panel, saying how innovative and helpful our submission was.”

A powerful tool for raising awareness
The ArcGIS story map proved to be a very powerful tool, which has successfully raised awareness of key National Park and AONB issues with the panel, the media and the wider public. The clarity of the story map format makes it very easy for everyone to understand important issues, including who currently benefits from these landscapes and who does not have easy access. “The ArcGIS story map captures people’s imaginations and communicates something quite complicated in a visual way that everyone can access and understand,” Manson says.

Insight to inform future planning
In line with its 2020-26 strategy, CPRE is now using the insight it has gained from ArcGIS to inform its future plans. For instance, CPRE is supporting pilot projects to improve local green spaces in those areas where ArcGIS has shown that 30% or more of the population does not have easy access to National Parks and AONB. “We have far exceeded our initial goals,” Marrington says. “The ArcGIS analysis and story map have not only influenced the Glover Review, but will also influence what CPRE does in the future.”

With an operational area covering more than half of Wales and managing 136 drinking water catchments which feed 61 Water Treatment Works, Welsh Water’s Catchment Spatial Risk Analysts play an important role in delivering wholesome and acceptable drinking water to over three million customers.

With limited land holding across these catchments, the not-for-profit water company has little or no control over how it is used. Agriculture, forestry, the use of chemicals including pesticides, fertilisers and nutrients, as well as human settlements and adverse weather conditions can all determine the quality of raw water that enters their water treatment works.

To help understand and monitor its catchment areas, the Catchment Risk Analysis team, who sit within the wider Water Services Science department, acquire data from a range of sources. Traditionally, it relied on huge amounts of data from raw water sampling, along with spot samples and field observations. In recent years the organisation has started to capture knowledge and intelligence through proactive stakeholder programmes with farmers and landowners, to better understand the root causes of deteriorating or changing raw water quality.

The team was keen to demonstrate how a spatial and more collaborative approach to managing data from a variety of sources could transform how it provides scientific evidence and advice to the Water Services team. By safeguarding raw water quality before it reaches the water treatment works, Welsh Water can avoid using additional chemicals and energy to turn it into perfect drinking water, while safeguarding the environment and protecting drinking water sources for generations to come.

ArcGIS has historically been used by Welsh Water primarily to consolidate its network and asset-related data. The Catchment Spatial Risk Analysts identified that, as a system of engagement, the ArcGIS platform could be used to share and manage data both internally and externally, working more collaboratively with its stakeholders across catchment areas including farmers and landowners. The team developed the WaterSource Portal, which was initially trialled in November 2018 and quickly adopted 24/7/365 as a business-critical system, taking data out of spreadsheets and sharing it online, through web services, on maps and dashboards.

Data from multiple sources is stored in its Microsoft SQL server database acting as the data store for ArcGIS Enterprise, which collates, analyses, records and manages spatial data to identify and predict issues affecting raw water quality. Portal for ArcGIS acts as the ‘one stop shop’ for the team’s GIS needs, enabling them to create, use and share maps and apps with colleagues and external stakeholders.

Survey123 helps the team to work off-line in often remote and isolated environments, capturing and incorporating data from the field, supporting the team’s ability to identify specific areas of water deterioration. For example, areas where soil erosion has resulted in extra silt in rivers, flowing into reservoirs and requiring more treatment. Working with farmers to plant trees on the sides of valleys is reducing the erosion of soil into rivers, ensuring that water reaching the drinking water treatment works is of a more manageable and expected quality.

Data from the field is now quickly visualised and summarised using Operations Dashboards, highlighting such potential causes of water deterioration and providing business intelligence to help the Water Services Science team identify solutions for smarter catchment management. As business demands evolve and conditions change, such as the impact of adverse weather conditions, the Catchment team can quickly tailor collection and visualisation apps, thanks to configurable templates in ArcGIS Enterprise.

The team used the company’s pre-existing ArcGIS Enterprise and ArcGIS Online platforms to build the WaterSource Portal, utilising out-of-the box functionality with no additional software licensing costs. The WaterSource Portal now acts as a showcase to the wider business, demonstrating how spatial analytics can provide enhanced functionalities to different user groups by taking data out of spreadsheets and sharing it online, and supporting regulatory responsibilities.

Supporting business and environmental objectives
By working more collaboratively with external stakeholders and share areas of potential concern through a geographic approach, the organisation can support better land management. As the quality of water which needs treating improves, fewer chemicals are required to reduce pollutants thereby helping to reduce operating costs, while safeguarding the environment.

Shared insights
The WaterSource Portal allows instant access to data and insights, putting powerful spatial analytics into the hands of day-to-day users across the company. Vital business intelligence for the team’s regulatory responsibilities can now be summarised in a matter of seconds.

Enhanced health and safety
Task assessment forms created in Survey123 forms have led to improved health and safety. Forms now include prompts to tell people to stop working in adverse weather conditions, reminders to accurately mark hazards on a map and further prompts asking whether the user can take any steps to make the job in hand safer.

Improved enablement
ArcGIS Enterprise enables the team to work more efficiently, more accurately, more safely and more confidently with enhanced awareness of changeable environmental conditions. The business response is more robust, and a broader user group now benefits from access to powerful spatial analytics.

Better data management
Data, from multiple internal and external sources, can be managed more efficiently and productively in ArcGIS Enterprise. Information can be stored and retrieved quickly, and forms and additional documentation such as images from the field can be attached and shared with colleagues and stakeholders.

Jacobs is a global organisation delivering impactful solutions to some of the world’s most critical problems for thriving cities, resilient environments, mission-critical outcomes and scientific discovery. Through a wide range of technical solutions and professional services, the company helps clients succeed by developing solutions to the real-world challenges they face every day.

Many of Jacobs’ clients are tackling the toughest infrastructure and technology challenges, where large multi-disciplinary teams need to collaborate closely and share a vast amount of technical documentation in order to complete high quality projects, on schedule. The company identified that project data was often stored in different systems, making it harder for teams to find, view and interact with the data they need to enable them to work efficiently. For example, designs created in Computer-Aided Design (CAD) software packages couldn’t be easily shared, as not everyone had access to the required specialist software or the skills to use it. So, Jacobs set out to develop a web-based solution that would combine CAD files, building information modelling (BIM) data and geospatial data to create a single, interactive and 3D viewer for all project information.

Jacobs’ Digital Solutions team already used Esri’s ArcGIS to deliver a range of services to clients, so it decided to leverage Esri technology in designing the new solution. The team started by creating a streamlined workflow for transforming thousands of individual CAD files and Autodesk Revit files, stored in a BIM environment, into a format suitable for publishing in a 3D geographic information system (GIS) environment.

Then, using Esri’s ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS Enterprise, the Digital Solutions team created a 3D Viewer, allowing users to view CAD designs, BIM data and geospatial data all in one place. The solution brought together both 2D and 3D data files, allowing everything to be viewed side by side in a 3D environment for the first time. This web-based solution allows Jacobs’ clients to create a single, interactive repository for all their project data, enabling employees to explore multiple layers of project information. Users can navigate easily around different components of a design, get a better understanding of the geographic context of the project, such as the line of sight, and even explore sub-surface features.

Highways England became the first of Jacobs’ clients to use Jacobs’ 3D Viewer to see data from junctions 3-5 of the M20. Use of this pioneering solution allows project teams to zoom in on maps of the project to see 3D designs of new gantries, road signs, stairways, carriageways, verges and underpasses. Users simply click on any feature, such as a section of underground pipe or gantry, to see detailed attribute data and can use embedded Esri tools to take measurements within the app.

Improved efficiency in complex projects
The ArcGIS-based 3D Viewer improves the efficiency of project teams by making all project data available to view and explore in one place. Employees don’t waste time looking for information across multiple different software systems and can interact with CAD, BIM and GIS data at the same time, to gain a faster understanding of complex tasks.

More effective collaboration within teams
Critically, the 3D Viewer improves collaboration within teams, by making the same information available to everyone. Team members who are not CAD experts can now access CAD files in an interactive format that they can easily view and interrogate without the need for specialist CAD software and training. “In the rapidly evolving world of BIM, collaboration is key in keeping everyone on the same track and ensuring efficient, quality outputs,” says Liam Gallagher, Jacobs Director for Digital Delivery and Head of BIM, Smart Motorways Programme. “The development of this 3D viewer will change the way project teams interact with data and one another. This is part of the bigger picture that is BIM integration on projects.”

Innovative use of GIS to solve problems
The company has successfully leveraged the latest ArcGIS technology to create a web-based app with the potential to add value for clients right around the world. “The success of our 3D GIS solution puts us at the cutting edge of GIS development,” says Lorna Sherman, GIS Analyst at Jacobs. “By creating innovative technical solutions using ArcGIS we are helping clients improve efficiency in their projects and solve real world problems.”

While the City of London covers little more than a square mile and has just 8,000 permanent residents, it is visited every day by over 500,000 workers, students and tourists. In addition, the area’s 715 streets are all highly urbanised and surrounded by historic buildings, high value business premises and soaring skyscrapers, making this financial district an incredibly challenging environment for policing. Following a gradual reduction in funding, City of London Police needed to find a smarter, more targeted approach to crime prevention that would optimise the use of its resources and improve its effectiveness.

For many years, City of London Police has used Esri’s ArcGIS platform to help it analyse patterns in crime and plan policing responses. Through a research programme at Cambridge University, the force identified an opportunity to leverage advanced functionality within the ArcGIS platform and develop a new smarter approach to crime prevention. It then worked with Esri UK to elevate the use of its existing ArcGIS solutions and transform the academic research into a real-world policing tool.

Under the leadership of Detective Inspector Lee Bowen, City of London Police first used algorithms in ArcGIS Pro to analyse a database of 21,000 crimes and identify where the most crime was taking place, in the fewest locations. While the force had used ArcGIS before to show crime hot spots, its new, more advanced spatial analysis enables police officers to pinpoint the fewest locations where the most crimes take place and therefore identify policing priorities with a previously-unattainable level of precision.

Next, City of London Police used ArcGIS Pro to analyse the relative harm caused by each individual crime, using the Cambridge Crime Harm Index as a way of measuring the severity of crimes. This spatial analysis revealed only a handful of 50m2 locations with a high proportion of serious crime and gave police officers unequivocal evidence of the areas where it should focus its activities, for the first time.

City of London Police then used ArcGIS to develop interactive story maps to make all of its new intelligence about priority policing areas and harmful crime accessible to police officers in a format that is easy for them to understand. Officers working on the beat now use these story maps on mobile devices to get instant access to information on specific crimes in their locations, right when they need it.

Optimal use of finite policing resources
Using the insight provided by ArcGIS, City of London Police can now deploy police officers and resources to exactly those locations where high volumes of crime and the most harmful crimes occur. The spatial analysis is used every day to inform the City of London Police Patrol Plan, allowing true evidence-based targeting of resources within the force for the first time. “Our use of ArcGIS enables us to put the right people in the right place, at the right time, to deliver the best possible public service with the resources we have available,” says Detective Inspector Bowen.

A significant increase in arrests
The adoption of advanced spatial analysis has undoubtedly improved the effectiveness of police activities in the City of London and contributed to large numbers of arrests in the area. “Arrests have increased dramatically since we started to focus our efforts on those priority crime areas identified by ArcGIS,” Bowen says. “We have also been able to prioritise the crimes communities are most concerned about, by focusing on areas with a large number of crimes with a high harm index.”

Effective crime prevention strategies
By allocating resources more strategically, based on better evidence about criminal activity, the City of London Police is improving its ability to prevent crime and therefore eliminate costs across the whole criminal justice process. Jane Gyford, former Commander of Operations, City of London Police, says: “In policing we talk about prevention all the time, but actually being truly strategically preventative is a key aim of City of London Police. Our use of spatial analysis helps to put the police ahead of the criminal.”

Better information for officers on the beat
Police officers within the force can now use story maps on the beat to find out detailed information about crimes, in the locations where they are working. The story maps give police officers autonomy, so when they are patrolling a high harm location, they have the information they need at their fingertips to make decisions about the best premises to visit and how to engage with the public to improve their effectiveness.

Improved collaboration in crime prevention initiatives
City of London Police is also sharing the insight it gains from its spatial analysis with external organisations and the Crime Prevention Association, as part of a range of target hardening initiatives that aim to make it harder for criminals to operate. For example, the force advises companies on ways to improve lighting and make private security professionals more effective as deterrents. “ArcGIS gives us evidence we can share with businesses in the City of London, so that they understand the risks in their location and can take measures to minimise their vulnerability to crime,” Bowen says.

High Speed Two is joining up Britain to build a fairer, more balanced country. By creating much needed capacity and connectivity for the country’s rail network, it will be the catalyst for economic growth and regeneration, with local areas planning to create around half a million jobs from the arrival of high speed services. With enabling works underway along Phase One of the route between the West Midlands and London, and parliamentary approval expected for Phase 2a, extending the route north to Crewe, HS2 Ltd is currently undertaking planning and consultation for Phase 2b, completing the ‘Y-shaped’ network to Manchester and Leeds – and beyond.

HS2 Ltd has a statutory obligation to publish an Environmental Statement identifying any possible environmental consequences of building and running the Phase 2b railway and describing planned measures to reduce the impacts on local communities. The organisation wanted to engage with as many members of the public and other stakeholders as possible, during a period of consultation, to gain feedback on its draft Environmental Statement. However, it recognised that its working draft was both complex and long, comprising more than 10,000 pages, making it difficult for people to find and understand information pertinent to their local areas.

To try to make its Environmental Statement more accessible to a wider number of people, HS2 Ltd set up a project group to explore the possibility of creating a digital tool to support the working draft that would provide a visual and interactive overview of the environment information detailed in the statement. This project team soon identified that it could create an online navigator for its working draft, quickly and inexpensively, by leveraging Esri technology already used within HS2 Ltd to create a story map.

The digital solution was developed using two interlinked ArcGIS StoryMap templates, which provided the framework for displaying the environmental information in a highly visual way. HS2 Ltd embedded existing high resolution, high impact project images and corporate videos into its online navigator to draw people into the story. Most importantly, the organisation incorporated a series of interactive, digital maps allowing people to explore their own community areas and see the precise locations of the HS2 Phase 2b route.

With links directly from the HS2 website, the online navigator allows users to zoom into the map to see new features, such as tunnels and cuttings, and click on hyperlinks to access more detailed information from the full suite of documents. By overlaying different maps on top of one another in the story map, HS2 Ltd was able to show people the existing situation and likely future scenarios in a very clear way and illustrate precisely how the HS2 Phase 2b route is likely to change the environment.

Effective engagement with stakeholders
The development of the HS2 Phase 2b online navigator has enabled HS2 Ltd to engage more effectively with a wide range of stakeholders, online and at regional events, during and after the consultation. Over a period of six months, the Environmental Statement online navigator was viewed more than 22,000 times, which demonstrates just how successful it was in engaging the interest of the general public.

Clearer communication of relevant information
One significant benefit of the online navigator is its ability to make the working draft of the Environmental Statement more meaningful and relevant to everyone. Users can use the interactive tool to quickly find the information that matters to them and zoom in to see likely environmental changes in the communities where they live or work.

Faster responses to telephone enquiries
Unexpectedly, the online navigator is also helping HS2 Ltd to improve its customer service by helping it to respond to enquiries more quickly. Members of staff in the HS2 call centre routinely use the story map to find the locations that callers are concerned about and zoom in to find the information they need to answer specific questions about possible environmental impacts.

Affectionately known as Methody, Methodist College Belfast is one of Northern Ireland's leading grammar schools. Pupils here have the opportunity to study Geology and Geography courses at GCSE, AS and A Level, as well as participate in a wide variety of extra-curricular opportunities that strive to develop pupils’ interest in university courses and careers relating to Geology and Geography.

Geology teacher Karen Parks needed to integrate the use of geographic information system (GIS) technology into her teaching with A Level students, because the compulsory ‘Practical Endorsement’ part of the A Level states that students must be able ‘to compile and analyse geological data sets through to visualisation using GIS’. In addition, she wanted to integrate GIS into more of her lessons with pupils of all ages, to ignite their interest in GIS and give them real-world IT skills that they may need in their future studies and work. She therefore signed up to use Esri’s ArcGIS platform free of charge, through the ArcGIS for Schools programme.

Parks now regularly uses ArcGIS solutions and interactive maps available in ArcGIS Online, along with teaching resources prepared by Esri Ireland, to make lessons fun and engaging for pupils. For example, she helps pupils understand the potential impact of volcanoes using the ArcGIS Online Volcano Top Trumps map, where volcanoes around the world are given scores for height, deadliness, unpredictability and destruction potential. “I find that the pupils who engage well with GIS tend to get a better understanding of global issues, as they can think about them spatially,” she says.

The Geography teachers at Methody will also be using the Esri’s Survey123 app to allow students to collect data on their smartphones while on field trips. Use of this mobile GIS solution enables pupils to record very accurate locations on maps, take their own pictures and make notes in any weather, without worrying about soggy paper. Pupils have enjoyed using the technology in the field, and Parks expects to use Survey123 during all geology field work at GCSE and A Level in the incoming academic year. She says: “Using GIS in the field gives pupils an insight into the working world. Professionals in a wide range of civil engineering and environmental careers need to be able to access and use maps in the field.”

Pupils have also had the opportunity to use GIS in extra-curricular activities and deepen their knowledge of GIS. For example, a group of students recently used ArcGIS as part of research to enter the National Schools Geology Challenge and also participated in the Association for Geographic Information (AGI) conference in Belfast. They used ArcGIS to explore the environmental, economic and social impacts of renewable and non-renewable energy sources and presented their ideas in a presentation and poster entitled ‘Fuel for Thought’.

“When my students go to university to study geology, geography or other related courses like civil engineering, they are not afraid to use GIS,” Parks says. “They already have real-world GIS skills, which puts them a step ahead of other students.”

Before starting to teach ArcGIS in the classroom and on field trips, Parks attended an ArcGIS for Schools training course organised by Esri Ireland and a GeoMentor from Esri Ireland came to Methody to deliver training workshops for some Geography and Geology students. She then took advantage of some of the ready-made resources that have been prepared by Esri Ireland for teachers to use, adapting some of them and using others straight ‘out of the pack’, which saved her time.

Parks has had tremendous support from GeoMentors at Esri Ireland and Queens University, Belfast, who have encouraged her and given her practical help and tips along the way. She has also benefited from help from the wider GIS community, including the Geological Society Northern Ireland. “Lots of people have been very enthusiastic about ArcGIS and that has made all the difference,” she says.