It’s about language and ambiguity - gis-professional.com · Stop the navel-gazing about language! ... Great to see how this new industry is developing. ... h eUK a ndE u ro p im

GEO Business: attendance up at busy show

Precision flood modelling helps insurers

Location data for perils management

Stop the navel-gazing about language!

Esri UC 2015: applying geography everywhere

Geospatial convergence: BIM and GIS

Adena Schutzberg: tolerating ambiguity

Getting parishes online: Getmapping’s answer

News | People | Products & Services | GiSPro’s columnists

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read on. . .

Front cover: Web apps and 3Dglobal mapping are changing GIS,as Adam P Spring discovered at

Esri’s UC 2015. To read more turnto page 20.

Next Issue: OCTOBER 2015Copy dates Editorial: 07 September

Advertising: 24 September

p.05 Editorialp.06 News & Peoplep.29 GiSPro Products & Services

p.30 GIS Calendar p.31 GiSPro Classified

> GISPro’s STANDFASTS

> GISPro’s COLUMNS

p.09 Adena Schutzberg – Tolerating ambiguity in geospatial

p.23 AGI Column – Busy autumn ahead. Can you help?

to subscribe to GiSPro, go towww.pvpubs.com/GISProfessional/Home

contentsIssue No 65 August 2015

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GEO Business 2015: attendance up at bustling showA busy two days found your reporters struggling to cover everything atthe industry’s annual show. We think we’ve focused on the most relevant.

Precision flood modellingModelling water flows is now a vital tool in understanding flood riskand mitigating risk in flood-prone Britain. Paul Drury explains.

Stop the navel-gazing about language!In a welcome return to these pages industry veteran Chris Holcroftargues that it’s the communication that we have to get right.

Geospatial convergence: BIM & GISA recent presentation by Steven Eglinton, who takes a distinctive view aboutBIM, sparked much debate. Are BIM and GIS two sides of the same coin?

Esri User Conference: applying geography everywhereMobile sensing in all shapes and sizes was centre stage reports Adam PSpring, along with crowd-sourced mapping and spatial information systems.

INSPIRE conference attracts 1700In his last Eurofile, Robin Waters reports on the recent INSPIRE conferencein Lisbon where delegates also joined the Geospatial World Forum.

Perils insurers chart course to location dataMillions of households in the UK are potentially at risk from flooding.To help insurers assess the risk emapsite offers a range of products.

Online GIS and a perfect storm for local governmentChris Mewse says it’s all about perfect storms arriving for collaborativeGIS online to help parish councils and lower levels of local government.

p. 24

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Visitors all were amazed how good the exhibits were, while the exhibitors were pleased with the quality of visitorsFarmer and precision farming consultant, Paviland Manor

Great to see how this new industry is developing. Very useful information whatever ones area of workDirector, Universal Sky Pictures

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GIS is all about communicationAs an editor and publisher working in the technology sector I am often unsure of exactly what our edi-torial schedule is going to be for any particular issue. Whilst we don’t quite make it up as we go alongand we do plan, we also adapt quickly to ever-changing circumstances. Articles promised often comein late or just fail to materialise. others we feel are too much of a commercial pitch from PR compa-nies whose clients won’t even discuss sponsorship or advertising. Others are more suited for learnedpeer reviewed journals.

This issue of GiSPro only germinated a week or two before going to press, yet it has two very clearthemes which we can summarise as the language GIS and how GIS can help allay flooding. Eight yearsago in 2007 floods generated over £3bn of claims. 2012 was the wettest summer in the UK in a cen-tury and as I write the incessant rain is aiming to beat that record. Paul Drury of Ambiental explainshow the emergence of precision flood models can provide insight into the spatial pattern of flood risk,while Simon Goodwin of emapsite introduces an extensive range of geospatial products that coverthe UK and Europe aimed at the flood risk managers. They include those from partners JBA RiskManagement as well as products like Bluesky’s tree cover mapping and are aimed at flood risk insur-ers as well as commercial property planners.

Now let’s turn to the fascinating topic of language – how we describe applications of GIS; how welabel GIS software features and menus; and how we relay these things to end users and clients. Atfirst sight wording may seem trivial but there are too many examples of how we may think we haveused clear unambiguous words but which others interpret differently to ourselves. There is ambiguity.They range from the apocryphal world war one message, ‘Send more troops we’re going to advance’and interpreted as ‘send two and fourpence we’re going to a dance’, to words that all native Englishspeakers on this side of the Atlantic will use with care and in the right context, words like mistress,rubber and intercourse.

Adena Schutzberg in her column (page 9) talks about tolerating ambiguity and the ability of peopleto ‘just figure it out’. Just ponder on that wonderfully tortuous alliteration that came from DonaldRumsfeld: ‘There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are knownunknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknownunknowns. There are things we don’t know we don’t know.’ It boils down to ambiguity. And that leadsus to a topic with lots of ambiguity.

Described by some as a ‘GIS for building’, BIM is a significant development for GIS and for geospatial.GIS and BIM may be different sides of the same coin but a common language is still needed, arguesSteven Eglinton (page 19), if the various professionals engaged in a BIM project are to be success-ful. They each need to be sure that what may seem simple terms like “polygon” mean exactly thesame to all whether architect, surveyor, engineer or a CAD technician. We need standards for wordsas much as we do for interfaces and file formats.

Complex language however is inevitable in any profession or specialism argues Chris Holcroft (page18) and we should accept it for what it is while making sure that those outside the circle understandwhat we mean. Effective communication with others is our responsibility.

Fortunately for most of us there are colleagues who we can discuss these “known and unknown” ambi-guities with before we communicate them to others. Indeed the best advice I was ever given as an edi-tor was, there is rarely a piece of writing that cannot be improved upon by sharing it with someone else.So please, share this issue of GiSPro with a colleague or friend – we need more readers!

Stephen Booth, Editor

welcometo the August 2015 issue of GIS Professional. . .

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. . . GIS and BIMmay be

different sidesof the same coinbut a common

language is stillneeded. . .

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joining the geography jigsaw

from the editorIssue No 65 August 2015

enable all of OSi’s map productsand services to be generatedand updated with minimalhuman intervention. At present,it takes employees aconsiderable amount of time tomanually make amendments,and many processes areunnecessarily duplicated in theproduction of maps. When thenew solution is live, OSi expectsto be able to operate with areduced headcount followingthe approaching retirement ofseveral members of staff.

The automated cartographicprocesses to be developed willbe the most wide-ranging oftheir kind, anywhere in theworld. OSi will become the firstnational mapping organisationable to start with large-scaletopographic level data at1:1,000 scale (showingbuildings, boundaries and otherfeatures) and use this singlesource of data to derive allproducts at multiple scales from1:1,000 large scale urban mapsand 1:5,000 rural maps rightthe way down to the smallestmap scales.

Exemplar updateFollowing last issue’s report onthe GeoPlace annualconference and awards (GiSProJune 2015, p20), we can reportthat the winner of the LocalDigital Award wasNorthumberland CountyCouncil for its delivery of astreamlined digital solution forthe public to report issues tothe council. The system links anumber of council data sourcessuch as street lighting, recyclingpoints and potholes. The data isintegrated with other back-office systems, using the mastercouncil address system as thesource to link data together.94% of streetlight faults and95% of potholes were loggedthrough the new system in firstsix months.

Also honoured were GlennDobson, team manager business


Winners in San DiegoThe annual Esri user conferencein San Diego (see page 20 forfull report) was the venue for anumber of significant awards.From 400 entries the city ofBoston won the storytellingwith maps contest. Joyce John’sSnow Journal story mapincorporated data-rich maps,videos, photos and text to craftan engaging story of how thecity dealt with historic amountsof snow earlier this year.

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Meanwhile, Irish Water wona special Enterprise Award forits achievements in GIS. IrishWater is the new national waterutility responsible for providingand developing water servicesthroughout the Republic tobring water and wastewaterservices of its 31 localauthorities together under onenational service provider. To doso, the utility consolidated itsoperations onto a single GISplatform using ArcGIS.

Membership upgradeOrdnance Survey has raised itsOpen Geospatial Consortiummembership level to becomethe first strategic memberoutside of the USA, joining theUS Department of Homeland

Security, US Geological Survey,US National GeospatialIntelligence Agency and NASAas strategic members. The movewill allow OS to representEurope, at a strategic level, toimprove the quality of standardsglobally in areas like SmartCities, BIM (BuildingInformation Models) and theInternet of Things.

Neil Ackroyd, Acting OSCEO, added: “Open Standardsare a key part of achieving ourbusiness goals, but we alsounderstand that they are vital tothe industry as a whole. Weexpect the new level of strategicmembership to deliversignificant opportunities to OSand allow us to use our skillsand expertise to influence anddrive new standards. . . I amparticularly keen to see greaterinteroperability in the smartcities space.”

OSi opts for automationOrdnance Survey Ireland (OSi)has launched a ground-breakingcartographic automationproject aimed at transformingthe mapping organisation’sproduct and service production.To be delivered by Esri Ireland,the project is expected toenable OSi to realise significantannual cost savings, whileimproving delivery time andaccuracy of its printed, onlineand digital map products.

“This is the most importantadvancement in cartographicproduct automation in Irelandsince the introduction of digitalmaps over 30 years ago,” saidColin Bray, chief executive ofOSi. “By automating andstandardising the processesinvolved in creating all of ourdifferent map products, weexpect to make efficiencysavings from 2016 onwards.”

Under a four-year contractOSi will use Esri’s ArcGIStechnology to create aframework of automatedcartographic processes that will

Issue No 65 August 2015

news

An aerial map of trees is helping scientists to understand the damagecaused to drains and sewers by tree roots. Using Bluesky’s UK NationalTree Map, which details the location, height and canopy cover of morethan 280 million trees, scientists at Cranfield University are analysinghow the proximity of trees can affect sewers. Working with long termdata from Anglian Water, they considered the location ofinfrastructure assets such as pipes and manhole covers and theirproximity to trees, and compared this spatial information with recordsof maintenance jobs.

By using the tree map data for the whole of East Anglia, scientistswere able to show the likely zones of root intrusion, and the impactthese trees had on the number/frequency of sewer blockages and otherconsequences. Interestingly, the study revealed that bigger trees hadless impact than medium sized ones, and that foul sewer systems weremost prone to intrusion. The study concluded that sewers located neartrees are 1.4 times more likely to be intruded and are 1.8 times morelikely where there are three or more trees. Dr Timothy Farewell, seniorresearch fellow at the Cranfield Soil and Agrifood Institute, adds “treeroots are very good at exploiting weaknesses in sewer joints.

Tree map finds sewer threat

Correction: apologies to TimWhitomme, author of lastissue’s article Aerial Survey:bridging the gap. He isindeed a Tim and not a Tom!


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and information systemsoperations at Hull City Counciland Pauline Clifford, mapping &geographic information co-ordinator at Reigate & BansteadBorough Council. The pair werethe joint recipients of the PeerAward for 2015. Recipients arenominated by their colleaguesfor those who have made asignificant contribution to theaddress and/or streets datacommunity.

The Exemplar Awardsrecognise excellence in localauthority creation of addressdata known as a Local Land andProperty Gazetteer (LLPG) andStreet data, known as a LocalStreet Gazetteer (LSG). Thesegazetteers enable digitaltransformation by joininginformation together fromdifferent local authoritydepartments to give a propertyor street level view of servicedelivery.

Just 60 secs to actAn earthquake early warningapp is to be tested by USGeological Survey, CalTech andother university researchers.QuakeAlert is set to alert userswith a countdown to whenshaking will strike their exactlocation, telling the user howsevere the intensity is expectedin their location. The appsimultaneously delivers impor-tant safety instructions to theuser on how to respond ifindoors, outside or in a movingvehicle. QuakeAlert will beprovided to the public free ofcharge.

In some scenarios, such asthe one depicted in the newmovie San Andreas, warningscan be up to 60 seconds! Withan early warning, people couldtake cover, trains could stop andoil rigs can be shut down.

Developed by Early WarningLabs, of Santa Monica, CA, anofficial partner of the USGS,QuakeAlert utilizes USGS’sseismic sensor network data,

Esri GIS backend and theMicrosoft Azure cloud todeliver the earliest and mostaccurate earthquake earlywarnings.

Automated maps forproperty agentsAn automated map generationsystem developed byMapmechanics for propertyagent and valuer Christie & Cohas reduced a task thatpreviously took hours or evendays to minutes. When aChristie agent takes aninstruction on a new propertythe company produces a mapshowing the premises in relationto the surrounding area.Previously all 16 of thecompany’s UK offices sentrequests for maps to a singledesignated member of staff,who had to generate the mapmanually, then send it by emailto the person requesting it.Delays and backlogs could easilybuild up.

With the new system,agents simply enter details ofthe premises on their localcomputer and the request ispassed via the web to thecompany’s centralised Geo-concept GIS. Within 15 minutesthis sends back appropriatemaps automatically in threedifferent scales, allowing theagent to select the mostsuitable version for the propertyaccording to its location (urban,suburban or rural).

BRIEFS

This year’s Intergeo, 15-17September in Stutgart, has amajor focus on unmanned aerialsystems (UAS). An exhibitionarea and specialist forum in Hall8 will see companies such asDroneDeploy, SenseFly, Spectair,Sitebots and FlyTech UAV beshowcasing solutions along witha specialist forum presented bythe professional partner UAV

DACH e.V. (the German-languageAssociation for UnmannedAircraft Systems).

Taxi trip manager Uber haspurchased Microsoft’s dataacquisition assets for mappingincluding a data centre,cameras, intellectual propertyand roughly 100 personnel.Uber tracks the location ofdrivers and passengers and usesalgorithms to predict supply anddemand for travel, as well astravel times. The move willalmost certainly see Ubercapturing more of its ownmapping data.

Satellite imagery providerBlackBridge has announced thatits RapidEye suite is to beacquired by Planet Labs, aprovider of a dataset of satelliteimagery based in San Francisco,California that designs, builds,and operates a fleet of earthimaging satellites.

XYZ Maps has been selected byHewlett Packard to provide

There is more news of companies and organisations on our website at www.location-source.com To get your company featured on these pages call Sharon Robson on +44 (0)1438 352617


news

demonstration maps for theirplotters. XYZ’s Dr Tim Rideoutcommented: “It is a greatreflection on both XYZ Mapsand Scottish cartography thatout of all the hundreds of mapcompanies in the World, HPshould have come to us.”

Getmapping is reported to havewon a three-year contract to hostthe ‘All Wales Mapping ServicesFramework’ datasets. Theframework will provide a cloud-hosted base mapping servicecovering the whole of Wales,including a 2km buffer along theWelsh border with England. Itcan be accessed through desktopGIS, mobile or web mappingapplications. The service will beavailable to all PSMA members.Source: geospatialworld.net/News

Pitney Bowes has announced analliance to give their GeoInsightcustomers the opportunity tobenefit from iGeolise’sapplication TravelTime, whichuses satellite data to calculatethe possible locations reachable

Aerial photography and computer generated models of buildings andtrees from Bluesky are helping specialist graphics company 3D WebTechnologies (3DW) to create interactive 3D visualisations. The highlydetailed models have been used to support planning applications andconsultations for some of the UK’s largest infrastructure projects suchas wind and solar farms, power lines and power stations, as well ashousing and regeneration projects. “The Bluesky data helps us tobetter represent the real world environment or site to its true likeness,which in turn helps our clients communicate their plans moreeffectively and efficiently”, said Kangjie Zhao, of 3DW.

Bluesky aerial photography helps 3DW

such as civil engineering, urbanplanning, facilities managementand indoor location services.

The award memorialisesKenneth Gardels, a foundingdirector of OGC who coined theterm “Open GIS” and devotedhis life to the humane anddemocratic uses of geographicinformation systems. He died atthe age of 44 in 1999.

Headcount rises at BlueskyBluesky has completed asignificant recruitment pro-gramme, expanding itsLeicestershire based workforceby more than 20%. Keyappointments include DavidFindlay who joins as businessdevelopment manager withresponsibility for the insuranceand financial sectors, and TrevorBarnes who joins the team asproduction manager. Boostingresearch and development isChristopher Aschuaer, who takeson the role of GIS specialistwhile Agnes Kowalczyk andIgnacio Magallon join as GISanalysts in the productiondepartment, along with RyanKrisch, image analyst, and TomNewis, software developer.

New head at LandmarkLandmark Information Grouphas appointed William Kirk ashead of asset management. Thisnew section is tasked with thedevelopment, innovation anddelivery of consulting andbespoke solutions to meet clientneeds in managing the lifecycleof their land, property andinfrastructure assets. Kirk joinswith a wealth of experiencehaving worked as landmanagement developmentdirector at SKM Enviros andassociate director at EdenNuclear and Environment. Withover 25 years of experience, hehas worked on environmentalrisk and liability consultancyspecialising in the developmentof environmental solutions land,property and infrastructure.


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within a specified time; forexample, which store can bereached within 30 minutes.Initially aimed at consumers,iGeolise has seen anopportunity for consumer-facing businesses.

GeoPlace has again achieved re-certification to ISO9001 andISO27001 international standards,for Quality Management andInformation Security respectively.These management systems bothapply to the ‘provision to thepublic and private sectors ofinformation management andconsultancy services, relating toaddress location information andstreet information’ saysGeoPlace’s MD Richard Mason.

The General Directorate of LandRegistry and Cadastre, Turkey isthe latest organisation tobecome a full member ofEuroGeographics, whichrepresents the interests of 61organisations from 46 countriesin Europe for national mapping,land registry and cadastralauthorities – the whole ofgeographical Europe.

The independent crime-fightingcharity Crimestoppers and EsriUK have renewed theirpartnership. The organisationsfirst began working together in2011 when ArcGIS was firstinstalled into the Crimestoppers’call bureau. The software enablescalls and online information tobe mapped in relation to wherecrimes reported to theanonymous 0800 555 111 numbertook place, enabling hot-spotanalysis and further evaluation.Using Esri Storymaps, thelocation of cannabis cultivationhas been tracked as well as thewhereabouts of fugitives hidingout in Spain.

A new book from Esri exploreshow GIS tools can help tomanage and protect the oceans.Ocean Solutions, Earth

Solutions includes 16 peer-reviewed papers from 50 oceanand coastal science researchersusing GIS tools showcases thelatest and best ocean andcoastal science using spatialanalysis and GIS. “The mantraof the book is essentially that ifthe ocean is in crisis, the earth isin crisis,” said Esri ChiefScientist Dawn J. Wright, thebook’s editor. “The solutionsthat we devise to help theocean will be important inhelping the entire earth.”

OGC’s Point Cloud DWG is beingestablished to address a gap instandards. The group willexamine interoperability issuesrelated to sharing and processingpoint cloud data. The group willnot create new standards but willprovide a collaborative discussionforum to define and understandissues, requirements, uses orbarriers to interoperability. TheOGC feels that point cloud datahas often been overlooked ortreated in the same buckets asimages or terrain models. The useof point clouds is growing at arapid rate in a variety of domainsincluding utilities, mining, 3Dmodelling, etc.

Europa Technologies has won aGlobal Innovation Award fromgeodata supplier MB-International. The awardrecognises the innovationshown in the redevelopment ofEuropa’s Global CRESTA Plusproduct to meet the lateststandard of CRESTA(Catastrophe Risk Evaluatingand Standardizing TargetAccumulations). The standarddefines a global zoning systemused by insurers and re-insurersfor modelling and riskmanagement. The latestiteration of the standard usespostcode boundaries as theprimary building blocks for thezones. Europa Technologiesselected postcode boundarydata from MB-International in

order to build the new CRESTAHiRes and LowRes zones forGlobal CRESTA Plus.

Esri is joining the GlobalPartnership for SustainableDevelopment Data. The movewas announced at the thirdInternational Conference onFinancing for Development inAddis Ababa, Ethiopia, the firstof several conferences focusedon financing SustainableDevelopment Goals which theSustainable DevelopmentSolutions Network (SDSN)organizes through a partnershipwith the World Bank, the UN, theONE campaign, the Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation, theCenter for International EarthScience Information Network(CIESIN) and others to providefinancial, political, and technicalsupport for data creation thatsupports the SustainableDevelopment Goals.

PEOPLE

Gardels winner for 2015Paul Scarponcini is the recipientof this year’s Open GeospatialConsortium Kenneth D. GardelsAward. Over almost twodecades, Paul Scarponcini, asenior information architect atBentley Systems, has been animportant OGC TechnicalCommittee contributor. He hasalso done much to help OGCadvance spatial informationtechnology standards incollaboration with otherstandards organizations. Hehelped develop some of theOGC’s foundational geospatialstandards and also played apioneering role in bridging thecritical gap between geospatialstandards and informationtechnology standards for thebuilt environment. His years oftechnical leadership and liaisonwork in this area are nowbeginning to benefitinformation sharing in activities


news & people



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columnist adena schutzberg


Diving in and“going for it,”even if it turns

out to be adisappointment inthe end, is alwaysbetter than being

paralyzed anddoing nothing.

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JEFF SELINGO, WHO WRITES ABOUT EDUCATION,shared a terrific article on LinkedIn titled Wantedin College Graduates: Tolerance for Ambiguity. Heargues that the “killer app” in today’s workplace isthe ability to tolerate ambiguity. Said another way,it’s unlikely a new employee will get a clear set ofexpectations from a supervisor for a specificproject, nor a recipe for how to get the workdone. Instead, the employee will need to figure itout. That’s a valuable insight for students, jobseekers and hiring managers in the geospatialmarketplace.

Students are unsure whether to major in forestryand take a few GIS classes or the other way around.They are unsure which programming language tolearn. They are unsure where to move to, to starttheir careers. They are unsure about taking anunpaid internship. The best news about this group isthat they know they are unsure! I see their questions

regularly on social media and in sessions devoted toGIS careers at conferences.

Employers might have one task they know anew employee will do, but the rest of the job“depends.” If the position is in government, itdepends on if the budget is available to purchasethe new server or software license. If the position isin consulting, it depends on if the company winsthe big (or small) contract and if the scope of workchanges. If the position is in software development,it depends on the speed of development and if theselected development platform will still exist or besupported next week or next year. I suspect all thisambiguity pushes hiring managers to list everypossible skill (GIS or otherwise) in each new jobdescription.

The biggest players in our industry, the oneseveryone has heard of that “do mapping,” also live

in a world of uncertainty and ambiguity. Thesecompanies’ executives are watching theunpredictable hardware, software and servicesmarkets rise and fall even as they launch newproducts and services, acquire companies and shutdown efforts that don’t pan out. Just this yearGoogle announced that Google Maps Enterprisewould be phased out and Microsoft agreed to sell itsimagery collection assets to Uber. Those decisions inturn cascade down to business and consumercustomers, creating even more ambiguity anduncertainty.

Dealing with ambiguity and uncertainty I liketo think GIS education provides students with atleast a taste of the ambiguity they will face. Thequintessential example is “the GIS project.” It mightbe the first independent effort in a GIS 101 course orit might be a capstone project for a degree. Students

sometimes panic as they take responsibility forselecting the topic, defining the final product andcreating the workflow.

How do we as professionals deal with thisuncertainty? How do we mentor less experiencedcolleagues? How do we calm students? Taking a stepback and gaining perspective can help.

First off, everyone involved in a project is unsureof at least some aspects of it, what Donald Rumsfeldwould call “the unknown unknowns.” Realizing thatthere is ambiguity, and that others are in the sameboat, can bolster one’s confidence.

Second, tackling a project completely on yourown is the exception, not the rule. The studentscrafting a GIS project who look for input fromclassmates and instructors or on social media arereaching out to help deal with ambiguity. Colleaguesasking one another or other experts are doing thesame thing. Gathering input (data or opinion) canlessen ambiguity.

Finally, at some point, despite the ambiguity, astudent or staffer must choose a path forward. Somepaths will be more successful than others. Diving inand “going for it,” even if it turns out to be adisappointment in the end, is always better thanbeing paralyzed and doing nothing. The student oremployee who tries and succeeds is lauded. The onewho tries and fails should be lauded, too. The onewho fails to try is unlikely to pass the course, get thejob or keep the job.

Tolerating ambiguity in geospatialThere is ambiguity all around, says Adena Schutzberg. The trick is recognizing it,

choosing a way forward and not being frightened to fail.

Adena Schutzberg hasworked in geospatial

technologies for 25 yearsand is principal of ABS

Consulting Group,www.abs-cg.com.

[email protected]

Used with permission ofhttps://www.flickr.com/photos/

ramblinglibrarian/6972755597


. . . informationfrom the

internet. . . islike trying todrink from afire hydrant!

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WITH VISITORS QUEUING IN DROVES to get in onthe first day and attendance up 25% , the secondGEO Business event attracted over 2000 peoplefrom 47 countries. With an improved layout andover 180 companies represented the organiserswere clearly delighted. Event director CarolineHobden commented, “We have had so muchpositive feedback following the show and arethrilled to see such an increase in attendance in justa year since we launched the first show”. Hercomments are echoed by industry players: “GEOBusiness is now the established show for everyoneinvolved or interested in geospatial activities” and“The conference perfectly represented the energy ofthe geospatial industry. . . with inspiringpresentations to reflect all the opportunities of agrowing community.”

The exhibition was certainly spectacular and theshow floor was always bustling with activity. Theabsence of Esri can perhaps be explained by theirown conference in the previous week. One seasonedcommentator pointed out that conference attendees

seemed lower than last year and severalpresentations were too oriented towards theirpresenters’ companies.

The keynote on the opening day was anenthusiastic presentation on HS2, given by KateHall. Being an HS2 sceptic does not help yourreporter relate to the content of Hall’s talk. It wasfull of enthusiasm and justification for thescheme, including a rather bizarre diagramdemonstrating that faster trains have greatercapacity than slower trains. Not so Kate! Eightcarriage trains leaving Euston at fifteen minuteintervals with the same number of stops have thesame capacity, whatever their speed. If however,half the carriages are first class and empty, thecapacity is dramatically reduced.

Geospatial data management and big datatechniques Andy Wells from Sterling Geo believeswe are still only starting to use remote sensing andthat ‘We ain’t seen nothing yet!’ His presentation,“Future developments in remote sensing – more thanjust a pretty picture” mentioned how higher

resolution images, real time video, and much higherfrequency of standard optical or radar sensors willtransform the market. Change detection will becomemuch more effective and will be very important forlocal authorities, for example. But ‘information fromthe internet’ he argues, ‘is like trying to drink from afire hydrant’!

Wells believes that data will become a servicerather than a discrete deliverable and sointerpretation and labelling will become much moreimportant. Users currently spend a lot of time ‘notfinding things’. That will change as searches becomeautomated. He doesn’t think that our industryunderstands what users want and we will beovertaken by those that do – or those who will justcreate a new ‘need’ – like Google Earth.

OS overtaken by open On the subject of beingovertaken, John Carpenter, director of strategy &planning for Ordnance Survey, was quite honestabout having been overtaken by ‘open’. His session,titled “Open data is more than just putting it out

GEOBusiness 2015: attendance up atbusy bustling show A busy two days found your reporters struggling to cover everything at the industry’s annual show. A conference with two

streams is always a challenge but we think that below we have covered the most relevantaspect for GIS professionals. We’ve published the session titles in full so you should be

able to track them down.

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Geo Business


. . . we are in a‘wild west’

phase with verycheap dronesoperating as

little more than‘toys’. . .

“

“there!”, heard him state that OS are now followingthe trend with collaborative data such as OpenRivers, Open Roads, Locate, Open Gazetteer. Hethinks that the Environment Agency has led the wayon open data and that future cities must be ‘open’.However, he pointed out that more OS data wasdownloaded for the game Minecraft than for allother applications put together.

OS is now recruiting rather differently than in thepast, and doing its best to embrace cultural change.They have had talks with OpenStreetMap – whichcan use all of OS’s open data – and they are nowtaking steps to get users of all their open products tovoluntarily register so that they can find out howdata is being used and why. A final question aboutLinked Data elicited the response that there was notmuch demand yet! How did they really know?

Case for a UK cadastre Julia Stolle from Technicsdid her best to make a case for a UK cadastre,perhaps starting with new developments but did not,in my view, manage to join all the dots (“BoundaryDemarcation in the UK and Europe. Is there a casefor a UK cadastre?”).

It is all very well pointing out the obvious flaws inour property registration system; it is quite anotherto put a business case for changing to a continentalsystem. And she admitted that many of the boundarydisputes are not about the geometry but aboutpeople unable to get on with their neighbours. Shedid however make a good case for only allowing fullregistration with ‘as built’ surveys and believes thatalthough developers now have to produce as-builtplans, conveyancers don’t have to use them and withmany sales now made ‘off plan’ this could become agrowing problem. Someone pointed out that thereare only 27 ‘fixed’ boundaries in all of England andWales. No vote was taken but, even in an audiencewith many surveyors I doubt the motion would havebeen carried!

Up in the air In “Small Unmanned Aircraft (SUA)data capture operations in congested areas” PeterMcConnell, of Skycap, reviewed the regulatoryrequirements – or lack of them. There are now600+ Permissions for Aerial Work (PAW) authorisedby the Civil Aviation Authority for individuals (notcompanies). CAA has been overwhelmed by thedemand and does not even have dedicated staff.Practical issues include the novelty factor whichmeans that the use of SUAs can attract manyspectators. It was suggested that the fees for PAWsshould increased several fold to pay for thenecessary staff. McConnell thought that we are ina ‘wild west’ phase with very cheap dronesoperating as little more than ‘toys’ and thedistinction between these and the professionalversions, is not well enough defined. He thinks thatthere will probably be some sort of incident that

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will challenge the safety and/or security aspects ofSUA use before any legislation is brought in.

Smart GIS In an otherwise rather disappointingseries of sessions, Adam Iwaniak, from the WroclawInstitute for Spatial Information and ArtificialIntelligence, spoke on “Geo Media semantics toolkitfor linked geospatial data”. He articulated the mainreason for the slow take up of linked geospatial data– the rather simplistic assumption that we can allagree on what we mean when we talk aboutWroclaw, Islington, or the High Street. Yet just lookat how difficult it is to get agreement on the newroads database being prepared by Ordnance Surveyand GeoPlace with the aid of the Dept of Transport.Highway engineers, utility asset managers, satnavsuppliers and the Royal Mail can all mean completelydifferent things when they refer to Long Lane inLittle Snoring! And why shouldn’t they? Personally Iam not even convinced that each world view cannecessarily be constructed from a set of atomisticbuilding blocks which are themselves never used byanyone except the IT experts behind the scenes.

Emerging and developing technologies In“The evolution of geospatial technology – from datato knowledge” Trimble’s Lee Braybrooke articulatedthe company’s message that the ‘value chain’ forcapturing and delivering geospatial data needs to beextended by geospatial professionals intointerpretation, analysis and visualisation. The datamust be turned into knowledge brokered by peopleand software that understand the inputs but alsounderstand the end user’s requirements for outputs.

Meanwhile, Gary Gale posed the question,“What does the future of maps look like?” Gary, inhis usual quirky style, set out ten predictions for thefuture of maps – having defined maps as already



Geo Business

Above: With over 180companies the show

floor was nearly alwaysbusy.



. . . crowdedslums in various

large citiesbeing ignored

becausethey don’t havenavigable roads

is nowunacceptable. . .

“

“

being nearly always digital or derived from digitalinformation. His predictions were mostly supportedby other presentations and/or the exhibition andtaken together they auger well for anyone pursuinga career with geospatial information. They will movetowards being in real time; they should be able tomove from inside to outside and vice versa –seamlessly - and will become ‘less closed and moreopen’. Accuracy should improve with the everdecreasing cost of GPS (at least to the end user) andthe potential of so called (QPS) Quantum PositioningSystems – very accurate inertial systems – now justbeing trialled in submarines where current inertialsystems quickly drift off position.

Sharing of locations – whether we like it or not.The classic case is the anonymised (so we are told)use of mobile phone positions to ‘crowd source’traffic flows – of vehicles or pedestrians. However,the personalised delivery of maps, which is alreadywith us, will increase. This will not necessarily becontrollable. We are familiar with our webexperience being different from our friends – basedon our individual browsing habits and any otherinformation that various layers of the supply chainknow about us. We are familiar with maps poppingup already centred on our current location.Personally, I am very annoyed that some sites – e.g.my local planning authority – cannot rememberwhere I am for a map but does send me location-based ‘alerts’. In contrast my county council alwaysremembers where I was looking at last time I loggedin and goes straight there.

Gary pointed out that the delivery of maps byGoogle, for example, in disputed areas of the worldis already personalised based on the provider’sassumptions about your location. Different views ofthe border between India and China will appear ifyou are assumed to be Chinese, Indian or ‘other’ –presumably based on your perceived IP address. Thesame applies to the ‘border’ between Crimea and(the rest of?) Ukraine.

There will be a proliferation of stylised ‘maps’able to show, very effectively, spatially variabledatasets in a variety of different ways to illustratevery diverse continuous or discrete datasets. Mapswill continue to be printed – on a variety of media– and will have to accept that ‘white spaces’ arenot really acceptable. Gayle’s examples of thecrowded slums in various large cities being ignoredbecause they don’t have navigable roads is nowunacceptable for administrators and can be ‘filledin’ by imagery or ‘volunteered’ geospatialinformation. Finally he emphasises the simple factthan any visible map is only ever the tip of thehuge data iceberg which forms its foundations. Weare still only scratching the surface of this icebergand drilling deeper will present us not only withmore information but with different ways ofpresenting it.

Wear your GIS with pride Nutiteq’s Jaak Lainestedelved into the world of wearable GIS tools – fromhuge helmets to rather heavy spectacles and singleeye displays. However, the most interesting part ofhis presentation was on the improvements of indoorpositioning highlighted at Microsoft’s IndoorLocalization Competition in April this year in Seattle.The winner was the EU’s Joint Research Centre team(remember INSPIRE?) with an infrastructure freeexperimental STeAM system – Sensor Tracking andMapping. It will not win a fashion prize but wasshown to be better than any of the competingsystems using local transmitters with an accuracy of0.2m during the trial. By comparison the majority ofthe 23 competitors were worse than 1m but only fivewere actually from industry as distinct from researchinstitutions.

International issues Matt Pennell’s description ofMapAction’s work in Nepal was fascinating. In“Taking the web out of web-mapping: a differentapproach in a disaster” he emphasised thedifficulties of operating in ‘disaster’ environmentswith non-existent or intermittent power andcommunication channels. He also made the pointthat they were at their most useful when compilingsimple maps to help coordinate the aid effort in anemergency – they have to use any informationavailable and turn it into easily understood maps onpaper (the supply of which may be limited) or onlocal networks. They now promote their ‘kiosks’ inthe field which service their clients on a localnetwork and enable their own staff to concentrateon collating and presenting the relevant data.

Airborne optical remote sensing can be usedunder the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty(CTBT) during an On-Site Inspection (OSI)searching for evidence of an underground nuclearexplosion. In “Using airborne remote sensing tosearch for illicit nuclear explosions” Dr JamesPalmer from AWE described the development andtesting of an instrument suite to be deployed inhelicopters if required. The treaty has not yetcome into force but would impose manyconstraints (e.g. maximum flying height of1500m). The sensors include a hyperspectralimager; thermal camera; RGB/CIR camera; LiDAR;and HD video. These have all been tested during arecent large field exercise in Jordan.

750 million need it Fred Mills (“Encouraging massBIM adoption: the role of Scan-to-BIM”) talked upBIM for the masses! He said that over 750 millionpeople need to be using BIM worldwide if itspotential is to be realised. That represents a hugemarket for his ‘theB1Mmail’ (sic) promoted as theworld’s first BIM newspaper. His illustrations of theprogress being made by scanning technology andBIM software were impressive. Apparently Finland is

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Geo Business


the most advance country in Europe for BIM take upfollowed by the UK – which has governmentmandated targets. Elsewhere he claimed thatAustralia is way ahead with South Korea and Brazilcatching up fast. Even Antarctica has one researchstation using BIM and proving that it is ubiquitousand useful everywhere.

Standards, risks and communication In sessionsaimed more at surveyors James Kavanagh introducedthe RICS’s the IPMS, the International propertymeasurement standards, which defines exactly whatareas are to be included so that land and buildingscan be valued in exactly the same way worldwide. Healso emphasised that measurement standards arevital for the delivery of BIM while acknowledgingthat a BIM model of RICS’s London headquarters wastoo large for any computer they owned to handle!

Meanwhile Chris Preston, chair of the RICSGeomatics faculty who works for Network Rail askedhis audience if they like taking risks before pointingout that we all take risks with our professional workbut must always take steps to minimise and mitigatethem. Cheap surveys can lead to costly litigation andgreat damage to a practitioner’s reputation. Heagreed with a questioner that many users simplydon’t understand geospatial data. He suggested that

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if we are to get better and become more efficientthere must be a ‘wash up’ at the end of every projectto learn lessons and promulgate them through theorganisation – or through professional bodies. Wehave to get better at communicating including to ourclients.

Reporting by Robin Waters and Richard Groom•with additional material by Stephen Booth.

Copies of all the papers presented at the GEO•Business Conference are available from DiversifiedCommunications, The Pike House, George Street,Nailsworth, Gloucestershire, GL6 0AG, UnitedKingdom. Email: [email protected]: +44(0) 1453 836363


Geo Business

Above: Taking the webout of web-mapping.


Britain’s floodsof 2007

generatedinsurance losses

of over £3billion – thebiggest losssince records

began.

“

“FLOOD MODELLING DEPENDS ON accuratetopographic data. The resulting outputs, combined ina GIS with accurate spatial representations of our builtenvironment, enable insurance companies, publicauthorities and the general public to understand floodrisk and to take the precautions necessary to reducethe effects and the costs of flooding.

Flooding is a recurring phenomenon. Incomparison to other environmental hazards floods inthe UK generate the biggest financial losses toinsurers and the wider economy. The effects offlooding have been recorded since the beginning oftime and we have seen several major flooding eventswithin recent memory. In reaction to these events, andthrough an appreciation of how risk may potentiallyincrease in the future, insurance companies and otherorganisations are in need of tools which help themmanage and better understand flood risk.

Understanding flooding in our past Britain’sfloods of 2007 generated insurance losses of over £3billion – the biggest loss since records began. Thereafter

we have seen significant flooding almost every year. In2012 we experienced the wettest summer in 100 years.And more recently in 2013/14, following the wettestDecember and January in well over 100 years, weencountered major flooding which cost the insuranceindustry £1 billion and resulted in the loss of 17 lives.

Clearly the frequent occurrence of record-breaking weather and flooding events is somethingwe should all be concerned about, and withincreasing pressure to build on flood prone land thispresents one of the biggest challenges we face as anation. In light of this challenge, how do we goabout trying to understand flooding?

Firstly we must understand that flooding canhappen in a number of ways. Flood types can be dividedinto primary and secondary sources. Primary sources aredriven by weather and natural cycles. Through the studyof historic records we are able to assign a probability ofoccurrence for fluvial, pluvial and tidal flooding. Fromthis we can predict the occurrence of frequent minorfloods and of the much less frequent severe floods.

It is much more difficult to assign a probability tosecondary flooding sources, which are therefore harderto predict. There is often an inter-linkage betweendifferent flooding sources. For example, a sewer floodwill depend on localised drainage conditions, whichwill exacerbate the effect of a surface water flood.

Readers may also recall that the flooding in the winterof 2013/14 was made much worse through theemergence of ‘groundwater’ which caused flooding inareas supposedly protected by defences.

Historical sources such as written accounts,illustrations and flood height markers all serve asevidence from which it is possible to infer whereflooding may occur in the future. However, when weattempt to make precise predictions the accuracyand completeness of historic records is an issue. Togain a fuller understanding we need detailedscientific measurements from flow gauges and depthgauges, and this type of data only exists for the lasthundred years or so.

Predicting the future Now let us consider theprobability of flooding happening. To describe themagnitude of a specific flood event we use theterminology ‘return period’. This describes thelikelihood of a flood of a certain scale happening inany given year. So we can say that a 100-year flood

Precision flood models and spatialanalysis of flood risk This article explains how modelling is a

vital tool in understanding flood risk and in mitigating the effects of flooding in GreatBritain. Paul Drury explains how recent research undertaken by flood risk specialists at

Ambiental has enabled the development of precision flood models and explores how datagenerated through flood modelling can provide some interesting insights into the spatial

pattern of flood risk.

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This article is based•on a paper presented bythe author at the GEOBusiness 2015 conferencein May this year.

Figure 1: Primary and secondary sources offlooding (©Ambiental 2015).


Flood modelling


. . . what do wemean by risk,

and what do weconsider to be

high risk?These aresubjective

terms.

“

“event has a 1% or a one in one hundred chance ofhappening this year. That is determined through astatistical analysis of historic records which considerall of the past events on record and rank them inorder of magnitude.

It is important not to assume that a hundred yearreturn period means that the same flood will occurevery hundred years. In reality it could occur muchlater or earlier than that. Furthermore, it is possiblethat a one-in-a-hundred year event could occur nextyear and again the following year. However, if twoflood events of one hundred year magnitude wereactually to happen back to back then this will clearlychange the probability of that event for the future.This is a limitation of using a deterministic approachwhich analyses the past to predict the future.

Flood risk in Great Britain gives rise to severalheadline grabbing statements. The Environment Agencystate that one in six homes in England are at risk offlooding. Studies by Willis Research Network state thathalf a million homes are at ‘high’ risk. But what do wemean by risk, and what do we consider to be high risk?These are subjective terms. Later in this article we willexplore what we mean by risk and we will discuss howfactors such as flood depth are important in establishingour view of what we define as high risk.

Flood risk is increasing in various ways. The studyof natural cycles suggests that Great Britain is likelyto experience a ‘flood rich’ period over the nextdecade or so. Furthermore, climate change maycause flood risk to increase in the future through sealevel rise and more extreme rainfall events.Compounding these factors is a decrease in publicspending on flood defences. With the imminentlaunch of the FloodRE initiative to control insurancepremiums in flood prone areas, it is clear that thereis a need for geo-data products that enable a greaterunderstanding of flood risk for all concerned.

Flood modelling techniques GIS can be used toproduce flood maps to help improve ourunderstanding of where and when flooding willoccur. Fig 2 shows the key spatial data inputs used tobuild a flood model.

One of the main datasets used in flood modellingis topography, which has the single biggest influenceon where flooding is likely to occur. A detailed digitalterrain model is required to accurately show the heightof the ground surface and, for flood modelling it isalways best to use LiDAR data whenever possible.

Post-processed bare earth terrain models areused which have had surface features such asvegetation and buildings removed. This allows forfree movement of water and simulation of floodingwithin buildings. Ambiental also undertakeadditional terrain processing to remove flowobstructions such as bridges which otherwise will actlike barriers and impede the flow of water. Anunderstanding of the effect of structures and the

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relative speed withwhich water flows acrossvarious surfaces are alsoimportant factors inachieving predictiveprecision.

The other main floodmodel inputs all relate tohydrology. This includesflow gauges, and rainfallgauges, which arecrucial to determiningwhere water should beinput to the model andhow water flow shouldbe simulated. In Great Britain reliable flow data canbe sourced from the Centre of Ecology andHydrology. Flood hydrographs are generated fromthis data which represent a time sequence growthcurve as flow volumes increase towards a peak floodlevel and then decrease as a flood subsides.

When all the data has been loaded it is time torun simulations to generate flood maps. There are avariety of flood modelling techniques available whichvary in their sophistication and processing effort.Ambiental use proprietary software called FlowRoutewhich uses the ‘shallow water wave equation’ tosimulate water movement in two dimensions.Various other simulation tools are availablecommercially and non-commercially.

2D flood modelling differs from 1D in that itrepresents differing flow conditions across afloodplain. A 2D hydrodynamic model divides thefloodplain into a gridded domain where obstaclescan be taken into account. Water flow between gridcells is dependent on roughness and water levelsbetween iterative time steps.

Modelling hydraulics is the most computationallydemanding stage of the process requiring highperformance computers. Modelled areas are brokeninto small domains and the software runs eachsimulation in turn. The raw raster model outputs arefinally merged together to form a continuous floodmap for each modelled return period to simulatedifferent flood severities.

The map image of Kingston upon Thames (Fig 3(see next page)) shows the end products of floodsimulations. It shows fluvial flooding in blue andpluvial flooding in pink. This map shows not only theareas likely to flood but also the depth of flood waterat every location.

Once simulations are complete it is necessary toevaluate whether the results are accurate. The firstindicators come through the quality assurance process.Every model output is visually checked by technicalanalysts to identify and correct any errors in the data.Terrain models provide a top down view of the world,which means that simulated water flow underobstructions like bridges or through culverts is not


Figure 2: The keyspatial data inputs

used to build aflood model

(©Ambiental 2015).


Flood modelling


Ideally the OSMasterMapbuilding

outlines wouldbe used butthey are tooexpensive for

customersrequiring an

affordable floodscreening tool.

“

“enabled. Manual correction is required to remove flowimpediments that cause water to dam up behind them.

Accuracy is also ensured by data validation –establishing if the flood map results correspond withthe actual locations of historic flood events.Ambiental have undertaken numerous validationstudies throughout Great Britain to ensure that anyknown risk areas are accurately represented in theirmodels. When there is a strong correlation betweenreality and the model output it serves to confirm thatthe modelling method is accurate and reliable.

Flood maps for insurance For the insuranceindustry knowing where and when flooding mightoccur is only part of the puzzle. Flooding in the middleof nowhere, away from human settlements andinfrastructure is of little consequence. Floods in anurban centre put lives, property and possessions underthreat. Flood models are now detailed and accurateenough to determine flood risk at property level. So itis now possible to use GIS to produce products thatdeliver fresh insight to the insurance industry.

Risk is a function of hazard, vulnerability andexposure. (Fig 4) Flood hazard is largely outside ofour control; it is inevitable that flooding will happen.But as we have seen so far analysing and interpretingthe best available flood data does mean that thenature of the hazard can be well understood.

‘Vulnerability’ in this context describes the amountof damage occurring to structures whilst interactingwith flood hazard. Some buildings will be morevulnerable as a consequence of their design and specific

usage. Conversely some buildings are much moreresistant to the effects of floods, or they have beenspecifically designed to cope with flood hazard. Thevulnerability of buildings has been studied academicallyand graphs can describe the ratio of damage occurringto various property types at increasing flood depths.

‘Exposure’ refers to the insurance policy, howmuch an asset is insured for and what policyconditions and excess have been agreed. It measuresthe potential losses an insurer faces in the event ofthe insured asset being flooded. From these threefactors we form our holistic view of risk.

A flood hazard map (Fig 5) has red areas where thehazard is greatest and at-risk properties within the floodhazard area are shown as black points. The map showsthat not all properties are receiving the same intensityof hazard. Intensity will vary depending on flood returnperiod with buildings in the red zone hit much morefrequently than those in the light blue areas.

To analyse flood risk throughout Great BritainAmbiental extracted property level hazard values ona national scale. We used Ordnance Survey’sAddressBase which contains property locations,addresses and a variety of other attributes. Thelocations are very accurate but the data is simply aset of points which does not immediately enabledetection of partial flooding. Ambiental hastherefore applied a variable search buffer distance toeach property type in order to extract maximumflood depth within the buffer. We found that ourbuffer approach brings locational uncertainty downto an acceptable level, so this approach was used toproduce the FloodScore database. Ideally the OSMasterMap building outlines would be used but theyare too expensive for customers requiring anaffordable flood screening tool.

The FloodScore database was initially developed todeliver an online flood screening service to insurancebrokers. Users of the online system enter a postcode,select a property and receive an instant resultdescribing flood risk for their chosen property (Fig 6(see next page)). Insurance customers are generallyless in need of GIS flood maps with return period and

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Figure 4: Understandingrisk through

consideration ofHazard, Exposure and

Vulnerability(©Ambiental 2015).

Figure 5: A flood hazard map showingproperties affected at a range of return periods

(©Ambiental 2015).

Figure 3: Fluvial andpluvial (surface water)flood map for Kingstonupon Thames(©Ambiental 2015).


Flood modelling


flood depth information, but the insurance industryare very keen on having a simple and consistentmeasure of flood risk for one building relative toanother. To tackle this market Ambiental developed ascoring system which utilises an algorithm toformulate a summary risk score out of a hundred. Theresultant FloodScore is driven by the flood hazard anda calculation of an average annualised loss prediction.

Analysing flood risk across Great BritainThrough the FloodScore project Ambiental created adetailed database of flood risk for every property inGreat Britain. This data can provide some interestinginsights into the pattern of flood risk and highlighthow it varies regionally (Fig 7). Overall it shows that20% of properties had some level of flood risk andthat 2.6 million properties have a high risk. Theseresults are broadly consistent with figures publishedby the EA for England and Wales.

Combined FloodScore is the aggregated risk posedby all three flood types: fluvial; pluvial; and tidal. The

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North East has the lowest risk overall and, when flooddefences are assumed to be operational, the EastMidlands has the highest flood risk. A comparison ofareas with and without operational flood defencesshows the risk to London increases considerably. Theseresults show the critical role of the Thames Barrier.

The mean combined FloodScore in Great Britain isnine out of a hundred. However, for individual townsthe numbers vary wildly from the mean. The table (Fig8) shows the ten towns (over 10,000 properties) withthe highest combined FloodScore. Boston is actuallyawaiting a massive flood defence scheme in the nextfew years. A close second is Spalding, located on thefen wetlands. All towns on this list have had floodingin the recent past which helps validation of thepredictive accuracy of the database.

At the other extreme, Fig 9 shows the top tentowns with the lowest flood risk. Places such asLarkhall, Livingstone, and Motherwell tend to be inquite hilly areas with properties typically located onsloping ground away from any flood hazards.

Be prepared Flooding is a complex phenomenonand Great Britain has particularly high exposure toflood risk as compared to many other countries.Research suggests that flood risk will continue toincrease presenting many challenges to government,business and the population at large.

Flood modelling can help to predict, prevent andprotect against the risk of flooding by using spatialanalysis to identify locations at risk. This article hasdemonstrated how a flood model can be built andhas introduced the key datasets and GIS processesinvolved in creating flood hazard and flood risk dataproducts. We have also provided insight through theanalysis of the FloodScore database which hasdemonstrated that 1 in 5 properties in GB have atleast some degree of flood risk. This analysis alsoidentified risk hotspots, which can be of greatbenefit to insurance companies and otherorganisations trying to understand the extent of theirexposure to flooding related losses.


About the AuthorGIS data manager Paul

Drury oversees theproduction of spatial data

products relating toflooding. This includesproject management ofproduction operations

and reporting tostakeholders as well as

the preparation,integration and quality

assurance of data assets.Paul’s experience includes

managing technicalcomputing and data buildprojects in the UK. He is

an expert in GIS and dataanalysis with an

understanding of theenvironmental data

industry. He has a BSc(hons) in Environmental

Sciences from theUniversity of Brighton.

Figure 6: An extract from the FloodScore onlineservice showing property level flood risk scoresout of 100 (©Ambiental 2015).

Figure 7: A regional view of combined flood riskwithin Great Britain – showing mean propertylevel risk scores out of 100 (©Ambiental 2015).

Fig 8 (Left): The top ten townsof over 10,000 propertieswithout flood defences whichhave the highest flood risk(©Ambiental 2015).

Fig 9 (Right): The top ten townsof over 10,000 properties

without flood defences whichhave the lowest flood risk

(©Ambiental 2015).


Flood modelling


. . . the ‘toomuch complexterminology’argument is

false. . .

“

“I'VE BEEN RECENTLY FLICKING BACK through thelast year’s worth of issues of GISPro. A thing thatstruck me was the appearance of a hardy perennialin our profession, or is it a thorn in our side? Thesebotanical metaphors are being used for another Ihave in mind, namely 'navel gazing'. Something thatcan happen a lot in the geo business.

Now, before I mention what we are navel gazinginto, what does it actually mean? Delving intodictionaries is amusing. The Miriam-Webster onlinedictionary uses a lovely definition which is: "uselessor excessive self-contemplation". Wikipedia states itoriginates from the Greek word omphaloskepsis,combines the respective words 'navel ' and 'gazing'to describe the act on inward looking to one's navelto aid meditation. It then adds that the term is alsonow used in "jocular fashion".

Have we really failed? I've been involved in GI formany years and in several guises. It never ceases toamaze me how persistent the introspection into theapparent failure in GIS there is in some circles. Thisfailure, it seems, is built around the future of GIS

having been heavily evangelised over the final decadeof the last century and, in some eyes, it never reachedits potential mythical proportions. For this apparentfailure, there are other related factors, including ourgeospatial lexicon. In other words, our specialistterms. There are too many. They are incomprehensibleto the non specialist. Some say that is bad.

There are also those who would say that theprofession has failed to grasp new technologies andbusiness models to reach the mass consumer market,or keep pace with innovative 'disrupters' moving intothe geospatial business. These aren't the onlyfactors, in the great "why has Geospatial not turnedout like the soothsayers said it would?" debate, butthey are enough to be getting on with.

Critical introspection is always fodder forgeospatial event debates. It's a catalyst toencouraging opinion from all angles. But I thinkthere's a number misconcept ions underlying thisdesire for some to beat up on GIS. The greatexpectations of GIS a couple of decades back werebased on the factors and thinking of the day.

I also suspect that a good dose of wishful andparochial thinking was shovelled into forecasting thefuture of GIS. Like any industry or interest, it is greatto be seen to be on the crest of a big new wave ofchange. There's a vested interest in growth and a lotof the early market analysis drew from futureprojections of the solutions vendors themselves.

The words 'forecast' and 'evangelism' mean exactly

what they say they are. They aren't absolutes!In my view the 'too much complex terminology'

argument is false. The real issue is ensuring effectivecommunication with customers and users. Thisindustry is like all others. Do accountants have aprofessional lexicon? Do Doctors? Lawyers? Soldiers?Systems Architects? Yes, all of them. Sports andhobbies are the same. I was once a school governor.Meetings actually required the use of a glossary for theinexperienced. For me that was the defining momentin the geospatial specialist vocabulary debate.

What makes the difference? Effective commun -ication is key. It's that which makes the difference. Thedoctor will talk to patients about their 'chest' not their'respiratory system', likewise a professional weatherforecaster on TV keeps weather terms within generallycommon understanding rather than use the scientificlanguage they would amongst peers.

So, going back to my perusal of the last 12months issues of GISPro and getting away fromindustry self-reflection, what actually strikes me isthe vibrancy and diversity of geospatial business and

activity today. It's a big business with many diverseplayers. It does not stand still.

Some things haven't changed, but other thingshave. In just the last decade we've seen significantdevelopments in national and supra-national SDI;crowd sourced activity; the arrival of GoogleEarth/Maps, and increasingly Apple Maps; Opendata is here; there is the growing use, validity (andcontroversy) of drones; BIM and geospatial is a keytopic area; consumers use mapping and locationintelligence massively on electronic devices; thereare many cases of GIS being used effectively for amyriad of solutions in utilities, health, goodgovernance and many others, enabled in part in thiscountry by collective data supply agreements (likeOneScotland and the PSMA), as well as growingstandards-based technology.

I think we need to think less about "GIS saving theworld" and more "GIS helping to save the world".Our specialism is equally valid as other professions.We should be proud of that. Self contemplation has itsplace, but we need to look less at what 'potential'proclaimed in the long distant past and focus on thereality that has been achieved. Geospatial has come along way. It is in the mass market, but equally itmaintains its professionalism. Rightly so.

We also need to recognise, accept and celebrateour professional language, but improve as well ourcommunication with non specialists. The attack onthe 'GIS Dictionary' is misguided.

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Stop navel-gazing about the language argues Chris Holcroft, it’s the communication we have to get right.

Chris Holcroft is anexperienced geospatialprofessional andChartered Geographer.He has contributed toGISPro since its firstissue in 2004.


chris Holcroft



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talking BIM


. . . the notionof location as a

commonlanguage for all

disciplines isblindingly

obvious, but toothers it is not.

“

“WHAT IS BIM? Like most of hispredecessors on the BIM podium,Steven Eglinton argues that itdepends who you ask. Indeed, hethrew a new interpretation – ‘BetterInformation Management’ – intothe ring for good measure. Hebelieves that data is a commodityand that the essence of BIM iscross-discipline and cross-organisation co-operation.

Eglinton regards himself as an ITprofessional, having once upon atime been a GIS person and beforethat a cartographer. His point is thatBIM is a collection of concepts thatcan be employed in different ways

to suit different applications. It is a collaborativeintegrated digital process which brings together allthe disciplines involved in an infrastructure project toproduce a digital product for the whole lifecycle ofthe development. Although the focus of BIM has

been on buildings, it is applicable to all forms ofconstruction activity, with each project following adifferent path, governed by its needs and the natureof the spatial data.

A digital plan of works So each project should bepreceded by systems analysis to clarify what digitaldata is needed. Eglinton advocates a “Digital Plan ofWorks” at the outset. This will involve an analystspeaking with all those involved in the project,including those who will run the facility after it hasbeen completed. This was a refreshing take on BIM.So what is it? It’s like any other IT development sodon’t let the term BIM restrict your thinking.

However, one of the key problems is that thevarious stakeholders do not speak the samelanguage. Eglinton showed a slide with numerouswords that BIM creators have to get to grips with. Heillustrated this point by describing his difficulty ingetting a clear understanding of the term ‘polygon’as variously understood by GIS people, CAD peopleand those with a maths GCSE.

It takes some skill for the analyst to get peopleto explain what they do and need in anenvironment where they may be wary of theprospect of ‘change’. As with all data collectionexercises, there is a point where the cost ofcollecting ever more detail outweighs the benefit. A

point that can be addressed at project scale butwhich is likely to result in mismatches betweendifferent BIMs.

Common data at the core A common dataenvironment is at the core of BIM and should beenshrined in the Digital Plan of Works. Not only mustpeople understand each other but computer systemsand data must do so as well. BS1192:2007,PAS1192-2 and PAS1192-3 are the standards for thispurpose. There are others and Eglinton usedUNICLASS as an example. A new version of thisfeature coding standard is about to appear, so howabout using it to help break down that languagebarrier between disciplines and promote thecommon understanding that is essential for BIM towork? The problem with most standards is that theyare necessarily complicated in order to be universallyapplicable. But, as Eglinton said, the benefits ofcommon understanding outweigh the costs.

The problem is frequently that the client is notable to articulate their ‘wants’. For the analyst it’s a

question of combining the high level BIM vision withdetail from the people at the coalface to make aneconomic and effective solution.

Can 3D visualisation help? Eglinton alsodiscussed the opportunities for geospatial peopleand some of the challenges that we face. Perhapsthe greatest challenge is in how we sell the overallconcept of BIM. Because we deal with geospatialdata every day, we tend to take it for granted. To usthe notion of location as a common language for alldisciplines is blindingly obvious, but to others it isnot. There is a need for clear simple presentation ofideas to the decision-makers. 3D visualisation is animportant adjunct of BIM that can aid this process.

In a point raised from the audience, Anne Kempmentioned the ultimate goal of Digital Built Britain, towhich Eglinton added smart cities, for which modelsare currently produced independently, but is itpractical to derive smart cities from models producedfor BIM? Perhaps this is a topic for another day.

This was a talk that might have disappointedthose who look for good hard certainty in BIM.‘BIM’s vague, get over it!’ seemed to be themessage. If the intention was to get the audiencethinking, then it was certainly successful. There wereseveral questions in the hall and lively discussionsfollowed in the Westminster Arms.

Geospatial Convergence - but are we alltalking the same language? A recent talk by Steven

Eglinton during the RICS evening lecture series took a distinctive view of BIM, says Richard Groom.


GIS. . . providesus with a

framework anda process for

applyinggeography.

“

“

DISTRIBUTED OR CLOUD COMPUTING has changedthe way companies like Esri develop geospatial servicesand solutions. This was very much exemplified at theiruser conference in San Diego, California, July 20th -24th, 2015. For example, mapping via ArcGIS hasbecome a connected process – one precisely shaped byits users and their intended application. Developmentsgeared toward connected multi sensor technologies,

such as tablets and smartphones, are now an integralpart of Esri based workflows. Its user community isenthused by what is best described as GeoICT.

GeoICT Geographical information and communicationtechnologies (GeoICT) started to emerge in the firstdecade of the 21st century. Affordable and accuratelocation-aware devices like smartphones had, forexample, started to be included in EU initiatives like theInternet of Things (IoT) in Europe as early as 2009.Sensors and sensing are now about a connectednetwork of users, who have the ability to communicatetheir experiences via numerous devices. For companieslike Esri, smartphone data is as important asinformation collected from professional grade surveytools like laser scanners. Analytical workflows via R &ArcGIS were a prime example at the UC 2015.

R & ArcGIS R is freely available statistical softwarethat came out of the University of Auckland, NewZealand. The announcement of an R-ArcGIS bridgeplatform was a smart move by Esri. Working with Renables both Esri and its user community toimmediately hit the ground running in terms ofinformation handling. It also enables Esri to betterintegrate itself into pre-existing user communities,

which are growing beyond academicand research environments.

Overall the announcement of the R-ArcGIS community page on Githubfeeds into broader changes taking placewithin geospatial communities. This isparticularly the case from within largecompanies. For example, Autodeskannounced their commitment to opensource platforms at Autodesk University2014. The R-ArcGIS community page(https://r-arcgis.github.io/) providedthree tools upon its launch: r-bridge-

install, r-bridge and r-sample-tools. It also provides away in which data from multiple sensors of varyingquality can be integrated into ArcGIS.

Keynote Esri President and GIS evangelist JackDangermond opened the keynote by emphasising thevalue of networking within the Esri user community. Infact, it is seen to be at the heart of the community and

its 36-year history. The multidisciplinary nature of mapsis now being reflected through what Esri sees as stories.Fundamentals pertain to what maps are used for, andhow this is communicated across industries andapplications. Dangermond used the broad concept ofgeography in order to communicate his message to theaudience: “GIS in its digital manifestation of geographygoes beyond just the science. It provides us with aframework and a process for applying geography.”

The increase in location-aware devices is consideredto be part of a “geoenlightenment”. In other words, Esriusers now live in a connected world where informationcapture and flow can be instantaneous. For example,mapping can be done in real time and on the move. Thiswas something Dangermond sees as reshaping what itmeans to be a GIS professional. WebGIS was a termused to explain trends linked to the industrial web. It isseen to be a transformational architecture that makesGIS more accessible and engaging to the user. Esri isbenefiting greatly from smart devices and the apps thatcan be made for them.

Multidimensional workflows Content andinformation generation is now of prime importance tocompanies like Esri, Hexagon and Autodesk. There hasnever been an easier time for users of their products

Esri User Conference 2015: applyinggeography everywhere Over 16,000 people attended the

Esri User Conference in 2015 (UC 2015). Mobile sensing in all shapes and sizes played animportant role at the event with crowd-sourced mapping and spatial information systems

strongly promoted, reports Adam P Spring.

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Esri user conference

The Esri UC 2015 partywas an outdoor affairwith the Star of India asits flag ship.


to generate useable information. For example, apartnership between Esri and Hexagon wasannounced in June. The Hexagon Imaging Programme(HxIP) is all about high quality and precise aerial datacollection and its application. For Esri, there continuesto be a move away from traditional 2D ideas of whatdefines geographical information systems – especiallywithin associated user communities. Varioustechnologies on display at UC 2015 reinforced this.

The big topics were all about mobile mapping,story maps and ArcGIS Pro. Reigl’s VUX -1 RiCOPTERis finally bringing a comprehensive laser-scanningbased solution to UAV based markets – albeit with ahefty price tag. The relationship between Esri andLeica Geosystems was also on show via the Pegasusbackpack and its sister road vehicle-based mobilemapping solution. There were also some veryinteresting developments from an exhibitor calledParacosm in ArcGIS Pro.

Paracosm Consumer driven 3D imaging solutionswere championed by Paracosm at UC 2015. The Florida-based company combines their understanding ofcomputer vision and robotic navigation withdevelopments taking place in smartphone and tabletmarkets. Handheld devices continue to become morepowerful in terms of processing capabilities, fusingnumerous sensors in one solution and areinstantaneously connected to the internet. Simultaneousand localised mapping (SLAM) continues to improve thisconsumer-driven 3D space. It is also the bridge to mobilemapping solutions offered up for professional sectors.

ArcGIS 2D to 3D ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS Earth provideuseful solutions for sharing and publishing 3Dinformation. For example, Google Earth has been fusedwith Pictometry and ArcGIS in order to provide optimal2D to 3D map translations on a global scale. CraigMcCabe, 3D product engineer at Esri, even told a 3Dstory. He demonstrated how 3D GIS is changing the wayin which we analyse infrastructure and manage assets.

Continuing beyond desktop The way in whichusers interact with information in a digital age wasopenly questioned by Amber Case back at Esri UC 2013.Her presentation Location and the Future of theInterface raised a number of points that were moreabout people rather than technology. In fact, itappeared Case had closely studied the work ofsociologists like Sherry Turkle, at that time – an MITprofessor who has extensively discussed what she callsthe digital self. That being, the way in which humansuse technologies, such as smartphones or laserscanners, to project their views of the world.

User interfaces continue to evolve. The moveaway from the touch button days of the mainframeand desktop era of computing are being replaced bya touch-screen evolution. Computers are nowwearable or handheld. Users are no longer tethered

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to a desk or fixed locationwhich, for Esri means that datalogging has never been easier.Smartphones and tablets havechanged the way humans areusing computers in the 21stcentury. Apps and WebGIS aretransforming geospatial data useon an organisational scale.

WebGIS Distributed computingand websites as portals are at theheart of WebGIS. For BernSzukalsk, the ability to process richdatasets in “the cloud” has created smartmapping. This is a term used to describereal-time enabled or reactionary mapping. Where astory could be told through the information used andthe storyteller did not necessarily have to be a GISprofessional. It would appear data fusion – the use ofqualitative information like videos alongside map data– has become of great significance to Esri in 2015.

Gaslamp Quarter San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter islocated near the Convention Center, the venue forUC 2015. It is a 16-and-a-half block neighbourhoodwhich contains numerous restaurants andentertainment venues. Urban regeneration started totake hold in the area in the 1980s. Gaslamp Quarteris on the National Register of Historic Places in theUS. It contains 94 buildings from the Victorian Era.

Summary Incresingly Esri is driven by crowd-sourced content, mobile computing and connectivityin 2015. It is started to fall more in line with the likesof Apple and Google - technology giants reshapingtheir business models around sensor and informationfusion. For example, narratives linked to big datahandling via Android and iOS apps like Collector forArcGIS continued to unfold at ESRI UC 2015.



Esri user conference

Below: Webimplementations of GISare changing the faceof companies like Esri.Distributed processinghas made it possiblefor anyone to use its

products.

Right: Jack Dangermond surprisesthe XPLORE Technologies team.

It’s not everyday a foundermember of Esri visits your booth!

Insert: The ArcGISRuntime SDK for .NETis starting to make 3Dglobal mapping in realtime more accessible.



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eurofile


THE CONFERENCE THEME WAS CONVERGENCE: Policies +Practices + Processes via Public Private Partnership. The firstplenary session started with this theme and had mainlypublic sector speakers; geospatial technology trendsfeatured Hexagon, Esri and Topcon as well as DG Connectand Italian and Dutch environment organisations; geospatialplatform enabling workflows was entirely commercial –Oracle, Bentley, SiRF and TomTom; while the final sessionentitled ‘Geospatial practices driving policies’ was all publicsector including Vanessa Lawrence on behalf of UN GGIM.

Thematic sessions came under three headings –Policy and Technology; User Segments; and SpecialSessions. Five out of seven special sessions were devotedto INSPIRE including the latest ‘State of Play’, progress inimplementation, interoperability in practice, from theINSPIRE engine room, and European SDI success stories.One of the latter, from Savania Chinamaringa of Defra,was Assessing the Value, Impacts and Benefits ofINSPIRE: The UK Framework & Approach. There were noother UK based contributions to these sessions.

In contrast the Smart Cities session featured six UKcontributors including Lynne Nicholson from Land Registry;Carsten Roensdorf of OS International and Iain Langlandfrom Glasgow City Council. Tony Mulhall from RICS

described the need to consider both smart cities and smartbuildings – two rather different scales. I picked out thefinal recommendation of a report to the Leeds City Council

executive board: ‘Support the direction toall managers and services to commit tomake all non-person sensitive data openand published on the Leeds Data Mill’.Will the Yorkshire mills come to life again?And in Carsten’s presentation there is amap of OS International’s projectsworldwide with most being in the MiddleEast, Africa and south east Asia.

More than 20 years ago I attendedthe forerunner of the INSPIRE conferencewhich was a European GIS meeting in asingle small office in Brussels – about 30delegates around a single table! When Istarted Eurofile in 2005 I opened with areport on the INSPIRE meeting in Algheroin Sardinia where there were perhaps twoor three hundred participants all waitingfor the INSPIRE Directive. Compared tomany EU programmes INSPIRE has been avery open and transparent process withcontributions from all countries and

sectors. No one can say they had no chance to influencethe outcomes and many erstwhile sceptics have had toadmit that publishing their data has led to improvementsin its quality and much greater use for applications thatwere completely unforeseen.

Eircodes Last year I visited Dublin and reported on thepreparations for the introduction of Irish ‘postcodes’. Theywere launched in July this year and are now known asEircodes. Unlike UK postcodes, which group an averageof 20 addresses into each unit postcode, there is a uniqueEircode for every individual address in Ireland. An Eircodehas a 3 character ‘routing key’ which appears to be theequivalent of the 2, 3 or 4 digit ‘post town’ codes in theUK and there are just 139 of these for the whole ofIreland. The remaining four characters identify eachunique address but have no structure and are completelyarbitrary. This means that there is no built in ‘hierarchy’ tocompare with the areas, districts and sectors of the UKpostcodes. Each flat in a block has a unique code.

One instant reaction is that it ‘Works great forproperty tax, water charges & TV licence but doesn’t makeany sense for deliveries, navigation, or the emergencyservices!’ The system has been created and is managed by

Capita and was said to have been set up to ‘level theplaying field’ for competitors to An Post which has neverneeded to create postcodes because its ‘posties’ localknowledge was thought sufficient for all deliveries despitethe many duplicate addresses in the country. Ireland is thelast EU country to implement a postcode system.

CORINE One of the EUs earliest geographic projectswas Coordination of Information on the Environment(CORINE) which dates back to the 1980s. It set out tomonitor European land use and land cover through timeand the latest iteration has recently been published. TheUK partner is currently Leicester University and they havejust released the Land Cover map (shown on the left) for2012 and one showing the changes since 2006. Notsurprisingly the land cover showing most change was theforestry areas that have been harvested – over 100,000hectares over the six years – and the change of use fromforestry to mineral extraction and wind farming –particularly in Scotland. But still only 8% of the nation iscovered with ‘artificial surfaces’ a.k.a. urban settlement.

The ongoing project, which is making extensiveuse of the most advanced satellite remote sensingand new high-resolution (layers HRLs), will belaunched this October with commercial partners.

INSPIRE GWF The annual European INSPIRE conference was held in collaboration with the Geospatial World Forum in Lisbon at the end of May. By manyaccounts it was a success, attracting over 1700 participants from over 100 countries

although, unsurprisingly at least 75% came from Europe. It seems strange then that nextyear INSPIRE and GWF will separate again to Barcelona and Rotterdam respectively.

• Robin Waters isFeatures Editor ofGiSPro and anindependent consultantwho has workedextensively in severalEuropean countries andhas a keen interest inEU's INSPIRE Directiveand its implementation.



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AGI column


. . . we bring tothe debate anunderstandingof place and

moreimportantly the

ability tocommunicate

this effectivelyto all corners of

society.

“

“AS I WRITE, the summer holiday season is approachingand it seems a good time to take stock of the year so farand to look ahead to a busy autumn. We’ve passed animportant milestone with the formal launch of AGI’s EarlyCareer Network, which has seen a fantastic responsefrom across the membership and been met withwidespread enthusiasm - not least amongst significantemployers of GI professionals. If you have been workingin the industry for less than ten years follow the links onthe AGI website to find out how you can get involved!

So far we’ve hosted four of this year’s Geo: Big 5events with the Future Cities: Security event inLondon held in early July. We’ve also been makinggreat progress on the 2015 AGI Foresight Report,which will be published in late autumn with aninspiring set of contributions coming together underthe leadership of our former chair Anne Kemp.

In keeping with other Geo:Big 5 events, the FutureCities: Security event brought together a really greatspeaker line up. Chaired by Doug Specht of Voz, theworkshop style atmosphere of the event provided a reallygood opportunity to explore emerging issues and thewider role of the GI profession. High impact statistics likeLondon’s population growing by the equivalent of a fulltube train every three days certainly focused the mind!

Speakers such as former MP Dan Byles (LivingPlanIT) discussed the potential to address issues we’realready facing in cities around the globe (utilities,transportation, housing) and to improve the quality oflife. Where is the role for geographers? Liane Hartley(Urbanistas UK) made the case that the role of thecommunity as “client and commissioner” in the FutureCity was vital but often missed. As geographers, webring to the debate an understanding of place and moreimportantly the ability to communicate this effectively tosociety. There is an increasing need to bridge the gapbetween technology and communities, which fits wellwith AGI’s mission to further the use of GI for thebenefit of citizens, good governance and commerce.

Volunteers make the difference During the firstweek of June, Ordnance Survey with AGI’s StandardsGroup hosted the 40th plenary of ISO TC211. During thatweek I had the pleasure of meeting and discussing the roleof AGI with a delegation from the Indonesian NationalMapping Agency. They were very interested in the workwe do, to understand our commitment to professionalskills development, to explore what AGI has achieved andespecially to understand the level of work undertaken byour volunteers. I was reminded that we should be veryproud of the work volunteers do and the range of newinitiatives and events we facilitate for members. Wesometimes forget that many other countries do not have

this level of community and connection.August sees the 5th meeting of the United Nations

Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial InformationManagement (or UN-GGIM for short). The UK isrepresented by OSGB and ONS, and works with memberstates to improve policy, institutional and legal frameworksfor member states. The AGI was asked to collectivelycomment on the reports, which fed into UN-GGIM lastyear, and has been invited to do so again this year. All AGImembers were invited to comment on the papers this yearwith our Policy SIG seeking to do collaboratively across ourmembership. Is this something you are interested in beinginvolved with? Consider joining the Policy SIG by [email protected]. Recommendations from UN-GGIM isexpected to point the direction of future member statespending so it’s worth keeping an eye on this.

Big Data, anonymisation and GeoComm EarlyOctober sees the last Geo:Big 5 event for 2015 - “BigData and You” hosted by AGI Cymru in Cardiff. BigData last year was a really thought provoking event,and raised important questions around privacy and bigdata. In particular geospatial is recognised as being animportant key to ensuring anonymisation of personaldata. This is a theme which the event will explore

further. The call for papers closes on August 13th.Our events volunteers have also been working hard

on organising the “GeoCom Resilient Future” annualconference to be held in Warwick from 23rd-25thNovember. The speaker line-up looks great and it’s superto see so many of the SIGs taking a lead on hosting thevarious sessions. For those of you who attended lastyear, I think you’ll agree that it was a superb event. TheIcebreaker dinner kicks off the conference, followed bytwo days of conference. Once again, we are roundingoff GeoCom with the AGI Awards for GeoSpatialExcellence on the evening of 25th November. Last yearthe AWG rebranded the event to give the evening andthe awards the prominence they deserve. Many of our2014 Award winners remarked about the high regardboth they, and also clients have given to not onlygaining an award, but also being shortlisted. In 2014 weexpanded the range of entries to ensure there wereopportunities for all to enter. I would highly recommendyou take a look at the award entries and submit anentry. Once again, we have put together a range ofearly-bird packages for GeoCom and the Awards andthese are available until the end of September.

Have a great summer however you choose tospend it and once again, keep an eye on the new AGIsite, our LinkedIn pages and the @GeoCommunitytwitter feed to find out more about what AGI is doingand how you can get involved!!

Busy autumn ahead. Can you help? Once summer is over and we’re back to work there’s plenty to do as AGI Chair David Henderson relates.

David Henderson is ageospatial professionalwith a geographer’s heart.He is the Head of ProductManagement &Development at OrdnanceSurvey and is serving asAGI’s Chair in 2015.


Embracingcustomer

expectations andthe opportunities

afforded bycloud services, is

indicative ofstrong demand

for cost-effective,place-basedsolutions.

“

“

FAST, EASY ACCESS to accurate and up-to-datelocation data for insurance purposes is thecornerstone of a partnership between the hazardmodelling specialist JBA Risk Management and thegeospatial services provider emapsite.

Building on an initial collaboration, emapsite haslaunched an enhanced customer offering. It enables

insurers to receive newly available JBA dataseamlessly through a ‘Data-as-a-Service’ (DaaS) on-demand location content platform.

Mature platform The platform began deliveringweb mapping and address search web services in2006. Since then, the development of demand-driven, problem-solving location content andassociated delivery models has enriched theplatform. At the same time, there has been bothmarket and technical innovation by customers suchas insurance provider Flood Excess Insurance.Embracing customer expectations and theopportunities afforded by cloud services, is indicativeof strong demand for cost-effective, place-basedsolutions. Typically these include risk analysis,optimal risk selection and point-of-sale pricing.

Recently added JBA datasets include AnnualDamage Ratio (ADR) data, which quantifies ameasure of risk for pricing purposes. Also included

are the Europe Flood Map (EFM) and the Global FloodMap (GFM), both incorporating the most consistentelevation models available to identify locations at risk.

Chris Netherton, CEO of Flood Excess, explains:“We have successfully applied the new ADR data tothe pricing and operational processes behind our riskanalysis proposition for households. We will shortly belaunching a commercial version, extending thebenefits to offices, small factories, retailers and otherbusiness premises. We’ve outsourced supply toemapsite who provide a valuable liaison functionbetween ourselves and JBA, together with onlineaccess to the ADR data via our XML web services.”

With ADR, the annual flood damage expected at aparticular location is quantified on the basis of a givenrisk type and property structure. Annualised losses areexpressed as a proportion of the unit value insured.

ADR data can be developed for any location,including at property level, where JBA has hazard maps.In the UK, ADR data are provided for river, coastal andsurface water flooding and combine well with otherproperty-level datasets on emapsite’s platform includingaddress data from Ordnance Survey.

Global and European solutions The GFM isdesigned to give a comprehensive view of flood hazardat an international scale. It includes all the world’swatercourses and provides flood extents and depths forriver and surface water flooding over multiple returnperiods. The consistency of the GFM simplifies theassessment of exposure across multi-national portfolios.

The EFM meanwhile provides consistent mappingacross 13 European countries. It allows hazards to beeasily compared between any or all of the countriescovered and provides undefended river flood hazardmapping at up to 10m resolution.

Emapsite is currently exploring additional tools thatcan be used to aid risk assessment. They include datacleansing, normalisation and ‘mash-ups’ of market andcustomer-specific content for accumulations,visualisation and dashboards. Users who will benefitinclude insurers, underwriters, loss adjusters, claimsmanagers and other property or asset managers.

Place-based insight will be offered at different

Insurers chart course to location datafor perils management Millions of households and

businesses across the UK are affected by the risk of flooding. Understanding the locationsof these properties is an essential precursor to assessing exposure, underwriting risk,

setting insurance premiums and managing claims. The arrival of new data and deliveryplatforms also supports the analysis of perils such as crime, subsidence and even the

impact of revaluation on debt payments, says Simon Goodwin.

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emapsite

FLOODED OUT – Asubmerged road signby the River Ouse inYork. Picture by RonHudson.


granularities to reflect customer sentiment and theresolution of the data. Customers will be able to selectsector or customer-specific ‘risk’ features from the dataenrichment portfolio on emapsite’s platform. This willinclude features from JBA datasets and their own datasources. Visualisation controls enable alternative,additional insights that can amplify the raw data. Asimple example for flood risk assessment would be toillustrate the proximity of a stream to a property in thecontext of the surrounding terrain. Emapsite’s platformhosts a variety of terrain and risk content including theNational Tree Map, indicating tree proximity as well asheight and canopy cover, and property hazard data. Allsuch factors can be relevant in assessing the potentialrisk of subsidence and other natural perils.

Emapsite continues to add perils data to itsplatform from licensed, open and proprietarysources with both interrogation and visualisationavailable to inform risk assessment whether forinsurance, property development or assetmanagement purposes.

Perils of property indebtedness Specifically onthe commercial side, the risk of retail propertyindebtedness can also be assessed. A consequenceof falling property values, this is where landlords maybe unable to invest in shops or shopping centres yetremain unwilling to sell or write off their debts. Theycan also be slow to cut rents as they have to earn aminimum rental income to keep up with loan or debtpayments. The result is often run-down, shuttered-up or empty shops, so-called ‘distressed’ properties.Identifying hot-spots of retail property distress can,as with other risks, impact on insurance.

Emapsite’s PlansAhead platform has been a stalwartof the Planning Portal since 2008 with tools for viewingand marking up documents for use in the planningapplication process. These tools are integral toemapsite’s new Screens portfolio and form part of the

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toolset available when assessing risk. Users can createon-screen mark-ups, annotate shapes and make othernotes relating to the specific property view. They canoutput views and information as PDFs and JPGs showingthe JBA risk outline and any other overlay or mark-upwhat they want to see. This capability particularlysupports non-standard and case underwriting but, asthe roll call of PlansAhead users illustrates, use cases canbe found across road traffic accidents, loss adjustment,retail development and sales.

Both JBA and emapsite are confident that userswill see a return on investment as ever more detailedlocation data becomes embedded in and integral toinsurance domains such as risk management, claimsmanagement, counter-fraud and marketing.

Jill Boulton, Director of JBA Risk Management,comments: “Our partnership with emapsite alreadyoffers insurers swift, high-performance access toessential data to inform their analysis and decisions.The additions that emapsite is making to its on-demand content delivery platform will enable moreinsurers to realise business value immediately by nolonger having to deal with costly IT deployments,training and maintenance.”

James Cutler, emapsite CEO, adds: “JBA’srecognised leadership in hazard modelling andcommitment to helping insurers manage and mitigaterisk make them an ideal partner. We are proud ofwhat we have achieved to date with JBA and areexcited to add the ADR and other data to our locationcontent platform. This work complements otherpartnerships we have with organisations whose data iswidely used in the insurance sector such as OrdnanceSurvey and the British Geological Survey.”

As well as the definitive addressing of residentialand commercial properties in the UK, emapsite’slocation data portfolio includes topographic basemapping, aerial imagery, 3D terrain data and theage, construction type and footprint of buildings.

emapsite

About the authorSimon Goodwin has

extensive experience inbuilding and maintainingcustomer relationships in

the insurance sector.Since 2003, he has

worked with a range ofUK and global insuranceorganisations including

primary insurers,reinsurers and brokers. He

works for emapsite asbusiness development

manager for the banking,finance and insurancesectors. In this role, he

ensures key partnersbring complementary,

best-in-class capabilitiesto emapsite clients.www.emapsite.com

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It is nowmaking a

landfall to stirup greatercommunity

engagementand leave a trail

of efficiencysavings

wherever itgoes.

“

“

THE POTENTIAL FOR THE USE OF DIGITAL MAPPING andGIS in local government has taken a long time to take offamongst the lower tiers like parish and town councils.There have been several delaying factors including thecost of software, cost and licence restrictions on data,and very fragmented council structures with manydifferent silos ‘doing their own thing’.

There’s a perfect storm raging in localgovernment at the moment, but not one of thosebad ones that ruins fishing boats. This is a muchmore positive storm and it revolves aroundcommunities and innovative GIS tools. It’s reallyabout three separate storms that have been brewingoffshore for several years and have now coalescedinto one. It is now making a landfall to stir up greatercommunity engagement and leave a trail ofefficiency savings wherever it goes.

The GIS Storm The first storm comes from localcouncils. Whether towns, parishes or communities,these organisations are the front line in localgovernment and are charged with protecting andimproving our environment and way of life at themost local level. Since the 2011 Localism Act thesecouncils have been stirred and are now offeredgreater powers and responsibilities in an effort to findnew, efficient and professional ways of managingtheir local area. By reducing the amount of legislationand control placed upon them they are freer to dowhat’s right for their corner of Great Britain.These devolved powers mean that a parish or town

council’s task now includes managing assets, developing

Neighbourhood Plans, installing new infrastructure,ensuring local resilience, reviewing planning applicationsand protecting and defining an area’s character, amongmany others. All these activities have geography at theircore; whether it’s a postcode, a political boundary or theexact position of an asset. At this point, those in thegeospatial-know would immediately employ some GIStools to manage, view and analyse this information. Butlocal councils, many of which have a skeleton crew of apart time clerk and a few volunteer councillors, havenever heard of GIS and how it could make their lives somuch easier. This leads this one storm into the path ofanother: online GIS.This second storm has been on the horizon for

many years now. There are many online GIS / web GIS /hosted platform / SaaS / cloud-based (whatever youwant to call it) solutions out there, all with their ownspecialities, USPs and quirks but none cateringspecifically for the parish or town council sector. So in2009 Getmapping created Parish Online, a GIS webportal that councils can subscribe to, providing key GIS

functions required to manage their increasedresponsibilities. It has a wide range of mapping datasetsincluding Ordnance Survey’s PSMA stack, aerialphotography, EA flood data as well as a large collectionof other public sector layers. Combined with assetmanagement, neighbourhood planning and routeanalysis tools to build up their own GIS layers, ParishOnline brings them into the 21st century and helps thedecision making to become a ‘smart parish’.With nearly 1,000 town and parish councils

subscribed to the service to date, each paying anaverage of £74 per annum, it’s proven to be anessential tool for both large and small councils. Therange of uses now far exceeds the product’s originalremit of simply providing digital mapping over theweb. A key example is for creating NeighbourhoodPlans for which local councils are compiling largeamounts of information to help design the future oftheir towns and villages. This activity cansubstantially increase their income, as a completedNeighbourhood Plan entitles them to 25% ofCommunity Infrastructure Levy (CIL) payments fromdevelopers instead of the current 15%. This givesthem an incentive to strengthen their position whenconsidering development projects over which they

Online GIS and a perfect storm forlocal government The author thinks we have been using the wrong metaphors. We shouldn’t allude to aircraft taking off but to storms and perfect ones at that,

argues Chris Mewse. Getmapping has been in the forefront of providing aerial imagery and otherservices for many years, as well as promoting the benefits of collaborative on-line mapping.

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Above: A typical villagegreen that parishcouncils seek to protectand manage.


online GIS


have been given many morepowers. In an exercise thatneeds to be so evidence-driven,having access to definitivedigital mapping from a rangeof sources is absolutelyparamount. Much of this datacomes from the district andcounty councils which holdspatial information such asdrainage, highways assets,public rights of way, council-owned land, to namebut a few. And this leads us to the third storm. Butthis storm was largely distant, at sea, uninterested.Since the economic downturn in 2009, local

authorities have been put under immense pressure toimprove public services as well as save money. Thisinitially began as a whipping up of internal processes,streamlining and cutting the fat from operations. Buttoday in the second big wave of cuts with most of thefat already trimmed, it’s the public services that are inthe firing line - libraries, waste collection and heaven-forbid, middle management (in jest)! But with therumblings in the distance of local councils awakening,the upper tier local authorities have seen an opportunityto tackle a task that saves money and promoteslocalism: engage more with the towns and parishes.A few years ago, with the exception of a few

forward-thinking examples, you could have askedany county or district what support they provided totowns and parishes. The answer would have been‘we don’t get involved with parishes’, or ‘not a lot,we supply some paper maps occasionally and thatseems to keep them off our back’. But with thisopportunity to engage a willing audience (and with anudge of high pressure from above) that attitude ischanging fast. Now you’ll hear ‘how do we go aboutproviding these layers for our parishes?’ and ‘I hearthis online thing is really good value as a groupsubscription, I’d like to do that for our parishes.’And with that the third storm joins the party and a

supercell is created! Local authorities want to savemoney and deliver services more efficiently. Localcouncils want more data, tools and power to do thosejobs. Online GIS is the right tool, the data sharingplatform that allows this all to happen easily and cost-effectively. Ultimately the solution is for both theauthority and the local council to use the online GIS andthe cost savings and efficiencies follow with ease.Local authorities such as Bath & North East

Somerset work in partnership with Getmapping andwere heavily involved in pioneering the concept anddeveloping Parish Online. All 50 parish councils withinB&NES use the system, with 77% using it on a regularbasis, and with the unitary authority feeding dailyinformation into the system, clerks and councillorsknow that they can rely on the mapping information tomake informed decisions for their community. ForMartin Laker, GIS officer at B&NES it started off as an

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efficiency drive. “It began as a simple way of providingdigital maps to my parishes so that we spent less timecreating, printing and emailing maps. Six years later andwith Parish Online as a mature online product and witha dedicated annual mapping event for clerks it’sbrought the authority and parishes closer together sothat we can work in a more coherent and unified way.All the clerks think it’s a big improvement from thesiloed ways of working that we had before. The costsavings are easy to find through reduction in localauthority time and resources, but the main benefits aremuch larger in the positive effect it has on eachcommunity”. B&NES now use their own version ofGetmapping’s Online GIS, acting as their primary sourcefor web mapping within the authority. This compoundsthe benefit as the mapping is within one ecosystem andeasy to share with all interested parties.

Online GIS Getmapping has invested heavily inonline GIS for Parishes for over six years, withimportance placed on the infrastructure that thesoftware is hosted from, the ease of use and the end-use applications to help the local councils. Includingunlimited access to high-resolution mapping andaerial photography was the first easy step and sincethen tools such as AddressBase search, editing,printing to PDF, INSPIRE-compliant layers, spatialsearch and Street Layer have been added. Panoramicstreet-level imagery captured specifically for localauthorities and local councils is just another innovativefeature that gives users compelling ROI cases as wellas quick decision-making capabilities.


Above: Adeveloping/draft

neighbourhood planfor Brixworth Parish

Council.

Below: Two ofGetmapping’s survey

vehicles; Rockwellaircraft and Street

Layer car.


online GIS

West Sussex County Council also uses Parish Online.It wanted to demonstrate that it took the Localism Actseriously and to show their commitment and support tothe work of local councils. In 2014 they took out athree-year subscription to Parish Online, loaded essentialmapping layers into it and tasked their team of principalcommunity officers (PCOs) to help promote its benefits,provide tutorials and engage with the town and parishcouncils on projects that were important to them suchas devolved responsibilities. Services such as grasscutting and asset maintenance were high on the agendaand the use of mapping has led to a more accurate andconsistent view. Local councils can now accurately markout the areas that need maintenance, send out accuratetender documents, choose their own supplier and seethe results. The benefits are reduced reliance on thecounty council, better value for money, a greater use oflocal businesses and a better service to the public.

Elaine Munns from the strategic planning division ofWest Sussex County Council explains the importance ofa partnership with Parish Online and her local councils inachieving the county’s goals: “It’s important that thesecouncils have the right tools for the job. Digital mappingis a powerful aid and can assist them by providinglocation intelligence and a unified view from the countycouncil right down to the towns and parishes. By usingGetmapping’s cloud-based technology, access to this

information is easy, consistent and cost-effective. All thisenables informed decision-making which is in line withour ultimate aim to make the towns and villages in WestSussex great places to live and work”.At Getmapping we believe that the storm is still

growing stronger but relies on forward-thinking andproactive GIS officers at district and county level tokick-start initiatives. The workflows for making thishappen are now mature and easy to adopt, the ParishOnline team are well-versed in implementation, andthe ROI business case is a no-brainer when it comesto presenting to the chief exec.Weather-based analogies aside, the combination

of people, processes and data sharing can only leadto a more joined-up local government structure,better working communities and a vision of reducingcosts AND improving public services.

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About the authorChris Mewse manages theBusiness Innovation teamat Getmapping responsiblefor the creation of newgeospatial web services tobenefit customers andpartners. Working in theUK and Africa he hasexperience in a range ofdisciplines including surveyequipment design, projectmanagement, webplatform design and GISconsultancy.

Above: Map showing location of assets andproposed new homes in a Parish Online account.


online GIS


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Flood mapping onlineFollowing an agreement betweenaerial mapping company Blueskyand hazard mapping specialistsJBA Risk Management, visitors toBluesky’s online mapshop cannow view and download a highresolution flood map for thewhole of the UK. Detailing perilfrom six different types offlooding, the ComprehensiveFlood Map (CFM) is a leading toolfor flood insurance underwritersand is used by over 70% of theUK insurance industry.

Rachel Tidmarsh, Bluesky’sMD adds, “The winter of2013-14 was the wettestwinter on record, and it isestimated that insurers paidout over £446 million in claimsto customers whose homes,businesses and vehicles wereflooded – the equivalent of£6.7 million per day!”

Easy GNSS for GISGNSS receiver manufacturerSeptentrio has announced anew software suite calledPinPoint-GIS to make GIS datacollection and visualizationstraightforward. PinPoint-GISprovides several methods ofdata collection, based on astandard web browser hostedon the Altus APS-NR2 and amobile app integrated withEsri’s ArcGIS or other GISmapping system.

Any user of PinPoint-GISbenefits from bringing the datacollection process into theirfamiliar GIS environment. Datacollected with Altus andSeptentrio receivers is directlyavailable in the user’s GISapplication to be processed intothe database without anyintermediary steps, greatlyreducing the time and complexityof the collection process.

Pegasus:BackpackLeica Geosystems hasannounced a mobile mappingsystem in a backpack. It consists


of five highdynamic rangecameras, which work in avariety of light conditions, and aLiDAR profiler with an ultra-light and ergonomic carbon-fibre chassis. The system createsa 3D view indoors or outdoors.GNSS, inertial measurementand Simultaneous Localisationand Mapping (SLAM)technologies are used toposition the sensors.

Unity manages waterutility networksTrimble has announced a newversion of its smart watermapping and workmanagement cloud software,Trimble Unity. The version 2.0adds new capabilities to supportcomplex water, wastewater andstormwater industry assetmaintenance planning and workexecution workflows, supportfor “bring your own device”GNSS mapping receivers forsmart devices and cloud-basedsingle sign-on integration withEsri ArcGIS Online. Mobileworkers can now connect theirmobile devices via Bluetooth tothe Trimble R1 GNSS receiver, aGNSS receiver with sub-metreaccuracy or the SpectraPrecision MobileMapper 300receiver that supports up tocentimetre-level accuracy.

Unity version 2.0 alsofeatures asset maintenancecapabilities to allow utilitycustomers to quickly search andgroup various types of utilityassets, including meters,pipelines, valves and hydrants,into prioritized collections ofwork that can be easily assignedto crews for completion. Thenew features enable utilities toreduce the time and costassociated with water assetrepair and installation work.

PocketGIS for AndroidPositioning Resources hasannounced an Android basedversion of their PocketGIS

software. Technical director NeilSutherland explains “with therevolution in Android phoneand tablet technology,PocketGIS is now poised to takeadvantage of Android’scapabilities, releasing thecustomer to utilise thetechnology they may alreadyhave in their pocket.”

PocketGIS Evolution onAndroid can capture uniformdata, enhancing the efficiencyof any workforce, andproviding an intuitive mobiledata collection system. Onscreen, mapping is viewedand manipulated via acustomisable interface. Forattributing, data fields can be

set up with multiple choice,standard or cascading pick listtables, with quick rememberof commonly used entries. Tomake the process on sitemore efficient, automaticupdate wil l insert contentbased on default or last entryoptions. Photos, bar codes,RFID and cable locators canall be directly l inked tocapture data. Datamanagement is achieved viathe cloud, email or manualtransfer, uti l is ing WiFi,Bluetooth, and mobilecomms, providing a direct linkto the office. Import andexport is by common dataformats.

There is more news of products and services on our website at www.pvpubs.com To get your company featured on this page call Sharon Robson on +44 (0)1438 352617


products & services

Zeno Collector for ArcGIS

A new solution that enables users to capture, manage and share theirdata, regardless if they’re in the office or the field, without sacrificingprecision or interoperability has been announced by LeicaGeosystems. The Leica Zeno 20 rugged, an Android-based handheld,has combined with Esri’s Collector for ArcGIS, one of the mostpowerful and configurable field data collection apps in the world.ZenoCollector with an ArcGIS Online organisational subscription forone year connects users to the ArcGIS platform, automaticallysynching field changes to information and giving everyone access tothe latest data gathered in the field. Collector for ArcGIS also supportsoffline data collection. Any updates will be synchronised with themap once the user is reconnected.

“Esri and Leica Geosystems recognise that enterprises may haveparticular field data collection challenges that smartphones can’tideally meet,” said Esri president Jack Dangermond. “We’re excited tocombine Collector for ArcGIS with Leica Geosystems’ industry-standard surveying units to create a more rugged and accuratesolution for the more exacting needs of organisations.”

calendarIssue No 65 August 2015

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| seminars | conferences | exhibitions | courses | events | workshops | symposiums |We welcome advance details of conferences, seminars, exhibitions and other events which are likely to be of interest to the GIS community. Please mention the name of the event, venue, date and point of contact for further information and send to Jason PooleGISPro, 2B North Road, Stevenage, Herts SG1 4AT or e-mail: [email protected].

BCS-SoC Mapping Together8-10th September 2015, York, UKwww.cartography.org.uk

IMMERSION 20157-10th September 2015, Paris-Sorbonne University, Francehttp://summit.immersiveeducation.org

InterDrone9-11th September 2015, Las Vegas, USAhttp://www.geoconnexion.com/events/interdrone/

Intergeo15-17th September 2015, Stuttgart, Germanywww.intergeo.de

AGI: The changing face of data within the water industry29th September, 2015, Exeter University, Exeter, UKhttp://www.agi.org.uk/events/calendar

Blue Marble User Conference 20156th October 2015, Arlington, USAhttp://www.geoconnexion.com/events/annual-user-conference/

Geo:Big 5 - Big Data & You8th October 2015, SWALEC Stadium, Cardiff, UKhttp://www.agi.org.uk/events/calendar

Esri European User Conference 201514-16th October 2015, Salzburg, Germanyhttp://www.geoconnexion.com/events/esri-european-user-conference-2016/

Commercial UAV Show20-21st October 2015, ExCel, London, UKwww.terrapinn.com

GeoCom: Resilient Futures23-25th November 2015, Warwick, UKhttp://www.agi.org.uk/events/calendar

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ADVERTISERS INDEX

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AGI

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ClassifiedTo reserve space in the next issue callSharon Robson on +44 (0)1438 352617

Leica Geosystems LtdHexagon House, Michigan Drive, Tongwell,Milton Keynes, MK15 8HTTel: 01908 [email protected]

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It’s about language and ambiguity - gis-professional.com · Stop the navel-gazing about language! ... Great to see how this new industry is developing. ... h eUK a ndE u ro p im