As with any local authority, London Borough of Hounslow is responsible for a Joint Strategic Needs Assessment to help improve the health and wellbeing of its residents.  A large suburban district interspersed with green space in West London, Hounslow is one of London’s most diverse boroughs with almost 300,000 residents.

Up-to-date, accurate and timely internal and external data plays a vital role in helping Hounslow’s information analysts understand the needs of the Borough’s population.  Until recently, bureaucracy and red tape were amongst many restrictions in sourcing accurate data.  Data from multiple sources had to be managed and consolidated before it could be analysed and the findings were then presented in static PDF reports, not dynamic and, therefore, often out-of-date within a month of publication.

Having access to timely, reproducible and verified data would make a significant difference in how Hounslow could shape its services. What was needed was an innovative approach to data management, a dynamic platform that could bring together demographic, socio-economic, health, education and other community data to inform audiences about geographical patterns and comparisons on a diverse range of statistics and indicators.

The Hounslow Data Hub enables residents, community groups and Council staff to easily access data about the borough, from a one-stop source.  Fully hosted and managed by Esri UK through its InstantAtlas Data Observatory, it removes the burden of data management from the Hounslow team so they can focus on the Data Hub’s analytical capabilities.

The Hub’s main data resource is the National Data Service (NDS), an integral element within InstantAtlas, which brings together thousands of key statistical indicators from a range of providers including NOMIS, ONS, Office for Health Improvement and Disparities and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

Council staff have the option to add their own data sets such as aggregations from internal Adult Social Care data and external data not already on the NDS such as data regarding some aspects of Childrens Social Care, to further enhance the analytical possibilities of the National Data Service data sets. Hounslow are also heavy users of the National Data Service within ArcGIS Online, using Report Builder for ArcGIS Online to build their own customised, in-house reports. Additional web pages and resources are easily added by the Hounslow team using the popular WordPress content management system and embedded Power BI dashboards.

InstantAtlas Data explorer apps connect directly to an InstantAtlas Data Catalogue in ArcGIS Online giving users the ability to browse and download data and create graphics for documents and presentations. These simple to use apps enable the Council’s Insight and Intelligence team to compose highly interactive reports and make presentations that combine statistics and maps, to deliver added insights and aid decision making for teams throughout the London Borough of Hounslow.

New service initiatives include ‘warm spaces’ for residents, along with wider winter planning.  Regular Data Hub training sessions demonstrate how users can self-service, helping them to work more productively.

Improved community services
The use of various data sets such as Energy Performance and CACI income data, were combined to provide rich data insights to guide Hounslow’s work to address the cost-of-energy crisis challenge within the Borough. Using this insight the Council has been able to respond with a network of over 30 warm spaces across the Borough, giving those who cannot afford to heat their homes somewhere safe to go.

Time savings
InstantAtlas removes the burden of managing and keeping Hounslow’s data store up to date, freeing up a vast amount of expertise and labour.  Analysts can focus on in-depth analysis and reports which produce more information.  For example, producing new knowledge on the protected characteristics about its population such as sexual orientation and gender reassignment using data from its 2021 Census.  This ensures that service areas are more fully aware of the different cohorts within the population with the primary outcome of improved targeting of services.

Enhanced data integrity
Data from credible sources available in one place gives a wide range of users’ access to the same data.   This one version of the truth is leading to smarter requests; from analysts previously being asked to identify trends, they are now looking at what could be behind trends they are seeing.  With shrinking budgets in the public sector, decisions can be evidenced and also prioritisation of decisions can be evidenced if required.

Democratisation of data
A broad range of colleagues across the Council and externally now have access to the same data.   People living in local communities can use it to access information about local services and challenge policies and hold elected Members to account.   This transparency of consistently accurate data continues to support collective and collaborative decision-making.

The Cotswolds National Landscape (CNL – a new name for the  the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and the organisation which helps look after it) is the largest of its kind in England covering 200,000 hectares, spanning six county/unitary authorities. This stunning area is managed by the small team at CNL – an independent public body that works hard to conserve and enhance the natural environment while fostering the well-being of local communities.

Under the remit of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the UK’s Protected Areas are required to deliver an evidence-led five-year Management Plan, and CNL have developed a Cotswolds Nature Recovery Plan to provide further guidance. This requires robust, consistent and up-to-date data.

Sourcing reliable data across these vast landscapes has always been a major roadblock. CNL works with multiple partners across public, private and not-for-profit sectors, many of which have undertaken their own studies, but all at separate times and for different purposes. Data previously collected has been inconsistent, gathered using different methodologies, presented in different formats and stored in multiple locations – meaning that there was no single-source-of-truth set of natural capital baselines.

In addition, there was no consistent landscape-wide set of natural capital opportunity maps which identify areas of land which are most suitable for enhancing ecosystem services, such as nature recovery networks, carbon sequestration, farming, and improvements to natural flood management and water quality. Furthermore CNL has no in-house GIS personnel or platform needed to deliver this momentous task.

CNL reached out to Triage, a leading change agency who work with Esri’s ArcGIS System, and Environment Systems, the UK’s leading environmental and agricultural data consultancy.  Whilst daunting the brief was simple: create the single-source-of-truth required to support the creation of the Cotswolds Management Plan and Nature Recovery Plan, and to help inform decision-making to deliver practical on-the-ground enhancements to natural capital throughout the landscape.

Triage are Esri UK’s rural partners, and the first step was to download the CNL boundary from the Living Atlas, Esri’s repository of thousands of ready-to-use maps and datasets. This was shared with the Environment Systems team who then sourced third party data including the most recently available Sentinel satellite imagery covering the entire area. These were used within their market-leading natural capital tool SENCE – Spatial Evidence for Natural Capital Evaluation – to generate a set of baseline maps and opportunity maps for the whole of the Cotswolds protected landscape.

On receipt of this geodatabase, Triage ran some simple GIS routines within ArcGIS Pro which included clipping, intersecting, joining and buffering the data into the Cotswolds National Landscape Areas.

Buffering habitat data and filtering the mapped information by Landscape Areas has further enabled CNL to tailor their Nature Recovery Plan for specific areas, something which had previously been impossible. The data files were uploaded and published into ArcGIS Online and, with ArcGIS Dashboards, used to create interactive data visualisations and reports on a single screen.

Triage built more than 20 separate dashboards, and these were organised and grouped by ecosystem service theme using ArcGIS StoryMaps.

A single URL embedded in CNL’s website gives users access to the final product: A Natural Capital Evaluation of the Cotswolds National Landscape. Triage used ArcGIS StoryMap design features to include CNL branding and corporate colours, embedded videos as well as separate tabs for Habitats, Carbon Storage and Farming amongst others, all containing a wealth of data. An embedded link to the project report enables users to review the full methodology including nature recovery network modelling.

View the CNL’s dashboard here, and learn more about Triage’s approach here.

Transforming data into intelligence
Large amounts of spatial data have been transformed into manageable information.  Using ArcGIS Pro processing tools, data has been analysed and insights gained. Users can interrogate accurate and reliable data enabling them to make recommendations on eg policy direction for landscape strategies.

Improved stakeholder engagement
Digital storytelling gives the author’s narrative, in this case CNL, a greater sense of place by visualising spatial relationships across the region.   Embedded dashboards let readers engage with spatial and non-spatial data and, along with embedded photos and videos enable stakeholders to easily assess and absorb information.

Accuracy of information
Near real-time data updates can be automated ensuring that the StoryMap contains the most recent data. Readers and stakeholders have access to the most current information, helping them to identify and trends as they occur, thereby improving efficiency and accuracy of decision-making.

Better resource management
As a fully hosted solution, the published A Natural Capital Evaluation of the Cotswolds National Landscape requires no support or resources internally.  CNL can focus its limited resources on its core remit, to conserve and enhance the natural beauty of the Cotswolds, increase understanding of its special qualities and foster the social and economic well-being of local communities.

Chance to Shine believes that every young person should have the opportunity to learn, play and develop through cricket.  However, the availability of cricket coaching varies enormously throughout the UK and, in areas of deprivation, there are often no opportunities for young people to play cricket at all.

Committed to addressing this inequality, Chance to Shine secures funding and works with 41 county cricket boards and other partners across England, Scotland and Wales to run fun and inclusive youth cricket programmes.  It therefore needs an effective way to identify the best locations for these activities, so that it can increase opportunities for young people from deprived communities, ethnic minorities and other under-represented groups.

Chance to Shine had no prior experience of using geographic information system (GIS) technology, but got up and running quickly with support and encouragement from Esri UK.  The charity used Esri’s ArcGIS Online solution to build an interactive web map, showing the locations where cricket facilities were already available, either at local cricket clubs or in schools and community groups.  This relatively simple first step with GIS delivered immediate value by visualising clearly where gaps in the provision of cricket coaching exist across the UK.

Next, Chance to Shine used standard functionality within ArcGIS Online to import accurate open source data on deprivation, eligibility for free school meals, ethnicity and childhood inactivity.  All this contextual information enriched the ArcGIS Online web app, enabling the charity to see clearly, for the first time, not only where gaps exist, but where there are communities that would particularly benefit from having better access to sports activities.

This ArcGIS Online web app has become absolutely pivotal to the charity’s work, supporting programmes for almost 600,000 children per year and informing its long-term strategic planning.  Data from ArcGIS Online is shared in presentations with key stakeholders, and all of the charity’s 41 partners can access and explore the ArcGIS Online web app themselves, to gain an insight into the challenges within their own local catchment areas.

Looking ahead, Chance to Shine plans to use ArcGIS Online to create a new public-facing web map for its website that will allow parents and teachers to use a ‘find my nearest’ feature and discover cricket programmes near where they live more easily.  “We are so excited by ArcGIS!” says Zoya Zia, Senior Impact and Evaluation Officer at Chance to Shine.  “We have, so far, only tapped the surface level of ArcGIS Online but we realise that there is so much more that we can do with it.”

Shared understanding of inequitable access to cricket
The ArcGIS Online web app enables Chance to Shine to share data more effectively with its 41 partners and improve their understanding of inequitable access to cricket coaching.  “It has been incredibly illuminating for our partners to be able to see what deprivation and a lack of access to cricket actually looks like in their regional contexts,” says Zia.  “The intelligence that we provide with ArcGIS Online inspires our partners and empowers them to make good decisions about where to run new programmes.  This can only be done through the power of a map.”

New initiatives focused in areas of greatest need
In the last twelve months, Chance to Shine has used ArcGIS Online to help it initiate over 100 new, free, weekly cricket programmes, called ‘street cricket’, in community groups and schools nationwide.  Two-thirds of these projects take part in the most deprived parts of the country and 80% of participants are from minority ethnic communities.  “ArcGIS enables us to ensure that our new street cricket projects are all in the right places, to reach young people in communities that don’t otherwise have access to cricket,” Zia says.  “It’s a space where they can grow and play and become a better version of themselves.”

Detailed, well-informed funding applications
Critically, the insight gained from ArcGIS Online is helping the charity to make detailed funding applications, have well-informed conversations with potential donors and work towards raising at least £375,000 per year to sustain existing street projects and grow the programme.  “ArcGIS helps us to gain the trust of our donors and show grant-providers where their money will be spent, why these communities in particular need more sports-based activities and exactly where the charity is making a difference,” Zia explains.  “Using ArcGIS will help us to continue our work and reach more young people in the future.”

Clear and impactful reporting of results
Chance to Shine uses its web app to demonstrate the impact of its activities and show how its programmes are helping to reverse the decline in childhood physical activity, particularly in deprived areas.  In the future, the charity plans to use ArcGIS StoryMaps to help it spread the word about its work even more widely and highlight key success metrics such as: 97% of teachers agree that Chance to Shine’s cricket programmes are inclusive.  As Zia says, “ArcGIS helps us provide feedback to partners, donors and corporate sponsors and tell them a much stronger story about the difference we are making to children’s lives.”

In the face of growing international concern about North Korea’s weapons programme, RUSI’s Open Source Intelligence and Analysis group launched a ground-breaking project to systematically collect and analyse open source data about the illicit movements of oil tankers in the East China Sea.  The United Nations had imposed sanctions restricting North Korea’s access to oil, with the aim of slowing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and impeding the country’s nuclear programme, and RUSI aimed to uncover clear evidence of how North Korea was routinely evading these sanctions.

When this vitally important initiative, called Project Sandstone, was launched in 2018, researchers initially used open source geographic information system (GIS) software to analyse geospatial data.  However, this free-to-use software was very slow and unable to digest and analyse the significant amount of open source data that RUSI was accruing daily.

Within just a few months, RUSI switched to using Esri’s ArcGIS system, a proven GIS technology that has the powerful analytical engine and geoprocessing tools that the organisation needed for a project of this scale and international importance.

Using ArcGIS Pro, RUSI was able to process and analyse transponder signals from oil tankers in the East China Sea, as well as supplementary radar and satellite data from multiple providers.  It used the temporal analysis features of ArcGIS to track the routes taken by suspicious vessels, over time, on digital maps.  The organisation also conducted criterion-based analysis to pinpoint the small areas of the East China Sea where secret ship-to-ship oil transfers are most likely to take place, based on average wave lengths, water depths and commercial shipping activity.

Through this approach, RUSI was able to find and track ‘ghost ships’ and monitor banned deliveries to North Korean ports.  It leveraged Esri’s cartographical tools to create high quality map products illustrating the findings of Project Sandstone and used ArcGIS Online to share information digitally.  The analysis undertaken with ArcGIS informed a major Financial Times documentary.

“Fundamentally, ArcGIS is just an amazing tool for layering different streams of data to create cartographical intelligence products,” says Joe Byrne, Research Fellow, Open Source Intelligence Analysis (OSIA), at RUSI.  “It has all the analytical and geoprocessing tools that we need to collate many sources of data, segment geographies, analyse ship movements, annotate maps and disseminate powerful visualisations.”

Following the success of Project Sandstone, ArcGIS is now being used across many more of RUSI’s military research projects.  ArcGIS Pro is, for example, playing a key role in monitoring the expansion of Russian military bases in the Arctic and tracking the movements of an alleged civilian ship, known to be moving Russian military equipment in the Black Sea near the Crimean Peninsula.

Respected intelligence that informs action
ArcGIS helps RUSI to deliver precise, trusted intelligence, which decision makers can use to take action that leads to change.  In East Asia, ArcGIS-derived intelligence has led to the removal of dozens of ships involved in illicit trade. “Our ArcGIS research underpinned a high-profiled investigation into sanctions evasion and directly contributed to changes in the behaviour of vessels operating illegally in the vicinity of North Korea,” explains Giangiuseppe Pili, Assistant Professor, Intelligence Analysis Program, James Madison University, and Associate Fellow, OSIA, RUSI.  “In this one project alone, ArcGIS had a significant impact.”

Impactful visualisations that clarify issues
ArcGIS provides RUSI with an effective way to visualise its research and create impactful, meaningful maps that clarify what are often complicated issues.  A series of 2D and 3D maps have, for instance, been created with ArcGIS to help people understand the development of North Korean nuclear test sites.  “Seeing data in one map image is so powerful,” Byrne explains.  “ArcGIS enables us to provide a service to policy makers and the general public, providing them with better data to help them understand complex miliary situations and make better decisions.”

Exceptionally high volume of research output
In eighteen months, two people using ArcGIS Pro generated around 500 cartographic intelligence products which have been used by organisations such as the UN Panel of Experts on North Korea and investigative reporters.  According to Pili, this exceptionally high volume of output was possible due to: the simplicity of the ArcGIS geoprocessing tools; the ability to create and use repeatable analytical processes; and the reliability of the ArcGIS platform.  “ArcGIS is very robust, enabling us to digest a large amount of data in a very efficient way,” he says.  “It is impossible to underestimate the capacity of the ArcGIS platform to process vast amounts of data and still not crash.”

Rapid dissemination of time-critical research
Critically, RUSI can produce and share ArcGIS maps very quickly to shed light on fast-changing and critical international crises. Cartographic outputs showing Russian ships evading the Baltic Convention in the vicinity of Crimea were produced rapidly and disseminated to international decision makers, providing them with valuable contextual and situational information.  These ArcGIS maps were also shared with active units in the Ukraine.  Pili explains, “If we cannot report intelligence quickly, the window of opportunity to react and take action can be lost.  ArcGIS helps us to work under time constraints to prove where ships are as soon as possible.”

Since the 1930s, wildflower meadows have declined by 97% right across the UK and, in Wales, several native wildflowers including the Spreading Bellflower are at risk of extinction.  Recognising the urgent need to expand wildflower environments in Wales, Denbighshire County Council protected 1,820 km of roadside verges from over-frequent cutting, created 11 roadside nature reserves and established 140 urban meadows, covering more than 70 acres of land.

The council knew, however, that simply creating these spaces for wildflowers would not, alone, lead to a reversal in biodiversity loss.  It had to proactively collect seeds from local trees and wildflowers, grow plants and plant out the seedlings in the new habitats that it had created, to enable the recovery of endangered native species.

To support this ambitious biodiversity enrichment programme, Denbighshire County Council created three integrated survey apps, configured using Esri’s ArcGIS Survey123 solution.  Together, they make up a complete end-to-end process for managing everything from surveying verges and collecting seeds, to propagating seedlings and recording where young plants are planted out in the wild again.

The first app, called the Biodiversity Verge Monitoring App, allows biodiversity officers to collect data about sites monthly, during the growing season of March to August.  Using a rapid grassland assessment technique, officers capture data about species present and the general condition of the land.

Next, biodiversity officers use the Plant Tracker App to record details about donor sites where seeds are collected and record the exact location of the donor flower or tree.  Team members harvest seeds from across the county, and the app generates unique batch numbers, which are then written onto the seed envelopes.

The third app, the Nursery Propagation App, is used within the council’s plant nursery to label plant pots with batch numbers and monitor growing conditions, such as soil type and watering frequency.  Nursery staff use the app to see details about each seed planted, including when and where it was collected and whether it is being nurtured in a polytunnel, on a raised bed or outside.

All data collected from the three apps can be viewed in ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS Online and used to inform decisions about where to plant out seedlings.  The council can also build ArcGIS Dashboards and ArcGIS StoryMaps to share data and explain the scale of the programme.  “Showing people a map or dashboard so they can see how many acres have been rewilded or how many species have been transplanted, that’s where the impact is,” says Liam Blazey, Biodiversity Officer at Denbighshire County Council.  “What ArcGIS allows you to do is phenomenal.”

A fast and cost efficient survey process
If biodiversity officers had used paper surveys, then typed up the data and made the maps in the office later, they probably would only have surveyed one area a day.  Instead, using the ArcGIS Survey123 app, they can survey sites in 20 to 90 minutes, depending on the size of the site, and complete as many as twelve surveys in a day.  “Our ArcGIS survey apps allow us to get so much done, so quickly and still maintain scientific rigour in our process, which is critically important,” says Blazey.  “Our ArcGIS Online subscription probably pays for itself within the first three weeks of each survey season.”

More successful propagation of trees and flowers
Using the data collected with ArcGIS, Denbighshire County Council can identify the best growing conditions to improve the success of its propagation processes, by seed type, and monitor the stratification of seeds.  As Blazey explains, “We can look back to see which substrate and watering regime worked best in previous years and therefore improve the propagation success rate for the future.  This project would not be remotely as far along the line as it is today without ArcGIS.  ArcGIS is critical at every step for the success of this biodiversity project.”

The ability to trace plants and pathogens
Denbighshire County Council can trace the providence and origin of all the native plants that it has transplanted back into the environment using the data collected in ArcGIS.  Consequently, if a pest or pathogen were to be detected in one plant, the council could easily find other plants originating from the same batch of seeds to help it maintain the health of the local countryside.  “Our three ArcGIS apps give us complete traceability of all plant material from source to final destination, helping us to enrich our wildflower meadows with species native to northern Wales,” Blazey says.

Accurate, uniform data about native plant species
Through this programme, Denbighshire County Council is helping to increase the amount of accurate, dependable data about wildflowers and trees in North Wales.  It shares its data from ArcGIS effortlessly with COFNOD, the North Wales Environmental Information Service, and works closely with other local organisations.  “We have shared our ArcGIS apps with neighbouring councils, so more data on Welsh wildflowers is now being collected,” Blazey says.  “As the data is uniform, more people can use it and more conservation work can come out of it.”

An independent, not-for-profit research institute, the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) is the UK’s centre of excellence for research in land and freshwater environmental sciences.  It conducts independent research aimed at improving understanding of the natural environment and the impact that human activity has upon it.

For decades, environmental survey methods had largely remained unchanged.  The Countryside Survey, for example, was first undertaken in the 1970s and, by the early 2000s, it still involved writing information on paper in the field and typing it up in the office afterwards.  UKCEH wanted to completely modernise its approach to collecting environmental data in the field.  It therefore set about creating a fully integrated, digital workflow for undertaking The Countryside Survey and other long-term monitoring projects more cost and time efficiently.

UKCEH worked with geographic information system (GIS) specialists from Esri UK to develop a field-based, digital data capture approach, using mobile solutions from Esri’s ArcGIS system.  First launched in 2007, this transformational new digital workflow enabled surveyors to collect environmental data in the field, on laptops and tablets, for the first time.

Since then, Esri UK has helped UKCEH to migrate to the latest ArcGIS Online apps and update its ArcGIS-driven survey method, making this digital process even better adapted to the challenges of collecting and sharing environmental data.  Today, botanists use an ArcGIS Survey123 app to collect and accurately geo-reference soil samples and record around 1,200 plant species.  Ecologists view environmental data in the field on ArcGIS Field Maps, while other surveyors use a mobile app configured with Sweet for ArcGIS to record changes to trees and landscapes.

Data collected in the field using ArcGIS is transferred digitally from mobile devices directly into ArcGIS Online without manual intervention or the re-entering of data.  When field operations are completed, environmental experts from UKCEH use ArcGIS to help them analyse the data and present the results clearly in reports.  An ArcGIS Online Dashboard gives the project team a clear overview of research projects, enabling them to closely monitor the progress of surveyors often working hundreds of miles apart.

UKCEH has used its ArcGIS-driven survey approach for successive Countryside Surveys, covering England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, as well as the Welsh Government’s Environment and Rural Affairs Monitoring and Modelling Programme (ERAMMP) and the Bunce Woodland Survey.  The configuration of its ArcGIS apps and dashboards can be easily replicated for other UKCEH surveys in the future, saving time and minimising new project costs.

50% time savings in report generation
The use of ArcGIS has enabled UKCEH to dramatically reduce the time required to undertake environmental surveys.  Indeed, the first time that ArcGIS was used for The Countryside Survey, UKCEH was able to produce the report in just one year, in less than half the time of the previous survey.  “The value of ArcGIS comes not only from the mobile data collection capabilities, but from the powerful back-end process,” says Peter Henrys, UKCEH Statistician.  “ArcGIS gives us a clear digital workflow for our survey data from the field right through to the publication of reports.”

Data ready for analysis 7 days faster
In the ERAMMP project in Wales, UKCEH estimates that the use of ArcGIS mobile solutions enables it to make data and imagery from the field available for analysis seven days sooner, giving it faster insight into emerging environmental trends.  “All the data we need is in the database straight away, so we save at least a week of time per site, compared to the previous survey that was completed seven years ago,” explains Claire Wood, Senior Geospatial Information Scientist at UKCEH.

£700,000 cost savings on one survey alone
UKCEH no longer has to pay for collected data to be digitised, and this reduces costs significantly.  Indeed, when the first ArcGIS-driven digital data capture process was introduced in 2007, the organisation calculated that it saved over £700,000 on one Countryside Survey alone.  The cost of developing the original ArcGIS mobile solution was less than half of the cost of paying digitisers for twelve months.  Since UKCEH migrated to ArcGIS Online solutions it has further reduced costs, as it no longer needs to make software updates.

Improved management of nationwide projects
The use of ArcGIS Dashboards enables UKCEH to monitor surveyors’ progress when they are working in the field.  This real-time oversight helps it to manage large-scale, nationwide environmental research projects and deliver the evidence needed to inform national environmental policies on schedule.  “We can make sure that progress is as it should be and pick up on any issues straight away,” Wood explains.

A high level of accuracy and data integrity
An added benefit of the ArcGIS approach is that it helps surveyors to collect data in a very consistent way.  This leads to a high level of data integrity and accuracy in UKCEH environmental research.  As Wood observes, “Whether they are collecting soil samples, monitoring the presence of pollinators, recording plant species or editing woodland features, our surveyors use ArcGIS apps to collect accurate data, in a standard way, and work efficiently in the field.”

In the South Yorkshire city of Doncaster there are around 2,500 litter bins on busy shopping streets, in quiet residential areas and throughout parks.  Emptying these bins daily, weekly, or twice weekly, and maintaining their condition, is a major undertaking for City of Doncaster Council, involving seven teams and over a dozen vehicles.

For many years, council employees, known as bin runners, received a print out of the bins that they needed to empty in their area.  The litter bins were not listed by location, making it easy for the bin runners to miss one or drive routes that were much longer than necessary.  In addition, the council used to complete time-consuming, yearly audits of all its bins, to capture data about their condition and record any repairs needed.

The entire process for managing litter bins in Doncaster has now been completely transformed using a suite of solutions from Esri’s ArcGIS system.  Instead of printing paper lists for bin runners, the Street Scene Team at City of Doncaster Council now uses ArcGIS Workforce to allocate up to 4,000 daily assignments to specific bin runners.  Using ArcGIS Workforce on their mobile devices, the bin runners can sort the bins by proximity, enabling them to plan their routes more intelligently and reduce their drive times.

Integrated with ArcGIS Workforce is a mobile survey solution, created with ArcGIS Survey123, that allows the bin runners to capture data every time they visit a bin, including information on whether the bin is full, empty, damaged or overflowing.  If trade waste is present, images can be taken and passed on to the council’s enforcement team.  “Bin runners can complete the surveys in seconds, so it has a minimal impact on the time they need to empty their allotted bins in a shift,” explains David McDermott, Digital Spatial Developer at City of Doncaster Council.

Initially, bin runners also used an ArcGIS QuickCapture app to improve the accuracy of the council’s litter bin data in its asset management system.  They could record bins that were not there, bins that were in different places or bins that were on the ground but not in the system.  This app was used extensively in the first few weeks to improve street scene data, but is now rarely needed, as all bins have been verified.

Finally, the council has created an ArcGIS Dashboard, known as the Litter Bin Command Centre, which gives supervisors a real-time overview of litter bin collections and the data to inform changes to the service.  As McDermott explains, “Our ArcGIS Dashboards give the Street Scene Team the opportunity to evidence its decision making, change the frequency of collections or install larger bins where needed.  The dashboards also help supervisors to monitor and resolve issues, such as bins that cannot be emptied due to access obstructions.”

Over 110 hours saved annually
By eliminating the need to conduct an annual audit, over 110 hours of staff time have been freed up every year, which can be spent on more value-adding activities to improve services.  Thirteen people used to spend around nine days conducting the audit, during a six-week period, whereas now audit data is collected daily and is visible in real-time.  “ArcGIS has given us the space and the capacity to look at other more strategic parts of the operation,” says Stefan Boodt, Street Scene Supervisor, Northwest Area, City of Doncaster Council.

Faster action to repair damaged bins
With the live capture of data, managers can see which bins have been emptied and which bins need repair, at any time.  Equally, when local councillors report issues with bins, supervisors within the council’s Street Scene Team can look on the ArcGIS Dashboard, see which bin runner is nearest and quickly direct them to check the bin in question for damage, overflow or misuse.  “ArcGIS makes our operations more streamlined,” Boodt says.  “If a bin is damaged, we can action it significantly quicker.”

Reduced carbon footprint from lower mileage
Using the evidence collected with ArcGIS, the Street Scene Team can identify opportunities to reduce the frequency at which it empties bins and change bin types to eliminate unnecessary journeys and reduce the council’s carbon footprint.  At one location, City of Doncaster Council has changed the type of bin collected by a specialist refuse collection vehicle (RCV) to a regular double bin which can be incorporated into an existing route.  This avoids sending the RCV on a single 20-minute round trip, thereby saving around 260 miles of travel and eight and a half hours of bin runner time per year.

A better quality of service for citizens
Since the introduction of the ArcGIS-based system, the number of complaints about missed bins has been steadily declining because bin runners know exactly where to go.  “In the city centre area, we used to get eight to twelve reports of missed bins per week, but now it is rare to even get one,” Boodt says.  “We are experiencing similar improvements in other regions too and providing a better quality of service across the city than we were this time last year.”

All public bodies in Scotland have a responsibility to protect and enrich biodiversity.  The Nature Conservation Act (Scotland) 2004, and subsequent Wildlife and Natural Environment (Scotland) Act 2011, require public sector organisations to take care of the nature around them and produce publicly-available reports detailing the action they have taken to improve their natural capital.

Like all NHS Boards in Scotland, NHS Fife needed to fulfil this biodiversity duty and improve the management of its greenspaces.  It has ten hospitals, as well as medical practices, midwifery units, community clinics and dental health centres throughout Fife, which together make up a 130-hectare estate.  However, the organisation had neither an accurate map of its greenspaces nor a centralised record of whether its greenspaces were mown grass, wildflower meadows or unmanaged woodland.  Without an accurate understanding of its natural capital, it was hard for NHS Fife to adapt the way it managed its greenspaces and meet the requirement for detailed biodiversity reporting.

With support from Esri UK, the estates team at NHS Fife used Esri’s ArcGIS Online to create a digital map of natural capital across all of the organisation’s 45 separate healthcare sites.  “Esri UK guided us through the whole process,” explains Kathryn Hastie, Sustainability Officer at NHS Fife.  “It was a really rewarding project to work on and only took about six weeks.”

Esri UK supported the configuration of an easy-to-use data collection app, using Esri’s Sweet for ArcGIS solution, which enabled two people, who were not GIS experts, to map every individual area of land very precisely.  Through this process, each area of the estate – no matter how small – was classified using sixty different categories, such as garden, shrubs, grassland, woodland, building, path and car park.  The organisation also recorded subcategories, enabling it to differentiate between different types of woodland or grassland.

A second mobile app, developed with ArcGIS Field Maps, allowed the students to make notes and take pictures while making site visits.  In this way, they successfully verified the greenspace data in the map, building up a very detailed and accurate picture of the organisation’s natural capital.  The team could also add supplementary data on features across the estate such as cycle racks, electric vehicle charging points and benches.  “ArcGIS Online has given us such a clear view of the entire estate,” Hastie says.  “We don’t just know where our greenspaces are; we also know exactly which type of greenspaces they are and what is nearby.”

The NHS Fife Greenspaces Map is now publicly available for anyone to view and is accompanied by an ArcGIS Dashboard that provides summary information.  Both are used regularly by the estates and sustainability teams at NHS Fife for planning site maintenance, reporting on sustainability and informing new biodiversity enrichment schemes.  The sustainability team also uses ArcGIS StoryMaps to share information about NHS Fife’s natural capital, promote conservation schemes and involve the local community.

Accurate data to inform strategic planning and reporting
NHS Fife now has a complete and accurate picture of its entire estate, 62% of which is greenspace.  The data from ArcGIS has proved invaluable for informing the organisation’s 2030 Greenspaces Strategy and meeting regulatory reporting requirements.  “Our Greenspaces Map continues to drive our Greenspaces Strategy going forwards, highlighting ways that we can use our natural capital to benefit patients, staff, local communities and the planet as a whole,” says Jimmy Ramsay, Head of Sustainability at NHS Fife.

Optimum use of natural capital to improve wellbeing
Using the Greenspaces Map, NHS Fife is now putting in place plans to develop gardens and outdoor spaces where patients and staff can relax.  At one hospital, for example, NHS Fife is planning a nature-rich garden suitable for patients with impaired mobility, close to the ward where they are treated.  “As a healthcare provider, it is especially important for us to use our greenspaces to encourage people to get outside, enjoy the natural environment and improve their wellbeing,” Hastie says.

Expenditure reallocated to enrich biodiversity
NHS Fife can now use  the Greenspaces Map to identify areas of grassland that can be converted into wildflower meadows, allowing budget previously allocated to grass cutting to be used to deliver new biodiversity projects instead.  For example, at Lynebank Hospital, NHS Fife previously reduced grass cutting, enabling a new walking route, meadows and bird boxes to be introduced.  As Ramsay says, “Esri UK has supported us in the creation of an incredibly detailed estates map that will significantly help us to identify areas of opportunity to manage our land in a more beneficial and sustainable way.”

Effective partnerships to benefit local communities
As part of its Greenspaces Strategy, NHS Fife plans to use its Greenspaces Map to work with partners, including Food4Fife and Rural Skills Scotland to identify suitable locations for community allotments, where groups can grow their own food, as well as training projects.  The  organisation’s ArcGIS StoryMaps showcase the success of current projects and will be updated over time to keep local people, staff, patients and other stakeholders informed about projects that will make the NHS Fife estate better for the environment and for the local community.

In 2020, two major landslides caused the closure of the A83 Trunk Road in rural Scotland at a location known as The Rest and Be Thankful where the Trunk Road traverses a steep, southwest facing hillside along Glen Croe.  Hillside stability after these major landslides was cause for concern.

Transport Scotland appointed AECOM to assess landslide potential and estimate landslide pathways and scale along Glen Croe.  Well aware of the urgency of the project and the potential hazards faced when surveying unstable land in remote locations, AECOM needed to find a way to undertake the project as efficiently and safely as possible.

AECOM had been using Esri’s ArcGIS for many years on this project and therefore decided to harness the 3D modelling and analytical capabilities of ArcGIS to help its Ground Engineering Team better understand the geography of the hillside.

First, the company used ArcGIS Pro to analyse the terrain in 2D and 3D to understand slope angle variation across the hillside, identify boulders, map historical debris source areas and locate tension cracks.  It imported high resolution imagery of past landslip events to make comparisons and reveal patterns.  Then it used the Esri Hydrology toolset in ArcGIS Pro to model watershed and flow paths to improve understanding of the terrain before site visits and 3D landslide modelling began.

In parallel, AECOM used ArcGIS Online to create a 3D web scene of the entire site, enabling the project team to visualise and virtually navigate the hillside.  Specialist third party Rapid Mass Movement Simulation (RAMMS) landslide modelling software outputs presenting projected landslide trajectories, landslide velocities, landslide flow heights, rockfall bounce heights and rockfall energies, were also draped onto the ArcGIS Online map, allowing everyone to see the model calculations in context with surrounding features and terrain in 2D and 3D.

To support geologists working at the site, AECOM created a mobile data capture solution using ArcGIS Survey123.  Several digital survey forms were built enabling geologists to record information such as boulder, rock outcrop and channel features, ground surface soil types and vegetation coverage.  The geologists could add photographs as well as observations to their survey forms and record accurate, consistent, geospatially-referenced data.  All the information collected in the field was uploaded directly to ArcGIS Online, making it instantly available to the whole project team.   All ArcGIS project data was accessible electronically on tablets, allowing efficient cross referencing during the survey and avoiding the need to carry multiple drawings.

Improved health and safety at a hazardous location
ArcGIS contributed to improved health and safety by enabling geologists to better understand hillside conditions, identify potential ground stability issues before going out on site and take necessary precautions to avoid areas of highest risk.  Furthermore, the use of desktop surveys significantly reduced the need for repeat site visits and minimised the amount of time geologists needed to spend on site.  “Reducing the number of field visits is an important aspect of improving health and safety and reducing travel-related carbon footprint,” explains Beth Mennie, Associate Director, Data, Geospatial and Analytics, at AECOM.  “We estimate that our use of ArcGIS reduced the number of site visits by at least 50%, which significantly reduced the risks from working at a remote, unstable site, as well as travel-related risks traveling to and from site.”

Fivefold acceleration in field surveys
By using ArcGIS Survey123 for data collection, AECOM was able to dramatically improve the efficiency of its field-based operations by as much as 400%.  It took advantage of smart editor tools to enable data collection to be undertaken consistently and created drop-down fields to speed up the process of surveying the hillside.  “Doing surveys with ArcGIS Survey123 is around five times faster than doing surveys on paper,”  Mennie says.   “What is more, the data collected using ArcGIS Survey123 is more consistent, more detailed and more accurate which really makes a difference in the design and build phases.”

Well-engineered designs to mitigate risks
ArcGIS played a pivotal role in helping AECOM and Transport Scotland to identify sections of carriageway at risk of future landslide activity, estimate landslide scale and assess operational impact with less uncertainty.  Landslide risk reduction measures designed to capture and retain debris, such as catch pits and catch fences, can therefore be designed more efficiently, reducing potential for under-design (where mitigations are not resilient enough to capture debris) and over-design (where mitigations are oversized offering poor cost efficiency).  “The optimised design of catch pits and catch fences will reduce the number of road closures needed in future and minimise road user disruption,” Mennie says.

Effective collaboration throughout the project
The use of ArcGIS Online web maps gave the project team a better understanding of the site from the outset and enabled everyone to more easily visualise the site and share information.  All survey data was visible in ArcGIS Online as soon as it was uploaded, and models from separate specialist systems were integrated into ArcGIS, creating a single place for all project information.  This created a highly collaborative project within AECOM and, as Mennie says, “contributed to a good working relationship with our client, Transport Scotland, during project delivery too.”

Oxygen Conservation’s purpose is to deliver conservation at scale.  By improving land management across large areas of the UK, the organisation’s founders aim to deliver positive environmental and social impacts, while also achieving a profit for  investors as a result of what they do, not the purpose.  It currently owns and manages ten sites in Scotland, England and Wales, covering a total area of almost 30,000 acres.  Each of its sites has a different mix of land types and habitats and therefore presents different land management challenges.

Oxygen Conservation commissions a wide variety of surveys and studies to gather ecological, environmental and financial data for each of its sites.  The organisation needed a space in which it could collate this information, review it and share it with both internal and external parties.  Most importantly, however, it needed to be able to visualise its sites and monitor change over time to help it clearly demonstrate its positive impact across a diverse range of landscapes.

Lara Salam was appointed as Oxygen Conservation’s first-ever data visualisation expert and quickly set to work creating a range of solutions using Esri’s ArcGIS system.  She started by using ArcGIS Pro on the desktop to consolidate in-house data, as well as third-party data on habitats, landscape features and boundaries from Esri UK’s Premium Data Services and the Esri Living Atlas of the World.

Harnessing the flexible capabilities of ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Experience Builder, Salam then created a custom web application for each of Oxygen Conservation’s sites, known internally as data viewers.  Styled consistently with the organisation’s branding, these data viewers enable employees, partners and stakeholders to see a vast amount of information, in one location, on one interactive map of the site.  This data includes footpaths, habitat layers, biodiversity scores, water quality and river networks.

From these first steps, the use of ArcGIS within the organisation has continued to evolve.  Now, senior managers use an ArcGIS Dashboard to maintain a high-level understanding of the organisation’s complete land portfolio.  This dashboard provides a live overview of the number of sites under management, the amount of money invested, the size of tree planting areas and a bar chart showing the range of habitats.

Oxygen Conservation is beginning to create ArcGIS StoryMaps too, to help employees to share information about their vision for sites with a wider audience.  They are incredibly excited to soon be sharing this data on certain areas of their website for others to see and further understand the plans for each site through visual demonstration.  One recent StoryMap explains what Oxygen Conservation plans to do on Exmoor, as part of a joint venture with a family of farmers, who have lived on the land for generations.  “ArcGIS StoryMaps are a really effective way to share a story about a particular site or scheme,” Salam says.

To support its planned expansion, Oxygen Conservation also uses automation tools in ArcGIS Pro, including ArcGIS ModelBuilder, to build geoprocessing workflows for evaluating land parcels that are for sale and gathering data to inform investment decisions.  Then, whenever a new site is acquired, a new ArcGIS data viewer can be created specifically for it, very quickly, by replicating the organisation’s existing data viewer templates.

Deeper understanding of conservation at scale
The online data viewers that Oxygen Conservation has created with ArcGIS give employees a deeper understanding of complex and precious environments across large sites, at multiple locations throughout the UK.  Everyone can get the information they need, from any internet-connected device, wherever they are working.  At Esgair Arth in Wales, the ArcGIS data viewer has helped Oxygen Conservation to visualise and appreciate the unique valley setting of an ancient woodland and plan a conservation scheme to support the sustainable regeneration of this beautiful area.

Effective monitoring of environmental change
ArcGIS provides an effective and highly visual way for employees at Oxygen Conservation to track their progress over time and demonstrate the positive impact they are initiating on the environment.  At the 11,000-acre Invergeldie estate in Perthshire, Scotland, for example, Oxygen Conservation will use ArcGIS to show where peatland restoration and tree planting will occur.  “ArcGIS enables us to show the changes that have occurred and the impact we have made to improve things for the future,” Salam says.  “Future generations will be able to walk through the woodlands we have created and appreciate the species we have helped flourish through the improvement habitats and those we have reintroduced.”

Improved transparency and collaboration with stakeholders
For many projects, including the 400-acre Wood Advent Farm in Devon, Oxygen Conservation uses its ArcGIS data viewers to share information openly with stakeholders and partners.  With access to the same, up-to-date data, all partners involved in the regeneration of Wood Advent Farm are able to work collaboratively to transition to organic food production.  “Our stakeholders are often very invested in the landscape,” says Salam.  “ArcGIS enables us to share information with them and be transparent about our future plans.”

Well-considered expansion of ethical business
By enabling Oxygen Conservation to evaluate the natural capital of land parcels that are for sale, ArcGIS is playing a key role in helping the organisation to achieve its goal of significantly growing the acreage under management within two years.  “Scaling up our use of GIS is helping us to scale conservation,” Salam says.  “ArcGIS helps us to understand the natural capital potential of sites, identify areas where Oxygen Conservation can add value and determine how much positive change we can make in different environments.”