Originating in London, RSA is one of the world’s leading multinational insurance groups. It specialises in general insurance, and has 17 million customers in 130 countries.

RSA wanted more accurate tools for managing exposure to risk in commercial property, optimising capacity, handling claims, purchasing reinsurance, and targeting marketing campaigns.

The Esri UK insurance platform comprises hubs (modules) providing spatial support to business functions. It uses xy coordinates to establish the distance between a building and a nearby risk, within 1-2 meters of accuracy, spatial analysing the effect. It interoperates with leading platforms and data formats, in server and mainframe environments. Most processing is “behind the scenes”, so commercially sensitive data can be managed in-house and training requirements are minimal.

When a customer calls, the address is geocoded and passed to the perils hub, for risk scoring. If the accumulation hub finds RSA’s exposure at this location is within defined limits, the new risk is automatically approved and the accumulation hub data updated. (If exposure would be too high, the location is flagged for investigation.)

Accuracy reduces risk
Postcodes are too vague. Using xy locations pinpoints where each building is in relation to others, and adding data layers (e.g. crime, flood and subsidence) means risk assessment and premiums can be more accurately calculated. “Having that much more granular idea of where our risks are – and where they are approximate to each other – ensures we don’t overexpose ourselves”, explains Graham Heale, Property Portfolio Director.

Optimised capital capacity
With reliable risk assessment, RSA allocates capital and manages reinsurance more effectively, freeing capacity to sell more insurance, whilst avoiding over-exposure. “The greater the granularity of the data, the greater the understanding of risk, and the more effective we can make our reinsurance purchase”, Heale explains. “This doesn’t mean we do away entirely with the contingency… but we can be more refined in our purchase.”

Competitive edge
Competitors quote high premiums for all properties in a postcode that has flooded, whereas RSA can give lower quotes for individual properties that have never been affected. “We were able to make flood insurance available to a wider range of customers”, notes Heale.

Faster processing
“Where before we would expect a risk assessment to be performed in, say, seven days, the response from the new system is pretty much instant, as in most cases no manual assessment is needed”, Heale observes. Automated risk assessment and batch processing free up underwriter time for more complex assessments. Heale is enthusiastic: “We have no reason to assume anything other than 100% confidence. It’s going to be fantastic.”

Handling major events
Some events cannot be planned for and stretch call centres and computer systems. When the Buncefield oil terminal exploded, Heale’s team modelled and estimated RSA’s loss within three hours; “Following seven months of actual physical assessment of the damage and loss adjustment, the number that we gave is still within 7% of the final cost”, Heale affirms. Before GIS, it would have taken a week or two to estimate a less accurate number. Furthermore, “Because the system helped us to gear up quickly, we were able to send an emergency response vehicle to the scene within a couple of hours”.

Demonstrate solvency
The Esri UK Insurance Platform can provide assurance to regulators and shareholders that RSA fully understands the risks it underwrites and complies with legislation such as Contract Certainty and Solvency 2. “I do believe that… the system may be able to assist us in our discussions with regulators around how effectively we are managing the risks in our portfolio”, muses Heale.

Targeted marketing
“The geographical mapping tools can also be used to identify ‘cold spots’, or areas in which we could write more business without affecting our accumulated risk”, Heale notes.

Future benefits
RSA has used Esri GIS for many years, and now plans to convert all postcode data into geocoded data and give web service access to underwriters outside the UK.

Heale summarises, “I guess the real ‘lightbulb moment’ for me was the realisation that it wasn’t the knowledge of topography, or of river flows, or of insurance, or of GIS that actually made the difference… but it is the combining of all those datasets with our GIS skill, our mastery of the insurance risk, of actuarial pricing, and of our capital management capability that has truly made a winning formula for us.”

Incidents of severe flooding are expected to double in frequency by 2050, thrusting more communities into danger and causing significant, additional damage to property. For insurers, this means that flood-related claims are now a considerable risk factor and a growing proportion of their accumulated, insured risk.

As a global risk advisor, Willis Group Holdings plc (Willis) provides services to insurance and reinsurance companies, to help them better understand flooding, as well as other natural catastrophes. While it analyses satellite and aerial imagery to gain insight into flood patterns, Willis also recognises the vital importance of conducting ground surveys, to identify loss-generating mechanisms in more detail.

Between May and June 2013, vast swathes of Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic were afflicted by devastating floods. Willis quickly started to prepare a team of surveyors to visit the flooded regions and collect information about flood depths, damage and the effectiveness of local flood defences. As water levels rose, losses escalated and fatalities occurred, it became clear to Willis that it would need a more effective way to ensure the accuracy of the data it collected.

Willis has been using geographic information system (GIS) solutions from Esri UK for many years and places considerable importance on spatial analytics as an enabler for technical innovation and client service excellence. During the flooding crisis, it decided to employ Esri’s ArcGIS Collector App for the first time. It took the organisation just a few days to set up the mobile GIS solution to meet its survey requirements, and less than a week after the Danube burst its banks, surveyors were on route to Central Europe.

Timothy Fewtrell, divisional director for catastrophe risk at Willis, led the 2013 survey. He used the ArcGIS Collector App on his Apple iPhone to note his precise location, via GPS, record survey observations and upload photographs. All of the location-specific data collected from sites across three countries was then automatically uploaded to Esri’s cloud-based GIS platform, ArcGIS Online, where it was instantly accessible to office-based analysts in London.

“If we hadn’t had the ArcGIS Collector App, it would have been significantly more work,” says Fewtrell. “We would have had to manually link photographs with locations when we got back to the office, and the information gathered would not have been anything like as precise from a location perspective.”

The use of Esri’s ArcGIS Collector App enabled Willis to collect accurate information about the 2013 flooding and make it accessible almost immediately to its analysts in offices around the world. Fewtrell believes that this ability to share real-time insight is incredibly valuable to the business. He says: “When our analysts can gain rapid visibility into what is actually happening on the ground, they can monitor risk very closely and provide well-informed advice to customers.”

Using the information gathered during the 2013 ground survey, Willis was able to develop detailed reports about the natural disaster, which were valued by customers. “We were able to show our customers that we really understood the dynamics of that particular flood incident,” Fewtrell recalls. “We could give them the detailed information they needed to help them assess damage claims more appropriately and make future policy decisions.”

The information gathered using the ArcGIS Collector App was also used by Willis to help it validate and improve its well-renowned flood risk model for Central Europe. Its model subsequently grew in accuracy, enhancing the company’s reputation and credibility in the sector. “The ArcGIS Collector App helped us make improvements to our flood model, allowing it to become seen as state-of-the-art,” Fewtrell says. “It helped to solidify our foothold in the industry as the preferred supplier for flood risk assessments.”

The 2013 flooding was undoubtedly one of Europe’s most devastating natural disasters. 25 lives were lost and the total damage done to commercial and residential properties has been estimated at €12 billion. Willis now has an extensive geospatial repository of data about where flood losses occurred in this event, the condition of flood defences at specific sites, actual water level recordings and more besides. As Fewtrell says, “all this information has significant value as intellectual property for Willis and will have many different uses for years to come.”

GreenSquare Group is a major provider of housing, regeneration, care and support and commercial services across Wiltshire, Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire. Managing 10,000 properties for social and affordable rent, and offering homes for sale, the group also works with Kevin McCloud’s company Hab on innovative eco-housing projects.

GreenSquare had a long-term vision for GIS that would positively impact the whole organisation. It wanted to use the technology to join together all departments and deliver benefits across the business, in areas such as development and regeneration, disposals, welfare reform, rent arrears, anti-social behaviour, tenant profiling and maintenance.

“To deliver our long-term strategy we wanted a more powerful GIS, one that was proven in the industry and at the right price,” explained Dawn Francis, Group GIS Manager at GreenSquare. “Part of the GIS vision was that around 90% of data within the group was geographical and should be mapped. This holistic approach to using our data more intelligently would allow us to be more strategic in how we operated.”

GreenSquare’s board members are also keen to support innovative ways to improve the business or overcome new challenges and were enthusiastic to see how GIS could help.

Following an in-depth tender process, GreenSquare selected Esri UK’s ArcGIS as its new GIS platform. “Esri was the clear winner on all fronts,” commented Dawn. “ArcGIS could work with any type of data, the company had an extensive user community plus the price was highly competitive.”

In order to get the most out of the new GIS, GreenSquare first spent around five months data cleansing their information. This involved re-evaluating all geo-codes for 3,000 flats and dispersing the markers so it could see each individual property within multi-storey blocks. “To function strategically, we first needed to disperse the markers to achieve a more granular view of all our properties and see the attribute data linked to each flat,” said Dawn.

Coming from a Business Intelligence background, Dawn had a valuable insight into the type of business reports that could be visualised within the GIS. By applying this expertise, GreenSquare has been able to deliver new levels of location intelligence across the company.

The main benefit for GreenSquare has come from bringing together disparate types of information in the GIS and visualising them in one place. “Being able to toggle between multiple data streams on the same map has opened up endless opportunities to interrogate the data and spot new insights,” said Dawn.

GIS is already helping drive the development pipeline, which has a target of building 30 new units a year on existing land under its ownership. By overlaying property types, access routes, who owns what land, where demand for housing is and many other factors needed for an initial investigation, GreenSquare has been able to reveal several new sites for development. So far, the potential value of this land is approximately £2m.

“Using the GIS we can switch different types of information on and off, to ask questions relating to a location, arriving at a decision about its suitability for development, conversion or regeneration,” said Dawn. “Efficiently evaluating and unlocking development land will lead to additional income from new homes for sale and rent from land holdings.” commented Dawn. “This was previously labour intensive using spreadsheets or disparate maps. To operate strategically you have to bring your data to life with interactive maps.”

Major efficiency gains are also being achieved via the new GIS. Feasibility studies for new development sites which used to take 10 days have been cut to two days, while the property disposal process has been reduced from four days per month to around three hours. “The GIS has removed a lot of site visits, physical meetings and manual hard copy processes,” added Dawn. “All the necessary information is available online in the GIS and is being used by all staff, right up to the board.”

The GIS is also making it easier to manage maintenance more efficiently. In the past, planned maintenance programmes were scheduled according to alphabetical road order. But this meant homes in streets nearby might have had work done months apart, when it made more sense to carry out the work at the same time. Now maintenance schedules can be seen on a map and planned in the GIS, allowing better allocation of resources.

Future plans at GreenSquare include the introduction of real-time maintenance scheduling via mobile GIS on handheld devices, to minimise mileage and maximise efficiencies. Some GIS services will also become external so tenants can go online and find information for themselves to enhance customer service.

“Esri’s GIS has linked disparate business units, allowing for a better co-ordination of how we do business,” concluded Dawn. “The benefits achieved span simple operational gains to supporting major strategic decisions. By using location information in an intelligent way, GreenSquare is driving new revenue streams and injecting new levels of operational efficiency into the business.”

Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust (IHT) provides healthcare services to more than 356,000 people throughout the local area. One of the hospital’s key objectives is to move to the centre of a network of co-located and integrated services, delivered to meet demand for healthcare across the region as well as driving education and research. It’s an ambitious goal, but to meet it IHT needs to map out where that demand is coming from.

With over 75,000 emergency department attendances a year and nearly 30,000 unplanned emergency admissions, IHT, like many healthcare providers across the UK, faces tough challenges in managing the demand for its services. The provision of healthcare is an essential service and an emotive topic, so it is crucial that it can predict demand across the population and respond by meeting it quickly. To do that, ‘visualising’ the challenge it faces can drive real insight and, ultimately, lead to a better provision of service for the people it serves.

According to Paul Scott, Director of Finance and Performance at the Ipswich Hospital Trust (IHT), “our existing information solutions rely on extensive use of spreadsheets. They are therefore simply unable to provide us with the level of insight into patterns of behaviour in core populations that we urgently need. So, we decided to seek out a solution that would give us greater insight into where demand is coming from, within our catchment areas, and what form that demand will take.”

Currently, the escalating demand faced by the hospital’s A&E department continues to ramp up financial pressures on the IHT system. This is making it all but impossible to efficiently manage patient flows. Increasingly too, there is a knock-on effect on inpatients and outpatients’ departments and the wider care flow pathway.

The challenge facing the hospital is made more difficult by the need to meet tough key performance indicator (KPI) metrics, including keeping waiting times below four hours. In tackling these challenges, IHT has the following priorities:

• Improving clinical outcomes
• Overcoming financial challenges and making savings, critical in light of potentially failing to meet KPIs
• Making systems more efficient.

Not only did IHT need an objective understanding of current demand, but also needed to know how to intervene more effectively, in the future. It decided to implement a feasibility programme to assess how location analysis and actuarial analysis, working together, could provide insight into demand management that could shape future services for the better. Working with an actuarial services provider, who provided analysis into financial trends and risk, Esri UK delivered the location analytics solution to turn this vision into a reality.

The solution provides IHT with a combination of insight from Esri’s geographical information systems (GIS) and location analytics technology and high-quality clinical and financial data analysis, feeding into long-term financial modelling, provided by the actuarial service provider.

Esri UK’s location analytics solution was vitally important in delivering data visualisation to provide the required insight. Utilising the ArcGIS platform on IHT’s infrastructure on-premise, behind a secure firewall, ArcGIS for Server and ArcGIS for Desktop were deployed to provide services to a management insight dashboard.

IHT gains additional insight by being able to map out the number of cases going to A&E by a range of variables. The information is visualised as a hotspot analysis for example, highlighting the source of demand. The dashboard also provides a set of Key Performance Indicator (KPI) reporting tools, giving managers a dramatically improved understanding of the status of demand in the hospital by enabling them to break down A&E attendees by number of cases, average waiting time or mode of travel, and then split the figures down by timeframes.

IHT recognises the huge potential of the system to achieve faster time to insight. Visualising data in a map format helps IHT understand where the hotspots are for certain diseases, admission methods and average time to treatment.

Understanding where demand comes from into emergency admissions, and the type and level of that demand, has allowed IHT to pinpoint areas of intervention to mitigate it.

The hospital believes this will enable it to improve its resourcing processes. It will be able to bring in more clinical support staff to meet increased demand on certain days of the week, for example, and therefore alleviate resource pressure. This could help minimise costs while maintaining performance and clinical standards.

According to Scott, “while this remains an R&D project it has highlighted a different way of looking at our organisation, and the demand pressures we face. In addition, it has demonstrated the huge potential of looking at demand from a population rather than individual attendance basis.”

“It also allows us to try out ‘what if’ scenarios. In short, it has given us a whole new platform for discussion and changed the conversation at board level to focus on moving to a more sophisticated way of visualising and reporting data. The IHT board has even requested that geographic information and location is included within its business intelligence strategy.”

Moving forward, the outputs from patient demand analysis, mapping insights and possible interventions could provide a basis for service reconfiguration and therefore wastage reductions.

The use of GIS information, in particular in conjunction with actuarial, could put IHT ahead of other National Health Service Trusts in terms of innovative use of IT in healthcare provision.

Moreover this exciting, ground-breaking project has the potential to revolutionise the future of healthcare demand management, not just in Ipswich but across the whole of the UK.

Since 1989 when Kingston became the world’s first university to offer a degree in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), the institution’s GIS teaching and research expertise have gone from strength to strength. As one of the fastest growing branches of geoscience, the demand for GIS skills is increasing and Kingston’s undergraduate and postgraduate courses continue to evolve to ensure students remain as employable as possible.

The long established BSc in GIS, comprises 28 modules, each of which takes 14 weeks of study. The course examines the concepts, techniques and application of GIS and the broad choice of topics attract a wide range of students. The two Masters Degree programmes are popular with both private and public sector organisations.

Kingston is not in the business of producing ‘GIS technicians’ or promoting ‘button technology’, instead it focuses on supplying the market with ‘geo-scientists’ – a somewhat unique person who has the knowledge of the concepts and theories of geographical enquiry, coupled with the skills of a computer scientist. This arms students with the ability to be able to apply GIS to a problem and understand it more effectively through using the technology to tackle it.

One example of Kingston’s innovative GIS teaching is in fieldwork where it uses Esri software to help students learn about data collection, limitations of data and the constraints that GIS professionals often encounter. Kingston has increased the amount of fieldwork over the years as it strongly believes the only way of generating a true understanding of GIS is to get out in the real world and examine the environment first hand, as with any other geoscience.

GIS is relevant to many aspects of further and higher education. Over 80% of universities in the UK and Ireland currently have access to Esri software and we want to encourage the higher education community to maximise the use of this powerful technology.

Kingston uses Esri as one of its GIS software platforms to help teach techniques such as the collection, manipulation, storage analysis, health and disease analysis, geoweb development, 3D modelling and virtual reality.

The benefits of the extensive GIS modules are felt right across the University’s School of Geography, Geology and the Environment. Not only do Single Honours BSc Undergraduates enjoy one of the most in-depth GIS degrees in the world but students from Environmental Science, Geography, Geology, Computer Science, Forensic Science and Business Studies also take advantage of GIS modules.

Second year and Masters students undertake a week-long mobile GIS field course to Malta which involves creating a mobile mapping environment to support collaborative student learning – a significant step forward in enhancing the benefits of field-based learning. Students work through a range of data acquisition scenarios using consumer and high precision GPS and handheld PDAs running Esri’s ArcPAD as well as using mobile applications built using ArcGIS Server, ArcGIS Mobile and the ArcGIS JavaScript API. Capturing data on noise pollution, land use, vegetation, habitation and transport network information; the data is then applied to a whole range of exercises.

Having a wide range of software and hardware available ensures Kingston can teach the latest GIS methods and testing the boundaries of technology is one of the core tenets of Kingston’s teaching philosophy.

Teaching and testing with cutting-edge technology is one of Kingston’s mantras and the Malta trip is a great example of an educational innovation with the GIS sector. Working with the latest technology allows the university to teach the most up-to-date techniques, which is invaluable in preparing students for the work place. While desktop GIS is essential, as the industry moves more towards client/server models and cloud-based computing, likewise Kingston has to remain at the forefront of any technical advances.

The Environmental Science Group (ESG) is part of the MoD, responsible for contaminated land remediation. Assessing and managing land contamination affects the availability of training areas and the future redevelopment of the defence estate. The ESG is focused on reducing the risk from any substances that could harm people or the environment, principally by managing the risk of buried ordnance along with general environmental management.

Working mainly for the Royal Navy, Royal Air Force and Army bomb disposal units, the ESG’s team of environmental and ordnance clearance experts reduce potential threats by prioritising sites for excavation.

Possible Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) contamination is a key task, assessed by towing a series of metal detectors over the land to identify ferrous material, metal objects, some rock types and other background ‘noise’. This creates geographically referenced datasets of possible UXO readings that are incredibly large, e.g. 1 million data points for an area of 8km2. The data is then filtered and cleaned up using Geosoft’s Oasis Montaj geophysical software to identify likely UXOs.

A specific visualisation tool was wanted, along with enhanced intelligence on UXO by integrating different sources of information, such as historical photographs and maps. Bren Hodkinson, Environmental Science Group Team Leader explained: “Montaj’s mathematical capabilities are designed for processing geophysical data so we wanted a tool that would complement it for displaying and interpreting the data, to increase our operational efficiencies and improve how we communicate our findings to stakeholders.”

“We recognised that a GIS tool would fit the bill”, said Hodkinson, “so chose Esri’s ArcView because of how it can visualise, manage and analyse geographic data.”

The filtered and cleaned data is exported from Oasis Montaj into ArcView, as a graphical image. Historical range maps, aerial photographs, historical target returns, and data from previous visits are added. The combined data is then examined within ArcView. The results help direct bomb disposal teams to areas in priority order, using guide maps, also created in ArcView.

“One of the main reasons we selected Esri was because of its presentation capabilities. We use it a lot for analysing different sets of data and adding or subtracting different data layers”, commented Hodkinson.

Using real-time GPS units with an accuracy of 2cm, ESG or bomb disposal teams inspect a clearance site, using positions marked for excavation. All information on what was found is fed back to ArcView to inform future searches in the same area. Data captured in the field also helps personnel to see where there is a concentration of ordnance and so where to focus resources.

In addition to an analysis and communication tool, the ESG team use ArcView for archiving: they build up a chronological picture of each UXO to aid teams revisiting sites that need ongoing inspections. A library of maps is being created; these can be overlaid on current findings, to help narrow down a search area.

“We can now exploit other data sources to help inform our clearance strategies, visualise any potential risks from UXO and share this output with all parties involved”, said Hodkinson.

ESG has been employing the new techniques successfully, in collaboration with a military bomb disposal team in South Wales, on a task requiring repeat visits over a large area. Results have shown that having an improved understanding of the site has enhanced the cost effectiveness of UXO risk management.

What stood out most was the ease of creating different views or maps and the quality of output, as Hodkinson highlighted: “The quality and accuracy of the work we can produce with ArcView is probably the biggest benefit. This leads to improved communication with stakeholders, including MoD customers, bomb disposal teams, land management agents, local people who live near a site and regulators such as the Environment Agency or custodians of land including Natural England”.

Increased productivity is a related benefit. Initial estimates of improved efficiency for map production highlight tasks that used to take 3-4 hours typically taking just an hour now. ESG also enjoys access to a larger network of ArcView users within the MoD and defence industry that it could not previously communicate with as easily as now: they use ArcView to share data more easily, benefiting from Esri’s large defence user community.

In the future, ESG plans to keep adding to the type and volume of information it can analyse within ArcView, including more historical photographs, natural environmental data and firing range information from MoD archives.

“Overall, Esri ArcView aids the effective direction of ordnance clearance resources”, concluded Hodkinson. “It helps to characterise the sites we examine so that we can make more informed decisions and prioritise our activities, which ultimately leads to improved safety for our staff and others, and better environments for the future.”

Headquarters Land Forces (HQ LF) is located across three sites in Wiltshire. It is responsible for the recruitment, training and development of servicemen and women, and commands all of the Army’s UK activities, including responses to natural disasters, terrorist incidents, and strikes.

During national emergencies, HQ LF is responsible for coordinating military support for the emergency services. This requires instant access to a wide range of up-to-date military and civilian data.

A new information management system was needed to better coordinate emergency responses. As most of the data contained location information, a geographic information system (GIS) was the obvious choice. “We needed a better understanding of what facilities and resources were available in the UK to support emergency operations”, says Lieutenant Colonel Alan Honey. “We realised that the best way of doing that was through the medium of maps.”

HQ LF selected Esri’s ArcGIS, because it is widely used in the UK defence community, and many of the Army’s geographic staff were already familiar with it. In addition, an HQ LF sergeant received comprehensive training at the start of the project, and consultancy support was used so that the solution was developed to meet the Army’s needs exactly and quickly: interfaces with existing database and other applications, coupled with making maps accessible over the intranet.

The project team collected military information from all divisions of the army across the UK, including the locations of camps, medical facilities, armouries, catering and other resources. “We then started to look for other types of information that might be useful”, explains Honey. “We quickly realised that if we were going to support government departments, we needed cross-government information too.” The team therefore worked closely with the Department for Communities and Local Government, which also uses Esri GIS solutions, meaning HQ LF found it easy to transfer relevant data to its own developing solution.

Called LUNDY, the GIS-driven portal is accessible across the Army on the restricted security level of the Ministry of Defence (MOD) intranet, as well as within the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy. In an emergency, regional teams use LUNDY to support decision-making, plan responses, generate hard copy briefing maps, and coordinate more effectively between HQ LF and external organisations. “ArcGIS therefore serves both those on the network and those on the ground”, says Honey

Video conferencing can also be linked to LUNDY. This enables commanders at headquarters to view and share maps, in real time, with regional planning teams close to an incident. “We can draw on the map and highlight key hazards, for example, while briefing teams about how to respond to situations”, says Honey.

Innovative GIS means HQ LF is now much better prepared and more capable of responding effectively to the unexpected. “ArcGIS enables us to provide a more rapid response”, says Honey. “It also enables us to provide a better response, because people have access to information about the locality, local resources and hazards… Information that would have taken a long time to track down before, is readily available now”, he adds.

LUNDY’s worth was proven in the Gloucestershire floods and regional fire service strikes. Rapid sharing of situational understanding assisted hundreds of people whose lives, homes and businesses were at risk from rising water levels, and during the strikes, detailed maps were put in the cabs of fire engines: “Teams responding to incidents could see straight away if the fire was near to a hazardous site”, says Honey. “If we hadn’t had this information about hazards, I believe that the lives of servicemen tackling fires could have been put at far greater risk.”

Building on this success, HQ LF is expanding the system’s scope. For example, LUNDY now includes information on training sites and firing ranges. When an exercise is planned, training officers can access the information that they need directly from the network, including high-resolution aerial imagery. “It has become a key mapping system for all sorts of information on the MOD restricted network”, says Honey.

The next stage is upgrading to the latest version of the core ArcGIS software. The enhanced system will make it easier for regional control teams to maintain and edit their own data, and to perform detailed data analysis on the fly. Significantly, it will allow HQ LF to more easily share its data with other emergency services and create links with web services operated by government departments and external organisations. “We plan to upgrade the hardware and software to make the entire solution even more resilient and capable”, says Major James Kemp. “We want to give users the tools and responsibility to maintain their own data and develop new services which we can deliver over the intranet.”

Honey concludes, “ArcGIS has enabled us to make a great step forwards in providing better mapping tools on military networks. It enables much wider sharing of information and can be expanded to provide support for all areas of military work.”

The Forestry Commission protects and manages over a million hectares of land and 24,000 kilometres of roads across the UK, and researches innovative ways to use and care for Britain’s woodland.

It balances these tasks with commercial objectives, working with private landowners and national businesses, whilst producing approximately five million tonnes of wood each year for sale.

With apparently conflicting responsibilities, the Forestry Commission wanted to use GIS at the heart of its operations to bring its data together, improving forecasting and efficiency.

Using a single database of spatially related data throughout the organisation, staff are connected and empowered to make strategic decisions about the land: forecasting timber production and forest development, protecting habitats, and helping people enjoy British woodland.

The partnership between The Forestry Commission and Esri UK has reaped many rewards over the years. “We were impressed by Esri’s working culture, which has always been about improving things in the long term,” says Ben Ditchburn, Head of Forestry Information Systems. “Esri has supported our GIS-based revolution in working practices every step of the way.”

Improved strategic decision making
The centralised geodatabase removes duplication and gives a shared view of operations. 61% of managers say GIS has had a positive impact on the quality of their management decisions, which are now based on hard facts. Sophisticated modelling and forecasting tools demonstrate the effects of decisions, “We can use GIS to predict the likely consequences of global warming on trees and how much carbon they can request, changes to grants or changes to the Common Agricultural Policy,” says Ditchburn. “We can then present evidence to the central government ministers responsible for decision making at the highest level.”

Improved services
Information about footpaths, picnic sites, biking trails etc is published online. “Once you have a central GIS data store with information relating to assets and activities, you can present it to members of the public quickly, transparently and cost-effectively,” says Ditchburn. Planning consultations are better informed too: “Because of GIS, the plans that our front line staff prepare and present look every bit as good as a professional architect’s drawings, which is fantastic for our credibility and selling our skills”, says Ditchburn.

Improved efficiency
A comprehensive electronic inventory of British woodlands “has reduced the time we spend drawing maps from scratch by 50% and enables us to update them 90% faster”, says Ditchburn, “delivering savings of more than £1 million every year”. Sophisticated GIS modelling shows how forests may change over time. “Our cartographers and landscape specialists could previously take a week or more to draw a single 3D landscape of the forest,” says Ditchburn. “Now, we can generate these images in a matter of minutes.”

Shared services
Service sharing is a key government objective, and because 80% of public sector data is spatially-related, GIS is an essential unifying force. For example, when trees need to be felled, the commission informs Natural England and the public, online, of temporary access restrictions. Ben Ditchburn estimates a manual process would be four times slower and that a bespoke system would have been hugely expensive, “Instead, we were able to start exchanging information electronically using our existing GIS system, spending just a fraction of this money on modifications.”

Demonstrating regulatory compliance
Compliance is increasingly complex, but GIS can be used to demonstrate adherence efficiently and professionally. Ben Ditchburn explains that “If you can logically describe and report on your assets, activities and plans for the future, you are in much stronger position to meet new regulations and directives.”

Improved business continuity
The cumulative experience of generations of employees is stored centrally for the benefit of colleagues, partners and citizens, now and in the future. It can be passed on more easily and appropriately than when it was held on paper or in people’s heads, helping new employees work effectively from day one.

Effective budgeting
Using inventory and GIS modelling, the Forestry Commission can estimate an area’s income from timber sales in minutes, rather up to eighteen man-months. Knowing likely income patterns “means we can set realistic targets for planting, conservation work and other operations and help minimise the cost of our activities for the tax payer”, says Ditchburn

This is a story about a successful collaboration between three Scottish public sector organisations working under the umbrella of Scotland’s Environment Web. The project was initiated by Forestry Commission Scotland, but could not have been achieved without with the input and commitment of its partners: Scottish Natural Heritage and Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA).

Across Scotland, a variety of grants are available to landowners to help them manage woodlands and plant new trees. However, in order to access this funding, individuals and groups have to complete formal applications, providing detailed information about their land, so that its suitability for planting can be fully assessed.

To assist landowners in this application process, Forestry Commission Scotland had previously developed a searchable database of land information. However, this application was now many years old and in urgent need of renovation. “We knew that we didn’t have the resources internally to update and redevelop our Land Information Search tool by ourselves, but we were very aware that it had the potential to deliver value to Scottish land managers right across the rural sector,” says Howard Davies, Geo-Information Services Delivery Manager at Forestry Commission Scotland. “We therefore approached our partners and proposed a collaborative project.”

Each of the three organisations involved brought a different, complementary skill or asset to the initiative. SEPA had secured funding from the European Commission LIFE+ funding programme and created the Scotland’s Environment web site to provide a ‘one stop shop’ for all information about the natural environment in Scotland. It therefore had the ideal launch pad for the rejuvenated data service and the necessary underlying technical infrastructure. Scottish Natural Heritage was able to provide skilled programmers to help develop the solution; and Forestry Commission Scotland had the customer knowledge and business knowledge to lead the project.

Significantly, all three organisations used the same geographic information system (GIS) technology – Esri’s ArcGIS Platform – and it was this commonality that ultimately made it incredibly easy for the partners to collaborate on the creation of the new Land Information Search (LIS) tool.

Now available for anyone to use on the Scotland’s Environment web site, the new LIS service provides landowners with a fast and convenient way to access a vast amount of information about their land and neighbouring areas. Users simply enter a postcode or a place name, or zoom into the interactive map to find the area they are interested in. Next, they mark a point on the map or draw a polygon around the specific fields or areas that they want to plant or maintain. The online tool then returns a detailed report on land findings, which users can either view online or download as a pdf file.

Developed using ArcGIS web services, the online tool works by streaming relevant, up to-date data directly from a wide variety of different organisations. Searches are currently performed against over 40 different data sets, ranging from recent woodland surveys and forestry boundaries to Sites of Special Scientific Interest and groundwater reports. If users click on the ‘more details’ button on their individually created search results reports, they are automatically directed to web sites with further information. So, for example, if an Iron Age burial mound is found near the search area, users can go directly to information about this scheduled monument on the Historic Scotland web site with just one click from their reports.

Through their collaboration, Forestry Commission Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage and SEPA have succeeded in delivering a highly valuable and enhanced service for landowners. LIS currently attracts around 1,000 users per month, a figure that is expected to peak next year when new grant applications are invited for the next round of Scotland’s Rural Development Programme (SRDP).

For landowners applying for SRDP for example, the new LIS tool will save them an enormous amount of time. They will be able to find a great deal of the information they need to complete their funding applications in one place and have confidence that this data is up-to-date. “The new Land Information Search service delivers considerable benefits for landowners and managers, making it far easier for them to maintain Scotland’s beautiful and invaluable rural environment,” Davies says.

In tandem, the government organisations that administer rural funding applications will be able to operate more efficiently. It is anticipated that the quality of applications will be higher, saving time asking landowners to submit more information or pointing out information that materially impedes the feasibility of landowners’ plans. In the long term, these internal efficiency gains may translate into cost savings across multiple government organisations.

Although it was originally developed to support woodland management and tree planting, the LIS tool can now add value for a wide number of different users. Farmers and moorland managers for example, will now be able to use the service to access information pertinent to their development plans.

The remarkable thing about this project is that it is delivering exceptional benefits, but was created with minimal investment through the LIFE+ programme. Together, the three partners already had all the ArcGIS technology, skills, IT infrastructure and indeed, vision to build this valuable new public service. Davies claims: “It’s a great example of successful cross-government collaboration in Scotland.”

Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council provides local government services in rural south west Leicestershire, covering an area of 114.8 m2 and serving a population of 105,200. Its only towns are Hinckley, Earl Shilton and Market Bosworth.

Geographic information systems (GIS) have been used at the council for many years, and in 2007, it undertook an internal audit of its GIS usage. “Two things came out of that audit”, explains Lee McMahon, land and property data manager. “First of all, we really needed to know more about the communities we served; and secondly we needed to be able to access this knowledge more easily.”

At an Esri UK conference, McMahon was inspired by a presentation about a London borough using Mosaic data with ArcGIS software. Developed by Experian, Mosaic categorises people and households using tightly defined classifications, based a variety of data sources. “What impressed me was how much information could be gained about communities and how this information had really driven major a transformation in a London borough.”

The council bought local Mosaic data to use with its suite of ArcGIS Desktop, maximising the benefit of the software it already had. The GIS team quickly and easily imported Mosaic data into ArcGIS and consolidated it with its own data and that of third parties, such as the Land Registry. Using the powerful analysis tools of ArcGIS, they built up a detailed picture of local communities:

New opportunities for young people
The English Cricket Board and the council jointly applied for funding to create youth sections of existing cricket clubs. Polygon analysis was used to identify homes within walking distance of clubs, and the communities within each catchment were analysed. “We could simply ask the question: ‘Where is the highest likelihood of 4-14 year olds with the highest indices of multiple deprivation?’”, says McMahon. The maps generated were used in a successful bid for £35,000 of lottery funding.

Supporting the elderly
The council was good at detecting fraudulent benefit claims, but suspected it was less effective at helping citizens who were not claiming benefits to which they were entitled, particularly pensioners. They created a hotspot map, cross referencing households already claiming benefits against over 65s with the highest indices of multiple deprivations. Using this data, they launched a targeted campaign, in association with Age Concern.

Tackling anti-social behaviour
Mosaic data has been combined with police data to profile areas where anti-social behaviour is a problem. McMahon says: “Our GIS analysis is revealing correlations between the reports of anti-social behaviour and the locations of specific groups in the community that have a tendency to feel vulnerable, such as elderly people living alone.” The council is taking steps to support and reassure vulnerable groups and work with the police to prevent antisocial behaviour in these areas.

McMahon is enthusiastic: “Mosaic gives us a new level of knowledge about our communities”, he says. “By using this data in ArcGIS, we can highlight trends and uncover the root cause of issues.” Decisions are better informed because the council knows where to deliver services and to whom: “Experienced council employees knew our communities pretty well anyway, but now that insight is more accessible.”

Financial gains include a saving of around £18,000 from not using outside consultants to survey service needs, direct marketing savings because leaflets are targeted at relevant households, plus the £35,000 grant for youth cricket. Rapid analysis means “we accomplished the whole English Cricket Board funding project in just one day”, recalls McMahon.

Since the council increased its use of GIS and introduced Mosaic data, its rating has jumped from ‘fair’ to ‘excellent’. “While this achievement can be attributed to many things, our extended use of ArcGIS with Mosaic data is one of the factors that has enabled us to make better decisions and improve our overall performance”, McMahon believes.

LocalView Fusion is now extending the benefits of GIS. “By pushing customer insight out to everyone via the web, we are hoping to give all our decision makers the information they need to deliver a better service to citizens”, says McMahon. A citizen portal is planned, called ‘My Hinckley’, which will integrate with the back office and customer relationship management system. “You don’t need to be a web developer or GIS expert to use LocalView Fusion and can embed mapping into web pages very easily”, says McMahon.