The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) manages over 200 nature reserves in the UK, to protect and nurture vital habitats for hundreds of species of birds and other wildlife. These reserves range from craggy islands with steep cliffs to vast wetlands and remote moors. Monitoring changes in food sources, habitats and breeding populations in these areas can be very difficult, due in part to their inaccessibility and also to the necessity of minimising any disturbance to the wildlife.

To address these challenges, the RSPB contracts specialist companies to fly over its reserves and take aerial photography. The imagery supplied is extremely valuable, but this approach is too expensive and inflexible to use often and across all reserves. With the decreasing cost of drones and the improving quality of lightweight digital cameras, some of the RSPB’s reserve managers started to acquire drones to enable them to capture aerial imagery on demand. The RSPB was keen to support and encourage this use of drones, but didn’t have a standard way of processing the imagery captured, storing it centrally and making it accessible to everyone in the organisation.

The RSPB is a long-time user of Esri’s ArcGIS and selected Esri’s Drone2Map solution to underpin its new centralised approach to processing, analysing and sharing aerial imagery. “Drone2Map was the obvious solution for us to use, as it integrates seamlessly with our other Esri products,” says Adrian Hughes, Head of GIS Services at the RSPB. “It is also very cost effective for us, as we can share a single license between multiple users.”

Using Drone2Map, the RSPB can now convert aerial image files, captured via drones, into a single, seamless, geospatially-referenced map of areas of interest within reserves. It can then publish the map directly to the cloud, using ArcGIS Online, and make it available to staff to view via the organisation’s in-house ArcGIS system, known internally as Merlin. “Drone2Map is really easy to use,” Hughes says. “We can publish drone imagery to ArcGIS Online with a few clicks of a button, and thereby make it possible for anyone in the organisation to view the maps, zoom into specific regions and examine habitat types.”

RSPB employees can also use ArcGIS Pro to undertake sophisticated analyses of the drone imagery and gain a deeper insight into habitat types. For example, a team working at the Abernethy Reserve in Scotland has used Drone2Map and ArcGIS Pro to analyse aerial imagery, classify different types of vegetation growth across the reserve and quantify changes in the growth of essential food sources for bird species such as the golden plover, black grouse and capercaillie.

More effective habitat conservation
Using Drone2Map, the RSPB is able to gain a deeper understanding of its reserves and, as a result, implement more effective habitat conservation schemes. At the Fetlar Nature Reserve in the Shetland Islands, for example, a site manager completely changed the management of a swampland area, after viewing aerial imagery with ArcGIS and realising that there was too much open water on the land. Pools of water in the reserve were subsequently filled, creating a far more suitable habitat for the red-necked phalarope. “Drone2Map has created a better understanding of our reserves, changed our work programmes and improved our management plans,” says Richard Humpidge, an RSPB reserve manager.

Sensitive and cost-effective observations of nesting birds
With its new centralised system for processing and sharing drone imagery, the RSPB can now make greater use of drones to monitor nesting birds from a distance, without disturbing them. Recently, Drone2Map was used to process imagery taken of the only known breeding pair of little gulls in the UK. Drone2Map has also been used to create seamless images of inaccessible cliffs, allowing staff to count the number of nesting guillemots. “RSPB staff used to hire a boat and manually count seabirds on the cliff face, from the water,” says Humpidge. “By not hiring the boat, we saved the equivalent of the cost of a drone and were able to undertake a far more accurate count of the birds as well.”

Improved monitoring of habitat interventions
Using Drone2Map and ArcGIS, RSPB will be able to compare and analyse drone imagery taken at regular intervals over a period of time to monitor changes that occur following the introduction of new habitat interventions. In Swindale Beck Valley, in the Lake District, the RSPB has been involved in a project to restore the original meandering course of the river, to slow the water flow and encourage the growth of aquatic plants that are a valuable food source for birds. The organisation has used Drone2Map to create a 3D image of the new river course and will use this as the base layer image to monitor future changes in the valley.

More cost effective operations
Over time, the RSPB expects to make significant cost savings from its increasing use of drones and ability to analyse drone imagery effectively. Not only will it save money from not commissioning light aircraft to take aerial photography; it will also make savings from better operational planning. For example, when implementing habitat management schemes, it will be able to view images on Merlin, see the best access routes for diggers and more precisely identify the best locations for works to take place, saving days of field work.

Every five years, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) of Ireland conducts a census survey of the country’s 4.8 million residents, at 1.5 million households, across an area of 70,000 km2, using the ‘long form’ method to collect data on everything from individuals’ employment status to their means of travel to work. The organisation traditionally presented this census data in statistical tables and published it in reports, illustrated with a few maps and diagrams. It realised, however, that there was an opportunity for it to increase the value of the census by analysing and presenting the information spatially.

Senior executives at CSO engaged in conversations with Ireland’s national mapping agency, the Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSi), and the two organisations discovered that their future visions were very compatible. “It made sense at a number of levels for us to collaborate,” says Lorraine McNerney, General Manager of Geospatial Systems at OSi. “Both organisations were playing active roles in the Government’s public sector reform plan; both organisations worked with data and analytics; and both organisations used Esri’s geographic information system (GIS) platform, ArcGIS. Our discussions culminated in the signing of a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in September 2016, and the two organisations agreed to work together to create new channels for disseminating geospatially referenced data for Ireland.”

Just a few months after the MOU was signed, CSO and OSi were approached by the United Nations and Esri Inc. and invited to participate in a research project to develop and deploy a new method of monitoring the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) using GIS. Ireland was one of only seven countries selected for this ground breaking initiative and the only country from Europe, so as McNerney says, it was something to feel “really proud of.” The opportunity provided a clear focus for the partnership and provided the impetus for CSO and OSi to launch an ambitious, collaborative development project.

OSi had already developed a data sharing platform called GeoHive, based on Esri’s ArcGIS Online solution, so CSO and OSi decided to use GeoHive as the technical platform for their collaborative projects. GeoHive acts as a “hub of hubs”, allowing the same data to be presented to different audiences, with different views, in a number of sub-portals known as ‘micro-hives’.

While working on the United Nations SDG project, CSO and OSi decided to create a micro-hive to present Ireland’s Census 2016 Small Area Population Statistics (SAPS) as geographical Open Data for the first time. The resulting portal (http://census2016.geohive.ie) allows the census data to be viewed, accessed or downloaded in map form across 31 administrative counties, 95 municipal districts, 3,409 electoral divisions and 18,641 small areas. The data sets include globally unique identifiers (GUIDs) to connect statistics and geography, which is a necessary step for using standard common IDs for spatial data in Ireland.

Using the Census 2016 Portal, anyone can explore Ireland’s latest census data by theme, combine multiple data layers to create their own maps, embed maps in other applications, download data or connect to it via a series of Open Standards application programming interfaces (APIs). “With the launch of the Census 2016 Portal, we showcased what our two organisations could achieve together,” says Kevin McCormack, Head of Division for Sustainable Development Goals Indicators and Reports at the Central Statistics Office. “We also achieved CSO’s goal of making census data available in a more meaningful and accessible geospatial format.”

Four months later, in November 2017, CSO and OSi launched the Ireland SDG Portal (http://irelandsdg.geohive.ie), a separate micro-hive with data aligned specifically to the United Nations’ 17 development goals, 169 targets and 230 indicators. This portal incorporates census 2016 variables from CSO and includes over 100 spatial data sets about Ireland ranging from biodiversity to traffic accidents. The portal provides over 50 indicators relating to Ireland’s progress towards SDGs and Users can click on the map at the top of the screen to see colour-coded visual indicators, such as the proportion of unemployed females in each electoral ward.

CSO and OSi worked in close partnership with Esri Ireland to deliver both the Census 2016 Portal and the Ireland SDG Portal. Indeed, according to McCormack, the success of both projects was due to the collaboration, complementary skills and commitment of the three organisations involved. “As a team, we are very strong,” he says. “CSO, OSi and Esri Ireland have brought together the data, the maps and the GIS platform – and it is the combination of all three that has enabled us to move forwards so successfully.”

As an extension to the two portals, the joint team is producing a series of ArcGIS Online Story Maps to highlight key issues indicated by the CSO census 2016 data and other sources of Open Data. The first of these Story Maps addresses issues including climate change and unemployment and brings together data, interactive maps, images and narratives to tell the story behind the statistics. People don’t need any technical skills or competence with numbers to be able to gain an insight into an issue and zoom into the map to see how the issue impacts the parts of the country where they live or work. “For people who aren’t used to handling data, Story Maps make statistics really easy to understand and are therefore excellent communications tools,” says Esri Ireland’s Katie Goodwin, Team Lead for the development of the national data infrastructure for geography and statistics.

Improved ability to inform Government policy decisions
By making it easier for policy makers, researchers and government officials to visualise statistical information, the Census 2016 Portal and Ireland SDG Portal will play key roles in supporting Government decision making. It is anticipated that Story Maps will be particularly helpful in highlighting critical issues in society. For example, one recently completed Story Map, based on census 2016 data, shows that 40% of children in Ireland live in rented accommodation and are therefore at risk of poverty and homelessness if rental prices increase. “Story Maps open up issues for discussion and help to inform government policy,” McCormack says.

Better information to encourage investment in Ireland’s economy
The Census 2016 Portal is being used by the Industrial Development Authority (IDA), the Irish agency responsible for attracting foreign investment to Ireland, to help it identify the best locations to promote to organisations that are considering opening new businesses in the country. The agency can now easily see the locations of graduates, skilled employees and transportation links and gain the evidence it needs to attract new investment to Ireland. “What we have done in Ireland really showcases the benefits of having geospatial census information,” McCormack says. “When you add locations to statistics, they become so much more powerful.”

Easy access to transparent, meaningful data for all citizens
For the first time, anyone can access Ireland’s census data for 2016 in a geospatial format that is easy to understand and use. This improves public sector transparency, as all citizens can see the data upon which government policies are determined. In addition, not-for-profit organisations can use the Census 2016 Portal to see, for example, where there are high levels of unemployment. They can then direct their voluntary services to the locations where they are most needed and gain the evidence they need to lobby the Irish Government for added support in the areas of greatest need.

A more powerful way of engaging citizens in important issues
Through the development of Story Maps, linked to the United Nations’ SDGs, CSO and OSi can help the Irish Government to raise awareness of important issues impacting the country, such as the need to protect biodiversity and preserve water quality. “Story Maps provide a new way of communicating that captures hearts and minds,” says McNerney. “They really help to open up conversations that OSi and CSO wouldn’t have been a part of before and enable us to engage with a wider range of people.”

A cost-effective mechanism for meeting UN reporting requirements
Significantly, Ireland’s new SDG Portal will support the Irish Government, by making it easier for the Government to meet the United Nations’ SDG reporting obligations. Prior to the launch of the Ireland SDG Portal, there was no single repository for all of the data that the Irish Government would need to find and analyse to produce the reports. Now, government working groups responsible for United Nations reporting can find the pertinent data more easily, without having to duplicate effort or waste time manipulating data. As a result, they will be able to produce reports quickly, potentially reducing costs by saving time.

An example of best practice data sharing 
Although still in its infancy, the Ireland SDG Portal has already been highlighted by the Irish Government as a best practice example of how public sector organisations can share and optimise the use of data. This country-owned, country-led project has been featured as a case study in a new strategy for the future development of Ireland’s public service, called ‘Our Public Service 2020’ (www.ops2020.gov.ie), which was launched on December 12th 2017. The policy envisions that “Sharing data across Government will facilitate better service delivery, support better decision making and increase the ease of access to services and drive efficiencies.”

Amid growing awareness of the environmental impacts of diesel and petrol engines, more and more people are considering switching to electric vehicles (EVs). This has led to heightened demand for EV charging infrastructure, particularly in residential areas. Emu Analytics has calculated that an additional 83,500 EV charging points could be required in the UK by 2020, which represents an 83% increase in just two years.

To help local authorities respond to this demand, the UK Government has made a substantial grant available to cover 75% of the cost of installing new charging infrastructure on residential streets. The vast majority of councils have, however, been unable to submit grant applications as they haven’t had the necessary data to prove exactly where on-street charging infrastructure is needed.

Using its existing ArcGIS platform and Python, Emu Analytics has created an automated analytical process that provides local authorities with the data they need to apply for the government grant and accelerate the roll-out of charging infrastructure. The process predicts future demand for EV charger points, at street level, across the whole of the UK, and generates a unique report for each of the UK’s 404 local authorities with barely any manual intervention.

Firstly, ArcGIS identifies clusters of young, educated and well-paid individuals who match the profile of electric vehicle ‘early adopters’. Then the technology uses open source data from the Department of Transport on vehicle ownership to identify high densities of diesel car owners, who may be persuaded to switch directly from diesel to electric rather than from diesel to petrol. Other potential groups of early adopters are also identified in deprived areas, to ensure that all sections of society are considered.

Next, ArcGIS uses Ordnance Survey road maps and Land Registry data to measure the distances between buildings and the road, to identify properties that are unlikely to have driveways where private EV charging points could be installed. All of the demographic, vehicle ownership and driveway analysis is then combined on digital maps in ArcGIS Desktop to reveal ‘hot spots’ where there is potential high demand for on-street EV charging infrastructure.

At a touch of a button, Emu Analytics can embed maps and statistics from ArcGIS into bespoke four-page reports for local authorities, highlighting precisely those residential areas where EV charging infrastructure would be most used. Emu Analytics can also create Esri Story Maps to present local authorities with its analysis in a highly visual and interactive format.

Faster roll-out of EV charging infrastructure
Through its use of ArcGIS, Emu Analytics can provide local authorities with the evidence they require to apply for the government grant and accelerate the roll-out of on-street charging infrastructure. One of the main factors currently impeding the widespread adoption of EVs is the shortage of EV charging points, so, by helping local authorities to install charger points more quickly, Emu Analytics is also helping to drive the growth in sustainable forms of transport. “By using ArcGIS to show local authorities where to prioritise the roll-out of charging infrastructure, and by giving them the data they need to apply for funding, we are helping to remove one of the biggest barriers to electric vehicle usage,” says Alice Goudie, Senior Location Intelligence Analyst, Emu Analytics.

Over 400 unique reports in less than a minute
Significantly, Emu Analytics has been able to use ArcGIS to create a rapid, repeatable analytical process so that the company can produce bespoke reports for each of the UK’s 404 local authorities, at the push of a button, in less than one minute. “Rather than having to produce map images and find the right data 404 times for 404 separate local authority reports, ArcGIS does it for me,” Goudie says.

Improved decision making throughout local authorities
Through the development of ArcGIS StoryMaps, Emu Analytics can make its detailed analysis available to clients in a format that they can easily understand and use to help them make effective decisions. The head of the council can see the data clearly explained in overview, while transport planners and highways staff can drill down to individual street level. As Goudie says, “The power of StoryMaps is that everyone can look at the areas they are interested in on a map and interrogate the data themselves to make better-informed decisions.”

A new value-adding service
Finally, ArcGIS has enabled Emu Analytics to offer an additional value-adding service for local authorities and develop a new revenue stream for its business. “This new service promotes our ArcGIS capabilities and shows our ability to use GIS in innovative way to solve business challenges,” Goudie observes.

When telecoms companies roll out new fibre communications networks, the success and long-term profitability of the venture can hinge on the quality of the data collected at the very outset. For, if the data is incomplete or out of date, unforeseen issues can emerge that increase costs during the build phase and impede the efficient operation of the network for years to come.

The traditional approach for collecting data to inform the installation of new fibre networks was a highly manual one, fraught with the potential for errors. Surveyors typically used printed maps, note pads, laptops and cameras to conduct surveys in the field up to three days a week and then spent around two days in the office transferring their findings to spreadsheets. The engineering solutions company 4site identified an opportunity to streamline this survey process to not only improve the accuracy of the data collected, but also shorten the time required to share it.

After evaluating a number of possible geographic information system (GIS) solutions, 4site selected Esri’s ArcGIS, including Collector App for ArcGIS, as the foundation for a customised survey app and process. “The real power of ArcGIS is that you can adapt it,” says Niall Looney, Operations Director at 4site. “We were able to use products from ArcGIS to develop a GIS-led survey workflow called 4Survey that we believe is the first of its kind in the fibre deployment industry.”

Now, 4site’s mobile teams use smartphones and ipads to view, query and collect data in the field pertaining to existing and planned fibre networks. The 4Survey app allows them to complete audits guided by pre-set drop-down boxes, verify existing network features, take and upload images, validate network maps and add new information points with attributes.

All of the information collected in the field using the ArcGIS mobile app is transferred digitally back to 4site’s planners in the company’s Fibre Centre for Excellence in Limerick, Ireland, in what is a completely paperless process. The planners can see survey data as soon as it becomes available and start designing new networks instantly. In the first six months following its introduction, 4Survey was used to provide survey, design and planning services for the roll out of fibre to more than 100,000 homes and businesses.

50% reduction in survey time
Using its ArcGIS survey app and workflow, 4site can now complete fibre network surveys for its clients 50% more quickly than before and, therefore, offer a highly efficient survey service for its telecommunications industry clients. Field-based surveyors work significantly more productively in the field, as they can perform all their required tasks using just one device and no longer have to return to the office to type up reports or manually link images to audits.

Faster delivery of next generation fibre networks
Because 4site’s planners receive complete, accurate survey data direct to their desktops, the instant it is collected, they can now complete the planning and design phase for new fibre installations much more quickly. “4site has reduced its turnaround time for designing new fibre networks by around 25%,” estimates Looney. “This means that we can help our clients to reduce their time to market and help them deliver next generation fibre networks to homes and businesses more quickly.”

Significant cost savings in build phase
The improved accuracy of the survey data collected is expected to result in significant cost savings for 4site’s clients during the build phase. Fewer unexpected issues will occur as a result of incorrect information, reducing the need for last minute design changes, expensive work-arounds and repeat site visits. According to Looney, “4site’s clients could reduce their build costs by up to 20%, which, depending on the infrastructure profile, could result in savings of millions of Euros.”

Improved profitability for telecoms operators
With the higher quality of data that is now collected during the new 4Survey process, 4site can work with its clients to design smarter fibre networks that will optimise future revenues and reduce ongoing maintenance costs. For example, networks can be planned to maximise the potential of clusters and ensure the network extends to as many potential customers as possible. “We can verify the areas that are seemingly unviable at an earlier stage and develop solutions to make them viable as part of the core fibre roll out,” explains Looney.

The Mines Advisory Group (MAG) aims to save lives by removing the millions of landmines, booby traps and unexploded bombs that still lurk beneath the ground in countries ravaged by years of brutal war. In Cambodia, MAG has already cleared over 74,600 landmines and 224,400 items of weaponry, but the risk to human life remains immense. Undetected landmines and other abandoned explosive devices continue to kill and injure two people every week in Cambodia, deepening the poverty suffered by thousands of families by impeding their use of the land for farming.

Traditionally, teams of specialists from MAG, working on the ground in Cambodia, relied on a series of manual processes to collect, collate and share information in the field. Observations about search areas were recorded on paper and then typed into spreadsheets and reports at the base. Senior managers could not gain an overall picture of sites until the notes were collated and analysed centrally and, as a result, they were unable to make the rapid decisions required about how best to deploy resources.

MAG had been using Esri’s ArcGIS as a corporate geospatial information system (GIS) for many years, but the technology was used purely for recording data and generating maps. “Historically, GIS was about showing, on a map, the areas of land we had cleared,” says Greg Secomb, Global Information Systems Advisor, MAG. “We decided to start using GIS not only as a reporting tool, but also as an operational tool to help us improve our effectiveness in the field.”

Commencing in Cambodia, MAG in collaboration with HD R and D Program began to use ArcGIS Online and Collector App for ArcGIS to collect data in the field and make it instantly available to team leaders. “I know exactly where my teams are and how much ground they have cleared, without having to wait two months to get a map,” says Shathel Fahs, Technical Field Manager, Team Leader, at MAG. “It is so powerful to see the map progressing every day.”

At the same time, the organisation replaced all its paper-based reporting in the field in Cambodia with Survey123 for ArcGIS. Described by Fahs as “amazing”, this mobile survey app is used by 17 teams across the country to collect geo-referenced information on all unexploded ordnance (UXO) detected, in dual languages. The data collected is shared instantly via ArcGIS Online and is more accurate, as there is no risk of mistakes occurring during the re-typing of handwritten notes.

MAG now also uses drones in Cambodia to fly autonomously over contaminated areas and photograph the land, in high resolution. Using Esri’s Drones2Map for ArcGIS app, it then transfers these images directly to ArcGIS Online, where the information is instantly accessible to operatives working in the area. As a result, team leaders no longer have to rely on a visual assessment of the terrain, limited to the area that is within the range of their eyesight; instead they have a detailed understanding of the entire area, including beyond hills and within dense forests.

Faster clearance of deadly explosive devices
MAG is now able to clear land and remove potentially deadly devices in Cambodia more quickly, as it has a far better understanding of the terrain. For instance, the insight gained from Drone2Map for ArcGIS allows team leaders to better anticipate when and where they will need mechanical clearing machinery and other specialised resources. Team leaders can also change plans and redirect their teams spontaneously, as ArcGIS Online gives them a rapid picture of the situation on the ground. “Using ArcGIS, MAG can cover more ground, more quickly, enabling local communities to live safer lives, sooner,” Fahs says.

Activities prioritised to alleviate poverty 
The use of ArcGIS is also helping MAG to alleviate poverty in Cambodia. If a stretch of land is photographed by drone and identified by ArcGIS Online as being suitable for farming, MAG can prioritise the clearance of this area. As Fahs says, “Instead of just relying on informants for local knowledge, we can identify potential agricultural land ourselves. We can see the whole picture.”

Improved safety for mine clearance teams
With more accurate and current information available at base and in the field, MAG can make better decisions to help protect workers. The organisation can view historical data on ArcGIS Online and see how many devices were found in other similar areas and the density of them. It can then use this information to gauge the likely level of threat and ensure everyone in the team is fully briefed on what kinds of devices to expect.

A more productive and efficient global organisation
ArcGIS has undoubtedly improved the efficiency of MAG’s operations in Cambodia. Indeed, five people are now each saving up to two days effort a week because they no longer need to manually enter data into spreadsheets and databases. These productivity gains will soon be multiplied, as MAG is poised to introduce the same suite of ArcGIS products throughout its entire global organisation. “We have pioneered a new way of operating in Cambodia and are excited to roll it out to all our teams, working in over 20 other countries,” Secomb says.

Based on an analysis conducted by the GLA, the number of people living in London is expected to grow by almost 2 million between 2018 and 2041, placing a significant added strain on the city’s core water, energy and transportation infrastructure. Indeed, the city will require sizeable capacity increases across its infrastructure networks, including public transport, electricity, waste processing, digital communications, recycling and other services to support the building of 66,000 new homes per year.

Recognising the need for considerable long-term investment in infrastructure in the city, London City Hall launched a new coordinated approach to infrastructure planning, called The London Infrastructure Plan 2050. The former Mayor then convened an Infrastructure Delivery Board, comprising top leaders from London’s water, energy and transport providers, as well as London borough councils, central government departments, engineers, developers and advisors. Very quickly it became clear that these infrastructure providers needed an effective way to share their long term business plans and gain better information to help them coordinate their delivery of infrastructure schemes.

The GLA is a long-standing user of geographic information system (GIS) solutions from Esri UK. Using Esri’s ArcGIS Online and the Esri JavaScript API, the organisation built a prototype app for infrastructure planning in London, known as the GLA Infrastructure Mapping Application (IMA), with support from Esri UK’s Professional Services team. The GLA continued to refine and build on the solution over several months and then, on 1st August 2017, it launched Version 2.0, a more sophisticated and user-friendly solution.

The app brings together future investment data on everything from new housing and schools to sewerage and rail services, and shows it alongside relevant contextual data on population growth and, increasingly, capacity requirements. As a result, users can easily see where infrastructure and development is planned—to help them identify opportunities for coordination and evaluate where additional infrastructure investment is needed—in a highly visual map-based format. The app is available in two versions: one limited to infrastructure providers and the public sector, and another for members of the public.

Molly Strauss, Senior Policy and Programme Officer at GLA, says, “Our Infrastructure Mapping Application represents a major step forward in integrating disparate data sets from industry and the public sector in London. In the first four months alone, the app generated nearly 9,000 page views.”

Time and cost efficiencies from joined-up project delivery
The GLA anticipates that the private and public sector organisations involved in delivering new infrastructure in London will make time and costs efficiencies, in the medium and long term, through more joined-up project planning. For instance, a water utility can see where and when a new rail tunnel is being dug – many years in advance – and potentially plan to upgrade a nearby water main in conjunction, generating cost savings. Similarly, gas and electricity providers can see if they are making infrastructure improvements in the same area, in a similar time period, and make plans to share labour and materials to reduce costs.

Reduced road disruption and associated costs 
Using the GLA IMA, organisations can collaborate more closely to minimise road disruption for Londoners. For instance, two utility companies can better coordinate the timing of works so that they both operate on the same street at the same time, reducing the need for repeat road closures. This is not only good news for Londoners; it also leads to significant cost savings, as Strauss explains. “Were our ArcGIS-based app to reduce road congestion from planned works on the TfL network by just 1% over one year, the GLA has estimated that the cost savings due to avoiding delay would be in excess of £4 million.”

The right investments, ahead of demand
For the first time, utilities and transportation providers in London can easily see the locations of planned new housing, public sector and commercial developments and make the informed investment plans to ensure that the necessary services are ready before they are needed. For example, a water utility can see if large-scale growth is expected in an area where there is limited capacity in its water drainage network and plan appropriately to extend it. “We believe that use of our ArcGIS app can encourage utilities to invest ahead of demand and therefore support the delivery of the Mayor’s housing targets,” Strauss says.

Better outcomes for Londoners
Finally, the use of the GLA IMA contributes greatly to better long-term decision making in London. The public sector, utilities, transportation providers, developers and engineers are able to plan ahead based on improved knowledge of population growth, housing developments, new schools, existing infrastructure constraints and planned infrastructure investments. “The result of all of this is better outcomes for Londoners,” Strauss says. “With the development of our ArcGIS app, we are helping the public and private sector to work together more effectively to help create the necessary infrastructure for the new homes, jobs and services that Londoners need.”

Avon and Somerset Constabulary divides its region into 121 tightly defined territories known as beats, where dedicated Neighbourhood Policing Teams engage with the local community on the streets, in neighbourhood meetings and at schools. Three or four times a year, the organisation needs to adjust the shape of its beats to optimise the allocation of police officers and ensure its resources are directed to the areas where they can most benefit local communities.

The process for redesigning, agreeing and implementing beat changes was incredibly complex. Police officers used to mark their proposed changes on paper maps, which were then passed between local teams and the force’s geographic information system (GIS) manager until a final version was agreed. Following ward boundary alterations in Bristol, it took Avon and Somerset Constabulary six months to agree changes to beats in the city, which caused unnecessary delays and consumed a significant amount of staff time that could have been better spent delivering more valuable policing services.

A long-time user of Esri’s ArcGIS platform, Avon and Somerset Constabulary discovered the solution to its challenge at Esri UK’s Annual User Conference, when Esri UK’s new application, Sweet, was introduced. Soon afterwards, the organisation used Sweet to develop a proof of concept for beat management and then built the solution in just four days with support from Esri UK’s professional services team.

Once fully rolled out, local policing teams will be able to use Sweet to view current beat boundaries, model changes and see the potential impacts of changes on population size, numbers of crimes and anti-social behaviour incidents and crime types. They can then share their proposed beat models with colleagues via a web map, so that consensus can be gained before changes are sent to the GIS team for implementation. A key advantage of SWEET Sweet is its simple interface, which enables it to be used by non-technical police sergeants, after just a small amount of training.

Critically, the solution utilises topological rules within SWEET Sweet to ensure that new beats are created consistently in accordance with the force’s procedures and naming conventions, no matter who produces them. For instance, it is impossible for police officers to inadvertently create new beats that overlap other beats or leave ‘gaps’ not covered by beats. This ensures that beats are designed correctly from inception and reduces the need for subsequent editing.

Faster implementation of beat changes
Avon and Somerset Constabulary anticipates that its use of Sweet will significantly reduce the amount of time required to implement beat changes in its region. This is primarily because the solution allows beat boundary amendments to be delineated electronically and shared with colleagues via a web app, which accelerates the consultation process. “Using Sweet, we now expect to be able to create new beats and gain consensus on the changes in less than a month, rather than up to six months,” says Olivia Powell, GIS Manager at Avon and Somerset Constabulary.

Substantial personnel cost and time savings
The force has calculated that it can potentially save around fifteen days of personnel time for a typical beat change: three days for a police inspector, one day for a police sergeant, three days for a police analyst and eight days for a GIS specialist. In monetary terms, this time saving equates to an annual financial saving of at least £12,000 for four beat changes a year, which represents a return on investment of over 2000%. In reality, the time saving frees up highly trained police personnel to work on different projects. As Powell explains, “Police officers and specialist GIS professionals in the force can now be more productive in other areas, where they can add greater value for communities.”

Better-designed beats that reflect demand and improve efficiency
Through its use of Sweet, Avon and Somerset Constabulary will be able to make better decisions about the optimal size and shape of beats, based on an improved understanding of crime in each community and policing best practices. For instance, police officers will be able to see how a proposed change in the geographic shape of a beat might increase the level of crime in that beat and necessitate the reallocation of neighbourhood policing resources. At the same time, the topographical rules in Sweet will ensure that new beats are optimally designed to avoid situations like doughnut-shaped beats that are inefficient to police.

Greater agility in meeting the needs of citizens
Most importantly, Sweet will give Avon and Somerset Constabulary the ability to respond more effectively to the evolving needs of the communities it serves. It will be able to implement beat changes more frequently to react to changes in demand for its services and create beats that make sense to communities, rather beats that are imposed by IT systems. “The beat is right at the heart of community policing, so we have to get this right,” Powell says. “Sweet enables us to adapt our beats and meet the needs of communities in a more agile way.”

When the UK Government launched its Transparency Agenda and announced that data about public sector operations would be made ‘open’ to everyone, it unleashed an enormous technical challenge for local authorities. As Tom Brown, Geographic Information Manager at Lambeth Council says, “After years of funding cuts, we had no budget for additional on premise IT equipment or external IT services to enable us to create an Open Data system. We also lacked the technical expertise in-house to put in place a wide range of download options for citizens and third party organisations.”

To comply with the Local Government Transparency Code, the council initially just uploaded data sets to its website, all on separate web pages, which involved manually exporting and updating files. This process consumed a huge amount of time and didn’t necessarily result in the publication of data that was useful for citizens; a list of council expenditure that Lambeth Council had a mandatory requirement to publish only received a handful of views in two years. “We needed a better system for publishing Open Data that would be more cost effective and time efficient,” says Tom Brown. “Yet we also wanted to be able to publish the kinds of data that citizens would actually find helpful and present it to them, in context, in a range of formats that they could use.”

Lambeth Council achieved its goals using Esri’s ArcGIS Online and pre-configured ArcGIS Online Open Data templates. As a hosted, web-based solution, ArcGIS Online requires no investment in on premise hardware, no space in the council’s data centre and no complex software configurations. Furthermore, as the council has been using Esri’s ArcGIS geographic information system (GIS) platform for many years and already has an existing ArcGIS Desktop license, it can use ArcGIS Online without any additional costs.

From the outset, Lambeth Council found it very straightforward to set up the ArcGIS Online Open Data portal and integrate it with its own website. “It is incredibly easy to add, configure and standardise metadata for each web service and I don’t have to manually export data past the council’s firewall anymore,” Brown says. “The data is also live-linked to our internal corporate data, so I don’t have to constantly update it.”

A key advantage of ArcGIS Online for Lambeth Council is that the Open Data template provides a wide range of data download options, including creating spreadsheets, integrating with multiple API codes and exporting in .kml or .shp formats. The solution also allows multiple data sets to be visualised together on the same interactive map, for the first time. These features enable Lambeth Council to cater for the data needs of a much wider range of users, from those with very low IT skills to highly experienced, technical GIS professionals.

Significant time savings within the council
The new ArcGIS Online Open Data portal has freed up a substantial amount of time for council employees, working across multiple departments. In the IT department, at least one day per week has been saved as employees no longer have to export, convert and dispatch map-based data files to external organisations such as council-appointed architects and companies maintaining traffic light systems; these organisations can self-serve the information they need themselves. When data on business rates was made available on the Open Data portal, the number of freedom of information requests made to the council reduced by 75%, significantly reducing administration time in that area.

Better information available to citizens
Rather than just viewing isolated lists of information, citizens can now view council data in the context of an interactive map and integrate it with other data to help them better understand the services available in their areas. Likewise, local groups, like residents associations, can easily access information about everything from local planning policy to refuse services, and display all pertinent data in the same format, on the same map, in a format they can understand. Lambeth Council’s new Open Data portal has also been used within the council’s call centre, enabling employees to respond to citizens’ enquiries quickly and knowledgeably, delivering a high quality of service.

Greater support for third party organisations
The ArcGIS Online Open Data portal has been extremely well received by third party organisations, which can now download council data in precisely the format they need, to integrate it into their own business systems. SAT NAV providers regularly stream data from the portal to improve the accuracy of their routing information, while small graphic design agencies can obtain free, easy access to map images to illustrate their reports. Lambeth Council’s Open Data will be automatically harvested by regional and national data hubs, like data.gov.uk, making it readily accessible to many more organisations, far beyond the boundaries of the borough.

Leadership in the advancement of Open Data
With more than 100 data sets already available via ArcGIS Online, the council has become one of the UK’s leading advocates of Open Data in local government. “Lambeth Council publishes more spatial Open Data than any other local authority in the UK,” says Brown. “But it’s not just about publishing the most. Using ArcGIS Online we can also publish our data in the best range of formats to make it useful and relevant for the widest number of people. ArcGIS Online has definitely helped to push us to the forefront of the Open Data movement.”

A key part of Sport Wales’ work is to increase further the number of people who participate in sport and physical recreation on a frequent and regular basis, to have a positive impact on the physical health and happiness of people living in Wales. Recognising that people are more likely to engage in regular sporting activities if they have access to facilities close to their homes, the organisation sought to gain a better understanding of where sports facilities are available and how many people could potentially use them.

There are a large number and diverse range of sports facilities throughout Wales, but many are aging and in need of investment at a time when public funding for service improvements is severely constrained. Sport Wales hoped to gain a clear insight into the potential future usage of sports facilities, to help local authorities and sports associations make informed decisions about which amenities to develop, in which locations, to benefit the largest number of people.

The solution to this challenge was proposed and developed by Dr Mitchel Langford and Professor Gary Higgs based in the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research, Data and Methods (WISERD) at the University of South Wales. With funding from Sport Wales as part of its Illuminate scheme, the university team created a bespoke Add-In for Esri’s ArcGIS Desktop and Network Analyst solutions to calculate the geographical accessibility of sports facilities.

Critically, the solution was designed to take users with absolutely no expertise in geographic information systems (GIS) through the analysis process in a series of simple-to-follow steps, making it possible for anyone to gain a clear, accurate understanding of the potential usage of sports facilities. The Add-In draws on Sport Wales’ own ArcGIS database of sporting facilities and uses open source Ordnance Survey road network datasets that allows the organisation to perform analysis by travel distance, age, gender and socio-economic status to different types of sporting facilities for the first time.

The development of the Add-In built on the success of previous research projects at the University of South Wales that have used ArcGIS and Floating Catchment Area models to examine spatial patterns of accessibility to a wide range of public services. The use of Floating Catchment Area analysis gives Sport Wales greater flexibility in how it analyses demand for each different category of sporting facility. For example, the maximum drive time can be adjusted for each search, as appropriate, to reflect the fact that some people may be prepared to drive further to get to a swimming pool than a gym, while people in rural areas may be more accustomed to slightly longer journeys than people in cities.

Greater insight into demand for sporting facilities
The ArcGIS-based solution will not only be used by Sport Wales, but could also be used by up to 40 separate sport governing bodies, providing all these organisations with greater insight into demand for facilities. It has, for example, been used by Welsh Gymnastics, to review the gymnastics facilities available across Wales and the range of coaching levels provided at each site. The solution revealed hot spots where the provision isn’t ideal for the local population, and this evidence can now be used to inform the introduction of new gymnastics facilities in key locations.

Improved allocation of sports funding
Significantly, Sport Wales can use the ArcGIS-based tool to advise the Welsh Government about where public sector funding should be invested in sports facilities, to deliver the greatest benefit. For instance, ArcGIS analysis has shown that although the database contains attribute data for 262 bowling greens in Wales, there is relatively poor provision in those areas of South West Wales within a 15km drive distance or 20 minute drive time for some demographic groups. “We can perform highly nuanced analyses with ArcGIS, quickly and easily, to gain real evidence of the best places to allocate funding to benefit the largest number of people and specific sections of communities,” says Dr Jonathan Radcliffe, Senior Data and GIS Officer at Sport Wales.

More collaborative approaches to long-term planning
Sports Wales anticipates that the clarity of the evidence presented in ArcGIS will help public sector bodies and private organisations collaborate more effectively on the provision of sports and recreational facilities. For instance, councils will be able to easily see where facilities exist in academies and FE colleges that could potentially be opened up to the public outside of school hours, making facilities available to the wider public. In this way, the solution strongly supports the Welsh Government’s Wellbeing of Future Generations Act, important legislation that requires organisations to work together on initiatives to improve health and other social issues.

A healthier, happier nation
Although the new ArcGIS-based tool for analysing sports facilities is still in its infancy, Radcliffe anticipates that it will have a profound impact on Sport Wales’ ability to lead the maintenance, enhancement and creation of sports facilities across Wales. “ArcGIS will help Sport Wales to ensure that sports facilities are accessible, fit-for-purpose, sustainable and in the best locations,” he says. “In this way, we can play a key role in encouraging people to become more active and help to improve the health and happiness of everyone in Wales.”

While Scotland is renowned for its spectacular coastal cliffs and scenic rocky coves, 19% of the country’s 21,000 km of shoreline is formed of beaches, sand dunes and saltmarshes. Government and university experts are concerned about the potential long-term implications of climate change on these soft landforms, because they are highly susceptible to erosion, as well as accretion from the build-up of sediments along the coast.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of the likely future impacts of climate change on Scotland’s soft coastal landscapes and joined forces with Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) and the University of Glasgow to undertake the country’s first ever National Coastal Change Assessment. However, before researchers could begin to assess future risks, they first needed to understand what changes had taken place in the last 120 years, where they had occurred and the pace at which these changes had happened.

With funding from Scotland’s Centre of Expertise for Waters (CREW), researchers used Esri’s ArcGIS Desktop to analyse geo-rectified historical maps from the 1890s and 1970s alongside modern maps and LiDAR surfaces. They used over a million data points in the soft, erodible sections of the Scottish shoreline and built up a fully interactive map, enabling them to not only depict a century of coastal change, but also calculate the rate of change for every 10 metres of the soft coast. The analysis showed an increase in erosion extent of 39%, a fall in extent of accretion of 22% and a doubling of erosion rates, above historic baseline levels.

Using this evidence base, the researchers then performed sophisticated spatial analysis to identify areas likely to experience future change. They highlighted the areas of anticipated future erosion in dark red on the map and included a ten metre erosion influence area, which together includes more than 50 buildings, 5 km of roads, 2 km of railway and 2 km of water pipes that may be threatened by erosion by 2050. Over £340m of assets are at risk if erosion continues, however, in total, £13bn of assets are protected by ‘natural defences’.

Finally, the project team used Esri’s ArcGIS Online platform to share its insight into coastal erosion via an accessible web map that everyone can easily view, interrogate and understand. Called DynamicCoast.com, it enables people to browse every beach in Scotland, zoom in to view potential erosion risks at any location, using any device, whether they are at home, at work or standing on a beach. Lachlan Renwick, GIS Services Manager at Scottish Natural Heritage says, “If we had been doing this project five years ago, before ArcGIS Online, we wouldn’t have been able to be as responsive to the original vision of the project and share our coastal change insight with everyone.”

Firm evidence of climate change along Scotland’s coast
Using ArcGIS Desktop, researchers have gained tangible evidence about climate change, which they can use to make secure judgements about the future. “As scientists, we are all inherently cautious about making future predictions, yet as advisors we need to give advice to help the Scottish Government, businesses and citizens prepare for the future,” says Dr Alistair Rennie, Dynamic Coast Project Manager, Scottish Government. “The GIS-led research approach we developed gives us accurate, statistical evidence and allows us to provide objective recommendations with confidence.”

Improved resilience to climate change
By accessing DynamicCoast.com, the public and organisations can now easily find out how the continuance of past coastal changes may impact their property and assets and, as a result, make better informed decisions to reduce their longer term risks and costs. For instance, electricity suppliers can use the information to plan the installation of new electricity cables with more confidence, to avoid those areas where their condition and safety may be jeopardised by erosion or changing sea levels in the future. The University of Glasgow’s Prof. Jim Hansom, Principal Researcher for Dynamic Coast, says: “Ultimately the information in DynamicCoast.com helps Scotland, its businesses and communities become more resilient to climate change.”

Greater public awareness of coastal change
As the data is displayed on simple-to-use, interactive maps via ArcGIS Online, people with absolutely no prior experience of GIS can easily understand the implications of continued erosion and climate change on the areas of coastline where they live, work or visit. “For many climate change is a vague and distant topic, but everyone can now see for the first time, precisely how much change has happened and what the future impacts may be on the specific beaches they love,” Renwick says.

A collaborative response to the challenges of coastal change
The versatility of the ArcGIS platform, and the breadth of the analysis available, is the cornerstone of future collaboration between government bodies in Scotland and will lead to more joined-up responses to the challenges of coastal change. Organisations like SNH, SEPA, Historic Environment Scotland and Local Authorities can work more effectively together to assess the implications for threatened sites of historical and environmental interest and put strategies in place to protect and preserve them for future generations.