Hertfordshire County Council (HCC) is responsible for over 5,000km of highway network and its Highways Transport Planning and Data Team (HTPD) constantly strives for improvement in service delivery through objective analysis, openness and transparency.

There are hundreds of improvement and maintenance schemes being planned or undertaken on the network at any given period, all of which are generated through a variety of pathways. Highways engineers need to be aware of all these schemes and programmes of works, from emergency work, and gully cleansing to resurfacing, in order to identify co-ordination opportunities. However knowledge was not easily sharable, coordination was difficult and opportunities to optimise resources were potentially missed. Data was held in isolated silos, on different platforms, and there was no single tool to give context to the data and offer any useful interpretation. Knowledge also remained with individuals and was not always recorded.

The HTPD team was asked to investigate how a new collaboration tool could support the ‘one and done’ approach. HCC already had internal web maps for asset management purposes and user groups including district service agents, contract managers; but what did they want to see?

The HTPD team acknowledged it was vital to support project coordination to save time and costs. “The web app was the easy bit. The difficult part was understanding where the data was stored and getting information out of people’s heads,” observed Antony Oldridge, Team Leader/Principal Analyst, Transport Planning & Data Team, Environment & Transport, Hertfordshire County Council.

The Virtual Operations Hub is a live web app developed in partnership between HCC, WSP Arup and Ringway Infrastructure Services. It contains work HCC is planning to do on the network, schemes being considered for following years, completed schemes alongside customer reported defects and enquiries.   Data is shared between all parties within the Hertfordshire contract.

Experienced in the use of ArcGIS Enterprise, the HTPD team began by using ArcGIS Desktop to prepare the data layers and undertake clash detection. Data is extracted and published in ArcGIS Online, visualised on one digital map letting users instantly see commonalities, view data they did not previously have access to and combine datasets to understand spatial and temporal relationships.

Currently (as of March 2023) its 27 data layers, automatically updated, include contextual information such as planned housing, flood risk areas and HCC’s ideas pool of potential schemes to help mitigate the effects of growth and encourage active travel.   Several layers are automatically updated overnight with Ringway contributing its own data.  Access for Ringway teams is through a shared, secure HCC portal account using Citrix to access the dynamic landing page.

Internal training for colleagues is being rolled-out across user group meetings, so specific teams can see how their requirements are being met.   Individuals from these teams now access the Virtual Operations Hub to view and query data in order to look at collaboration opportunities.

Preventing gridlock and reducing congestion
Co-ordinated works support HCC’s ‘one and done’ approach by minimising road closure times, maximising the use of road space and reducing the impact on local residents and businesses.  Related works such as sign-cleaning, hedge trimming and gully cleaning can now be undertaken while a resurfacing scheme is taking place.   In 2022/23, HCC co-ordinated 379 out of 1874 schemes, into 49 separate coordination areas.

Better decision-making driving down costs
The Virtual Operations Hub is helping HCC to save money and reduce costs to society, by minimising congestion and disruption. Detailed evaluation of planned schemes enables decision-makers to assess needs and make decisions on whether to proceed more accurately.   HCC has already identified six schemes to merge, defer, and coordinate so far in 2023 which would have cost approximately £60,000.

More efficient collaboration supporting community engagement
Highway Locality Officers now use the Virtual Operations Hub when liaising with County Council members and communities; readily available information allows them to inform, engage and make intelligence-led decisions on, for example, cycling and walking infrastructure plans.

Enhanced longer-term planning aids understand
The Virtual Operations Hub contains future ideas and mitigation schemes that have been generated from highway modelling, and strategy documents like the Local Cycling Walking and Infrastructure Plans (LCWIP) and the growth and transport plans.  Strategy Managers can see growth and potential schemes, enabling them to plan for possible larger interventions and understand the possible lifetime of current works.

Improved service delivery for communities
Data from cyclic work such as gully cleansing is viewed live from site crews enabling the drainage community to understand the context of flooding enquiries.  Routine works and highways enquiries such as road degradation reports are mapped, so managers can more easily understand the history of the road section and any potential clustering of issues.   These can be used to inform priority works planning where, for example, road conditions have worsened.

Lincolnshire Resilience Forum responds to all major emergencies and incidents that impact on the wider county of Lincolnshire and that require a coordinated, multi-agency response, such as flooding and pandemics.  Responsible for an area of 2,292 miles and over 750,000 people, the partnership comprises more than 30 category one and two responding agencies.  These organisations need to be able to share information and collaborate effectively to respond immediately to catastrophic incidents, helping preserve life, livelihoods and the environment.

Lincolnshire Resilience Forum worked with consultants from Esri UK’s Professional Services group to build a range of solutions with Esri’s ArcGIS system to improve collaboration and information sharing.  “Professional Services was second to none,” says Steve Eason-Harris, Emergency Planning Officer at Lincolnshire County Council.  “With Esri UK’s support, we hit the ground running and got things right the first time.”

The organisation’s foremost ArcGIS solution is an interactive dashboard that consolidates data from a myriad of different third party systems and provides a common operating picture for teams from all partners.  Built using ArcGIS Dashboard and ArcGIS Experience Builder, it can be viewed online, on mobile devices or on huge touch screens in the County Emergency Centre and Force Control Rooms, giving everyone an accurate, shared understanding of fast-changing situations.

Using this ArcGIS solution, Lincolnshire Resilience Forum can quickly identify critical national and local infrastructure (such as gas and oil terminals) plan evacuation routes, forward command points and places of safety, and model potential hazards to establish wider impacts.  The ArcGIS solution also allows officers to identify property and vulnerable people at risk and calculate the time it takes for officers to door knock an area, before deploying operational staff to the scene, reducing the time needed to directly warn and inform the public.

Lincolnshire Resilience Forum has also developed a series of ArcGIS Field Map apps to make it far easier for first responders to collect and share information, on the ground, about damage to infrastructure or new risks.  First responders can also use apps built with ArcGIS Survey123 to record contact information for people who are evacuating their homes, register the people sheltering in rest centres and highlight any urgent medication or support needs individuals may have.

In addition, Lincolnshire Resilience Forum is currently developing a new capability with ArcGIS Workforce to help it manage resources, deploy police officers and optimise the use of volunteers.  It also plans to use drones and ArcGIS SiteScan to create a 3D digital twins of areas at higher risk of impact from emergencies.  “We have done so much, yet we’ve only scratched the surface!” Eason-Harris says.  “We didn’t realise just how much ArcGIS would enable us to do.  It has vastly outperformed our expectations.”

Improved collaboration between agencies
ArcGIS has delivered the common operating picture that Lincolnshire Resilience Forum needed, enabling all partners to share the same information and respond to emergencies in a way that is coordinated, proportionate and appropriate for the incident taking place.  If police officers from other forces and military troops are drafted in to help respond to an emergency, operational commanders can brief them using ArcGIS dashboards and mobile devices, speeding up deployment and minimising the risk of duplication.

Faster decision making during emergencies
With instant access to accurate, up-to-date, multi-agency information, strategic and tactical commands have all the information they need to make the right decisions, faster, as situations change.  This improved decision-making capability was clearly evidenced in a major exercise undertaken in November 2022, based on a flooding scenario necessitating the evacuation of over 35,000 people from coastal properties and static caravans.

Enhanced safety of officers, volunteers and communities
During emergencies, ArcGIS helps to improve safety for everyone in affected areas, whether they are residents or first responders.  ArcGIS mobile tools help police and volunteers to knock on all doors and give advice, while ArcGIS web apps share the latest information about closures, cordons and areas to avoid.  ArcGIS can also be used to inform recovery plans, helping affected residents to return safely to their homes.

Clearer communication with the public
Lincolnshire Resilience Forum recognises the advantages of using ArcGIS for communicating clearly with the public.  It is, for example, currently converting its Community Risk Register from a pdf document into ArcGIS Story Maps to make it easier for people and businesses to understand how to protect themselves if an incident should occur.  As Story Maps and public web maps can be created very quickly with ArcGIS, they can be produced during emergencies to show members of the public where road blocks, cordons and rest centres are located.

Better understanding of risk
Long before emergencies occur, Lincolnshire Resilience Forum uses ArcGIS to build up a deeper understanding of communities and infrastructure at risk.  Use of the new 3D mapping capability, for example, helps the partnership to pinpoint properties that are at greatest risk from flood, wildfire and isolation and put targeted mitigation plans in place.  Summing up, Eason-Harris, observes: “ArcGIS gives us a collaborative solution that we can use before, during and after major events.  It’s far more than just maps.”

Nottingham City Council was an early pioneer in the field of 3D urban planning.  It began to use digital 3D modelling techniques nearly 20 years ago, primarily for long-term strategic planning and major regeneration schemes.  As demand for 3D visualisations grew, the council realised that it needed to replace its desktop software with a more flexible, web-based approach, and it started to explore the 3D capabilities of Esri’s ArcGIS system.

First the council developed a couple of lightweight public applications using ArcGIS, including an app for helping tourists to discover and appreciate the vast network of caves that lies beneath the historic city centre.  Soon, though, a bold ambition arose to create a detailed 3D digital twin of the entire city, covering more than 73 square kilometres and depicting thousands of historic and modern buildings, open spaces and infrastructure.

Building on its prior experience, using its existing ArcGIS licenses and leveraging its accumulated knowledge and 3D data, Nottingham City Council created an extensive and immersive 3D cityscape that could be accessed and shared via the Internet.  It developed this digital twin using ArcGIS Online, hosted in the cloud, receiving support from Esri UK’s Professional Services team to create the pilot solution and optimise the generation of 3D data at Level of Detail 2 (LoD2).

Far more than just a 3D model, the citywide digital twin embeds and visualises a vast amount of contextual information, including 2D data on conservation areas and flood plains, and street-level videos from CCTV cameras.  The solution also includes a 3D photo-realistic mesh from Bluesky and live traffic data, both of which are streamed directly from Esri's Living Atlas of the World.

The Nottingham City Digital Twin is now used for site assessments and is fully embedded within the council’s pre-application planning process.  When developers submit planning proposals, their plans and Building Information Modelling (BIM) files are incorporated directly into the digital twin.  Planners can then click on different points on the 3D city map to visualise the proposed new street views, see potential constraints and identify other issues that might present planning concerns.

In recognition of the enormous value that can be gained from the use of urban digital twins, Nottingham City Council has now received government funding, from the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities PropTech Innovation Fund, to develop this capability further to drive public engagement, and help other UK Local Planning Authorities establish 3D capabilities.  With support from Esri UK, it will be creating demonstrators, learning resources and tools that other councils can leverage to develop their own digital twins and transform their planning processes cost-effectively.

A single source for all planning information
For the first time, Nottingham City Council’s planners can see all the information they need relating to the pre-planning application process in a single GIS application.  Whether they need information on flood risks, listed buildings or traffic congestion—relating to a residential development in Mapperley Park or an office block in Lace Market—everything is visible in a highly-detailed, city-sized digital twin.  “Our 3D, ArcGIS model of Nottingham is a UK first, in terms of the level of detail that it delivers and the size of the urban area that it covers,” says Mick Dunn, GIS Service Manager at Nottingham City Council.  “We have successfully fused together traditional 2D planning information with a state-of-the-art 3D GIS environment, to create a single, comprehensive digital twin of the city of Nottingham."

Quicker decision making in planning process
Using the Nottingham City Digital Twin, planners can now make faster, well-informed decisions about the potential impacts of new developments on the city’s distinctive character and skyline.  “Having this tool allows planners to understand proposals better,” explains Dunn.  “Planning proposals can therefore be approved faster, allowing construction to start sooner and developers to realise their commercial goals more quickly.”

Improved transparency and engagement
Planners can use the Nottingham City Digital Twin in meetings with developers to improve the transparency of the planning process and support interactive discussions about any modifications that need to be made to plans.  In addition, the digital twin can be used by members of planning committees to make complex information clearer and improve understanding of the impacts of new developments.  “The next logical step is to make the Nottingham City Digital Twin publicly accessible, to improve transparency with everyone, which is what we are planning to do soon,” shares Dunn.

Greater ROI from ArcGIS and 2D data holdings
Dunn is justly proud of Nottingham City Council’s achievements and recognises that the development of the Nottingham City Digital Twin has significantly increased the return on investment that the council gains from ArcGIS licenses and staff training.  The digital twin has given the council an exciting new platform, based on familiar technology, that can be used as the foundation for other value-adding planning tools in the future.  “We are proud to be leveraging our investment in Esri technology and maximising the value of our existing 2D data in a 3D environment to modernise the planning process and increase user engagement,” Dunn concludes.

Jurassic Fibre was founded in 2018 with the aim of bringing full fibre, ultrafast broadband to digitally-deprived areas of South West England.  As a brand new, start-up business, it needed a complete suite of solutions that could be deployed quickly to support end-to-end business processes, from network planning and design to construction and sales.  Esri’s ArcGIS system met this requirement perfectly, providing out-of-the-box applications and tools that could be easily configured to support the new company’s preferred ways of working across all business teams.

Jurassic Fibre selected ArcGIS Enterprise and deployed this foundational software in the cloud on the Microsoft Azure platform.  It then steadily rolled out a succession of ArcGIS solutions to support all of the company’s 460 employees, across every team and business function.  There are also 30 ‘super users’ in GIS, IT and planning teams who manipulate geospatial data and use the ArcGIS system intensively.

When Jurassic Fibre identifies a new target area for the roll-out of ultrafast broadband, existing address and telecoms infrastructure data is loaded into the ArcGIS Enterprise database to give the company’s surveyors a starting point.  The surveyors then use the ArcGIS Field Maps app on mobile devices to view this information in the field, collect additional information and mark potential broadband network routes on maps.  All of this information is fed directly into ArcGIS Enterprise creating a rich digital twin of Jurassic Fibre’s existing and planned telecoms network.

Back in the office, designers use the ArcGIS digital twin to inform their network designs; planners view the digital twin to organise construction; and the construction team views the same digital twin on mobile devices during the build phase to manage activities on site.  All departments within Jurassic Fibre have discrete mapping apps, giving them precisely the functionality they need, as well as their own ArcGIS Dashboards allowing them to track their progress against targets.

Jurassic Fibre particularly appreciates the ease at which geospatial data can be shared with different groups of users, in real time, and transferred seamlessly between its many ArcGIS apps, dashboards and solutions. “ArcGIS offers that complete package of field, mobile, desktop and online apps and displays,” says Gemma Malone, GIS Data Quality Assurance Manager at Jurassic Fibre.  “Pretty much every part of the business uses ArcGIS to some extent, whether this is updating maps, collecting data, creating designs or monitoring progress on dashboards.”

A single version of the truth
The primary benefit of ArcGIS is that it enables Jurassic Fibre to provide all employees with one trusted source of live data.  Everyone can see the current situation, on any device, which is particularly beneficial downstream during the build phase.  “For us, ArcGIS is a critical system of engagement that enables us to ensure that a single version of the truth is transferred and communicated to all teams, at once,” says Arindam Basu, Head of GIS and Inventory at Jurassic Fibre.

Effective internal communication and collaboration
As all teams are working from the same digital twin, they can communicate and collaborate highly effectively – whether they are installing fibre networks in rural Dorset, managing sales at the head office in Exeter or working in the technical team in Jamaica.  “In an industry in which things change on a daily basis, having live maps and dashboards enables all employees to understand, monitor and communicate what is going on in the network,” Basu says.  “ArcGIS is the heart of the whole business.”

20x faster business workflows
Jurassic Fibre has recently used ArcGIS to create a new mobile process, enabling surveyors and other employees working in the field to verify the ‘as-built’ infrastructure from their mobile devices, by just clicking on assets on digital maps on their mobile devices.  Any assets that are not shown correctly can be flagged and records updated quickly.  “The as-built verification process is at least 20 times faster than before,” explains Kimani Williams, Senior GIS Map Developer at Jurassic Fibre, “plus we are capturing much more data through this approach, which is enabling us to improve the accuracy of our digital twin.”

High quality service for customers
Using its ArcGIS mobile and web-based solutions to capture and edit data on a daily basis, Jurassic Fibre is now constantly improving the quality and accuracy of its digital twin.  This is important because the more accurate the digital twin becomes, the less likely it is that unexpected issues will be encountered at the installation phase.  Consequently, the company can avoid unnecessary delays in customer installations and  provide a high quality service for customers.

Rapid roll-out of broadband network
The single version of the truth, the improved collaboration and the streamlined processes, that have all been achieved with ArcGIS, help Jurassic Fibre to accelerate the delivery of ultrafast broadband and optimise revenues.  “ArcGIS definitely helps us to roll out our fibre network at a faster pace than we would be able to do otherwise,” Malone says.  “ArcGIS also helps us to more accurately calculate build costs and understand business opportunities that exist within our expanding network.”

Ramblers Scotland is a walkers’ charity that works to protect and promote access rights and inspire people to spend time walking for pleasure.  It recognises that walking is a very powerful activity that can improve health and wellbeing, as well as create wonderful memories for families and friends to share.

One of the charity’s key missions is to make information about Scotland’s paths easily available to everyone.  However, there wasn’t a single, unified source of data about Scotland’s entire path network.  Luke Phillips, Project Manager at Ramblers Scotland, explains, “There are lots of places where you can walk in Scotland, but there were not necessarily the resources available to show people where they could actually go.”

Setting out to address this challenge, Ramblers Scotland first used Esri’s ArcGIS software to bring together a wide range of datasets about Scotland’s paths, from multiple sources.  Very soon, a comprehensive picture of all the trails in Scotland began to emerge, from remote mountain passes to pushchair- and wheelchair-accessible paths in town and city centres.

Then, using ArcGIS Hub Premium, Ramblers Scotland set up a community hub that would allow volunteers and community groups to submit local knowledge about paths, walk along local routes, gather data about the condition of paths and upload this information.  The charity has over 250 volunteers from the Shetland Islands to Dumfriesshire. Using out-of-the-box functionality and templates, it was able to create a straightforward process for submitting data and images, that was very simple for volunteers of all ages and backgrounds to use and easy to scale up in the future.

The initial test run of ArcGIS Hub Premium took place in the west of Scotland, using path data amalgamated from around twelve different sources.  This trial enabled the project team to see what the new ArcGIS-based paths map would look like and understand the role that volunteers could play in auditing paths.  “The results were amazing,” says Danny Carden, Communications Manager at Ramblers Scotland.  “We couldn’t believe how many hidden trails suddenly emerged from the data.  The test gave us confidence to go further across the nation.”

A single paths map for Scotland
Powered by ArcGIS, the Scottish Paths Map is now live on the Ramblers Scotland website, enabling anyone to zoom into a specific area and find new trails to explore.  The Scottish Paths Map currently shows around 40,000 miles of paths including many that are not shown on Ordnance Survey maps.  In the first month alone, the Scottish Paths Map attracted in excess of 30,000 visitors, demonstrating just how valuable a resource this is for people living in and visiting Scotland.  “This is the best ever map of Scotland’s trails, and it’s only going to get better as we expand and refine the data in the years to come,” says Carden.

New paths revealed for people to enjoy
By using ArcGIS to combine all known data sets about paths, from many different sources, Ramblers Scotland discovered hundreds of miles of paths that it had not previously been aware of.  “So far, the data has revealed tens of thousands of miles of paths and we’ve gathered possibly two to three thousand additional miles through volunteer participation,” says Phillips.  “I’m really proud to have worked on this project, because we’ve taken an idea and built it into something that’s really big and growing that will benefit the whole country, helping people get outdoors and be more active.”

Routes easily audited by volunteers
The community hub created using ArcGIS Hub Premium is very easy for people to use, without training or technical knowledge.  Consequently, almost everyone who enjoys walking can get involved in auditing trails and use ArcGIS to collect high quality data that Ramblers Scotland can then refine and share.  “We wanted to share Scotland’s path network with more people, and the best way to do that was to create an inclusive tool that our volunteers could populate themselves,” says Carden.  “Using ArcGIS Hub Premium, we have been able to create a really easy-to-use and straightforward tool for volunteers.”

Positive engagement with communities
Since implementing ArcGIS Hub Premium, Ramblers Scotland has successfully audited 8,600 paths, covering many thousands of miles.  “The numbers are really impressive, but what’s really encouraging for us is how we’ve inspired communities to start recording their path networks, and auditing and sharing them with others, so more people right across Scotland can get active on foot,” Carden says.  “Our whole purpose is to link communities, so the idea that we are getting volunteers out on the ground through ArcGIS to make that happen is hugely encouraging.”

There are over 11,600 community pharmacies in England, and around 1.6 million people visit a pharmacy every day for healthcare advice, medications, and healthcare services like vaccinations*.  The Department of Health and Social Care aims to ensure that everyone throughout England has access to a pharmacy near where they live, work or shop.  To support this aim, it provides financial support for pharmacies in more remote locations that may be less viable as businesses but that are nonetheless incredibly valuable to the communities they serve.

The Department of Health and Social Care wanted to know the distance between each pharmacy and the closest five other pharmacies, so that it could use this information as part of its funding criteria. It approached NHS South, Central and West (SCW) and asked it to analyse data to help determine which pharmacies would be eligible for support through the Pharmacy Access Scheme (known as PhAS).  Whilst the department’s initial request was for a spreadsheet showing the results of this analysis, SCW proposed a more innovative approach that far exceeded the department’s expectations.

* PSNC 2022

SCW’s big idea was to develop an end-to-end solution to support the entire PhAS process using Esri’s ArcGIS suite of products.  It worked closely with a large number of stakeholders to deliver this solution, including the Department of Health and Social Care, 13 regional teams at NHS England, as well as the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee, representing community pharmacies.

Initially, SCW was able to geocode the locations of all 11,600 pharmacies in England and created an accurate pharmacy dataset using Esri’s ArcGIS Pro.  It then used the network analysis capabilities of ArcGIS Pro together with Ordnance Survey’s highways network data to calculate walking distances from each pharmacy to the five closest pharmacies.

SCW next built an interactive web portal, using ArcGIS Hub, to enable all stakeholders, including the individual pharmacy owners, to see the results of the analysis.  With NHS branding and links to supplementary information about PhAS, the ArcGIS Hub site includes an embedded ArcGIS Online web app enabling users to zoom into any pharmacy and see the walking route calculated to other nearby pharmacies.

Recognising that some pharmacies may want the decisions made to be reviewed, SCW subsequently built an online form using ArcGIS Survey123 that is easily accessible from the ArcGIS Hub site.  Now, if pharmacies spot a problem, such as a walking route that has been plotted via unsafe steps or unlit pathways, they can use this online form to upload information and evidence.

Finally, SCW built an Esri Dashboard using ArcGIS Enterprise, called the Reviewer Dashboard, which enables regional teams within NHS England to review details relating to decisions made.  This dashboard draws in information from the ArcGIS Survey123 forms and provides easy access to all the information that reviewers need to make a balanced judgement.  “What Esri UK has enabled us to do is bring together a huge range of technical solutions in one easy-to-use final product,” says Clare Scarborough, Principal Geospatial Analyst at SCW.

A complete, end-to-end process to support the PhAS funding scheme
SCW’s solution is a single, end-to-end process for allocating funding to community pharmacies through PhAS providing a far greater level of information than a simple spreadsheet of distances.  Developed in collaboration with all key stakeholders, the solution met the desired requirements – from identifying eligible pharmacies to handling reviews.  Justly proud of his team’s achievements, Cliff Mwando, Geospatial Technical Manager at SCW, commented, “The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee signed the project off as the best they had seen so far in terms of PhAS work.”

Targeted allocation of funding to relieve health inequalities
The use of ArcGIS Pro for analysis ensured that all funding decisions were objective, based on evidence and a consistently-applied policy.  As a result, the Department of Health and Social Care could be confident that its budget was being targeted at the right pharmacies to maintain equitable access to pharmacists and reduce health inequalities.  The department could better understand walking distances between pharmacies, helping it to ensure that 89% of the population has access to a community pharmacy within a 20-minute walking distance.

Greater transparency about how decisions were made
ArcGIS Hub significantly improved the transparency of PhAS, by enabling all stakeholders and each individual pharmacy owner to see the walking routes calculated.  The Reviewer Dashboard also provided an accurate record of which pharmacies asked for reviews, what decisions were made and why.  Both solutions enable users to view and interrogate the data, helping them to better understand the decision making process.

A more structured and efficient review process
By incorporating the review process into the end-to-end solution, SCW has provided stakeholders with an effective way to engage with pharmacies and respond to queries on a case-by-case basis.  “The SCW team has enabled us to deliver a robust and transparent review process for community pharmacy contractors; and the portal has delivered a streamlined and largely automated process,” says Stephen Riley, Senior Policy Lead at NHS England.  “Overall, this led to an efficient process and contributed to consistent decision making, supporting appropriate access to the Pharmacy Access Scheme.”

Carter Jonas manages large portfolios of commercial, residential and rural property on behalf of its clients, many of which have hundreds of individual properties all around the country.  As part of these property management contracts, the organisation carries out more than 5,000 property inspections per year, including condition and hazard inspections for tenanted homes.

Historically, all these inspections were completed using paper-based forms.  It then took asset managers up to six hours to type up the survey data when they got back to the office and attach pictures to their reports.  This manual process was not only time-consuming, but also resulted in inconsistent approaches across different teams in the UK and, as data wasn’t centralised, it could not be easily analysed to identify common issues across large property portfolios.

Carter Jonas had recently migrated to the ArcGIS Enterprise system, hosted on Azure in UK-based datacentres, after using ArcGIS desktop applications for several years.  When a new team was established at Carter Jonas with the specific remit to advance the use of digital property management solutions within the business, a plan emerged to harness the capabilities of ArcGIS to build a new, fully integrated, end-to-end digital solution for property inspections.

Now in use across Carter Jonas’ 34 offices nationwide, the new solution has replaced paper-based forms with a series of digital surveys, built with ArcGIS Survey123 and ArcGIS Field Maps.  Asset managers capture inspection information on their smartphones while at client properties and attach pictures.  All the inspection data is uploaded directly to a centralised ArcGIS database, where it is combined with data from the company’s property management system, as well as contextual geospatial data from the Esri Living Atlas of the World and Esri UK Premium Data Services.

When back at their desks, asset managers then use a web app known as Survey Manager to view and edit the inspection data. Built using the ArcGIS Maps SDK for JavaScript, Survey Manager allows asset managers to explore large property portfolios on a mapping interface, click on individual properties to view inspection data in a familiar template format and simply tap a button to export pdf reports.

As an extension to this core process, Carter Jonas has also built a number of ArcGIS Dashboards and web apps that give asset managers a high level oversight of the progress of inspections and any issues highlighted across large property portfolios.  The integration of property management and inspection data enables asset managers to analyse inspection findings, monitor rent arrears and access documentation, such as gas safety certificates, all from one screen.  In the future, the organisation plans to further integrate its inspection data with data from indoor positioning systems, drones and remote sensors, creating digital twins that will help it manage properties throughout their lifetime.

25,000 hours saved annually
Using the new digital inspection process developed with ArcGIS Enterprise, Carter Jonas can now produce inspection reports in 45 minutes, rather than 4-6 hours.  It is consequently saving around 5 hours per report, which equates to 25,000 hours of staff time per year or 12 full-time positions, based on the average figure of 5,000 annual inspections.  “The time savings that we are achieving are freeing us up to spend more time interacting with tenants and delivering an improved level of service for our clients,” says Simon Nigh, Head of Geospatial Services at Carter Jonas.

More cost-efficient property maintenance
Using the Survey Manager portal and ArcGIS Dashboards, asset managers can now easily identify similar issues across multiple properties and help their clients to reduce maintenance costs.  For example, asset managers would be able to see if twenty properties nationwide have faults with doors, enabling the client to order twenty new doors and take advantage of bulk purchase discounts.  “Because all our inspection data is stored in one place, in the same format, for the first time, we can query it more easily,” Nigh explains.  “Our new ArcGIS inspection process gives us a better understanding of issues across large property portfolios, enabling us to provide more valuable information to our clients.”

Reduced carbon emissions due to standardised process
As all inspections, for all clients, across all regions of the UK, are now conducted using the same, consistent digital process, asset managers can inspect any property, not just the properties within a specific portfolio.  Carter Jonas is, therefore, beginning to allocate inspection jobs to the asset managers that live closest, significantly reducing journey times, cutting carbon emissions and supporting the company’s desire to operate more sustainably.

Improved data security and data currency
Carter Jonas no longer holds client data relating to inspections on a plethora of paper forms, which reduces data security risks.  Furthermore, its new end-to-end ArcGIS process also ensures that up-to-the-minute inspection data is captured centrally in near real-time, without the delays associated with typing in information manually.  “Data security and data currency are key considerations for clients,” Nigh says.  “We now have a very secure way of collecting and handling inspection data and have confidence that the data in our system is absolutely up-to-date.”

Access to data of the right quality and at the right time, in a format that is trusted by all parties, is increasingly recognised as a critical enabler of digital transformation across the construction sector. How can we use data to break the silos, enhance cross-organisational collaboration and transform the customer experience, while playing a central role in the shift towards a low-carbon economy? All the while adhering to a high level of ethics and the most rigorous application of the best health and safety processes and procedures to ensure best quality during the construction and operation of built assets, from project delivery to beyond.

Skanska UK, one of the world’s largest construction companies, has always taken great pride in integrating construction intelligence with innovative technologies. A leader in the GIS space, Skanska believes that adoption of geospatial technologies is vital in accelerating decision-making, while underpinning collaboration and process improvements, even more notable in an industry often seen as resistant to change.

Integration with BIM aims to improve cross-disciplinary collaboration throughout the entire project cycle, from the tender stage and planning and design, pre-construction and construction, through to project handover and O&M. As each stage has its own challenges, Skanska UK is implementing a holistic digital strategy to improve decision making by providing accessible and trusted information to all project stakeholders through geospatial digital twins.

Skanska UK is integrating Esri GIS technology (ArcGIS Enterprise) and BIM outputs to develop a smart, agnostic, cloud-based, geospatial twin, by connecting multiple Common Data Environments (CDEs) and workflows.  The entire ArcGIS Enterprise stack is used including dynamic apps which support the visualisation of geospatial Digital Twins, 3D virtual representations of built – and natural – environments.

By following a geospatial approach different types of data and systems are connected to create a single view that can be accessed throughout the entire project life cycle.  Data capture and integration is enhanced, improving real-time visualisations providing advanced analysis and automation of future predictions.  The system fully supports   information and collaboration both internally and externally, across multiple organisations, breaking down barriers and empowering cross disciplinary collaboration and decision making.

George Floros, Head of GIS highlights: “Digital technologies are here to empower the construction teams. The adoption of GIS has been a team effort and result of a collaborative and inclusive approach between project delivery, technical and commercial teams.”

Integrating GIS and BIM is revolutionising the different stages of the project lifecycle.  At the tender stage, for example, ArcGIS Enterprise is used to consume numerous data formats and make the information accessible across entire teams. ArcGIS Story Maps is used to communicate plans with local communities, inviting input through interactive engagement tools.

At the outset of any project, Construction Design Management (CDM) hazards are captured within ArcGIS Online enabling numerous stakeholders to collaborate over the identified hazards.  The design team can raise a CDM hazard which is reviewed by the designer and contractor before being handed over to the construction and, eventually, Operations & Maintenance (O&M) teams.   The construction team incorporates CDM hazards into site briefings and, at the project end, CDM hazards can be closed out before the final hand-over to O&M.

During construction, GIS is used to track and report construction progress, by integrating with BIM and quality information.  This connected, geospatial ecosystem streamlines collaboration between operations, quality, planning and project management teams.   Georeferenced field construction data and reality capture information such as point clouds and meshes, are automatically uploaded on dedicated project GIS web applications, boosting productivity, empowering engagement and accelerating decision-making.

Time Savings
Accessible, up-to-date information, automated digital workflows and the removal of silo working due to connected systems have led to times savings up to 40% during the project lifecycle.  Working with virtual representations of multiple components supports proactive asset management, freeing up resources to work on other aspects of any given project.

Cost savings
Entire project lifecycles are enjoying improved digital productivity and saving millions through data and systems integration, as well as enabling a streamlined, more efficient, digital way of working.  Time and money are saved from the team’s ability to iteratively model changes, test how components or systems function and troubleshoot malfunctions, inexpensively, in a virtual world.

Enhanced Health, Safety & Quality
Health and Safety hazards are captured within the 3D GIS-BIM portal, flagging up early hazard detection enabling a more collaborative, standardised approach among stakeholders. Multiple parties can focus on proactive rather than reactive construction hazard strategies.   Learnings are consistently shared as identified hazards are handed over to the construction stage and then to the handover stage, creating additional efficiencies from collecting the information once and using it multiple times.

Accelerated Project Delivery Through Collaboration
Automated geocentric digital processes using GIS to connect data, disciplines and people are helping to release significant business benefits and expedite the construction process. Simon Lawn, Construction Manager explains: “Anyone who uses the platform will immediately understand the huge potential that is being unlocked. These are exciting times with the platform having the potential to bring together design, construction, temporary works, utilities, stakeholder, customer, commercial, planning and others into one arena.”

The geology and scale of works are among the enormous geotechnical and engineering challenges faced daily by construction partners working on the HS2 project. Align JV, a joint venture formed of Bouygues Travaux Publics, Sir Robert McAlpine and VolkerFitzpatrick, is charged with the delivery of the complex Central 1 section of HS2 Phase One, in a rural environment. This section includes the Colne Valley Viaduct at 3.37km long, what will become the longest railway bridge in the UK; a 16km twin-bored tunnel, the longest tunnel in HS2 Phase One sector and five vertical shafts to provide necessary ventilation and emergency access.

The viaduct alone requires 1,000 unique concrete segments, each up to 140 tonnes in weight, which will form the deck of the viaduct and over 100,000 precision-engineered 8.5 tonne concrete segments are required to build the concrete rings that line the tunnels. Managing the impact of this significant construction programme necessitates minimal disruption to residents and businesses, reducing the impact on the road and transport network, minimal impact on the environment while keeping communities informed at every stage.

To deliver on all this, while liaising with numerous other partners and the supply chain, it was vital for Align JV to have optimal situational awareness of the entire works.  Being able to track the progress of multiple elements of the project at any one time would help not only to reassure local communities and ensure that the structures are being built and operated to the highest safety standards, but also adhere to the Government’s Code of Construction Practice and Considerate Constructors Scheme.

The AEC sector has, for many years, been using Esri GIS (Geographic Information System) solutions to improve workflows, bringing context to projects and enhance collaboration throughout project lifecycles.  More recently construction companies have broken away from old-school engineering practices to find new, innovative ways of tracking progress and providing vital information to stakeholders.

Align JV’s GIS team had first-hand knowledge from working on previous projects as to how GIS and, specifically, integrating GIS with BIM data, could provide best in class situational awareness tools.  Dashboards had not previously been used and were seen as vital to better understand the progress of surface works in this mammoth operation. Initially a number of mock dashboards were created using out-of-the-box apps (ArcGIS Web AppBuilder and ArcGIS Dashboards) in ArcGIS Enterprise, which were shared amongst technical and non-technical colleagues across the organisation.  By integrating the ArcGIS stack using ETL tools, data is harvested from various systems and pushed into ArcGIS Enterprise in order to visualise it, helping personnel to understand events as they happen and make more informed decisions.  Positive feedback enabled the GIS team to finalise the workflows required to set up a number of dashboards, tailored to different audiences.

Thirteen dashboards and two apps now give access to real-time project data, all in an easy-to-read format.   The main boardroom conference screen features a dashboard presenting the data required for senior executives to track KPIs and make strategic decisions based on project goals. Examples of construction dashboards include viaduct pier and pile progress, jetty construction progress, segment and deck progress, tunnel cross passage progress, headwall installation and barrette installation progress.

This unprecedented situational awareness of the operational status of and construction components is not only helping with project efficiencies but driving a step-change in industry standards for health and safety performance.

Data-driven Decision Making
Complete situational awareness and the status of different construction elements across the project enables both senior management and operational teams to make assessments on progress, and deviations from KPIs can be flagged immediately.  This access to exponentially more information helps teams act on information in near real-time and supports increased accountability across project teams.

Enhanced Collaboration
13 dashboards (and applications) have been created helping Align JV quickly collaborate with numerous internal and external stakeholders. For example, working with the viaduct segment factory and girder launching teams, enabling teams to track the whole lifecycle of segments from the factory to the storing yard, and to the launching girder.

Effective GIS & BIM Integration
Bringing together the most up-to-date CAD design models alongside production and planning trackers into GIS datasets and into dashboards, allows a much wider audience near real-time access to information. A digital twin model of the development of the viaduct and tunnel construction assets is represented in near real-time is a game-changer and set to be vital tool for future joint ventures.

Management Time Savings
The implementation of dashboard tools has resulted in substantial gains at the highest levels of management and decision-making. Considerable time is being saved by management from the replacement of former industry-standard and cumbersome trackers, with easy-to-understand and data-driven GIS solutions to support near real-time decision-making.  The new dashboards also negate the need for Align JV to invest in other costly, digital solutions.

Maps have been front and centre at Lancashire County Council for more than twenty years, ever since the launch of Mario.  When it was built in 2001 using Esri ArcGIS software, Mario (Maps and Related Information Online) was a ground-breaking geographic information system (GIS) portal enabling the council to share geospatial data on interactive maps.  An instant success, Mario was visited in excess of five million times in the two decades that followed, delivering 800 million views of Lancashire maps.

A consultation conducted in 2021 revealed just how much Mario was much appreciated by the many public sector employees, volunteer organisations, small businesses and individuals who referred to it regularly.  Users were, however, keen to have more features, including the ability to access Mario on smartphones, download data and view real-time information.  In response, Lancashire County Council decided to harness the latest capabilities of ArcGIS Online to upgrade Mario, meet users’ expectations and help it become even more data driven, in line with its new Digital First Strategy.

Mario was redeveloped in-house by the council, using out-of-the-box ArcGIS solutions and templates to minimise bespoke development work and coding.  Now, Mario users can view maps on their smartphones and tablets, access live information and stream accurate data directly from Mario into their own systems.

The next-generation Mario still has the same comprehensive online map viewer as before, but also presents the content in ‘themes’ for the first time, making it much easier for people to find the information they need.  For example, there are specific maps for finding out when roadworks are scheduled, which is the nearest school and where the mobile library will stop.  “We thought about which questions people might have, what data they might need to see to answer these questions and how we might best present it,” explains Maria Adamson, Senior ICT Engineer/Designer (GIS) at Lancashire County Council.

The council has taken full advantage of all the capabilities of ArcGIS Online to create new content for Mario in a variety of formats.  Many of its new themed web apps were created with ArcGIS Experience Builder or Instant App templates, while others were built with ArcGIS Dashboards, including a new dashboard showing the number of collisions involving pedestrians or cyclists by year on a map, graph and pie chart.  “The ArcGIS system gives us the capability to build much of what we need in one space, thus enabling us to respond more rapidly to the needs of our customers,” Adamson says.

Increasingly, Lancashire County Council is now also using the full suite of ArcGIS solutions to help it build end-to-end processes.  For instance, it used ArcGIS Survey123 to capture information from the public during a walking and cycling consultation and presented the results in an interactive mapping app, created with ArcGIS Web AppBuilder and shared via Mario.  The development of innovative new solutions like this earned the GIS team the well-deserved accolade of ‘Lancashire County Council Team of the Year 2022’.

Easier access to local information
The redevelopment of Mario has undoubtedly made it easier for members of the public and businesses to find and use local information.  In addition, as Mario can now be accessed on smart phones and tablets, it is easier for council employees and public officials to find the information they need and respond to enquiries from their constituents confidently, straight away.

Rapid delivery of new public services
Using the latest capabilities of ArcGIS Online, Lancashire County Council has the capability to respond to crises and deliver new public services exceptionally quickly.  For instance, it took only one week to build an ArcGIS-based workflow to process applications from organisations able to provide warm spaces for vulnerable people.  Over 60 organisations successfully used an ArcGIS Survey123 app to register, and urgently-needed, up-to-date information about warm spaces was made accessible on the council website within just a few weeks.

More efficient, streamlined council processes
Through the process of enhancing Mario, the ICT has successfully raised awareness of GIS and stimulated demand for more GIS services to help streamline council processes.  As a result, a range of new ArcGIS-based solutions are currently in development including a highways maintenance dashboard.  “The use of GIS is growing exponentially now,” Adamson says.  “Using the whole ArcGIS Online toolset we have the ability to improve the accessibility of data, transform council services and ultimately better serve the people of Lancashire, which is what we are here to do.”

Strong endorsement of Digital First Strategy
The success of Mario is a strong endorsement for the council’s Digital First Strategy, which aims to make the council more data driven and drive the use of innovative technologies to benefit Lancashire.  According to Sharon De Vall, Digital Strategy Manager at Lancashire County Council, “Mario is a great example of how the council is continually striving to offer ‘digital first’ solutions, putting citizens and staff at the heart of innovation and ensuring sustainable digital services fit for the future.”