Bluesky National Tree Map helps Central Bedfordshire plan property survey
A digital map of tree canopy cover developed by aerial mapping specialist Bluesky is helping Central Bedfordshire Council determine how many trees are on land under control of the council's housing department. A study undertaken by consultancy Landscape Planning compared the national tree map data with layers from the council's geographical information system (GIS). Scripts were developed to identify council-owned dwellings and land holdings requiring a visit for tree surveys as well as the number of trees at each location. "By using Bluesky's National Tree Map data we were able to overcome many potential issues associated with the use of just aerial photographs," said Oisin Kelly, principal consultant at Landscape Planning. "Because the [map] has been created to a set of quantitative criteria it means the scoping exercise we undertook is repeatable." By comparing council data with the tree map, Landscape Planning were able to identify 2,985 dwellings containing trees. By excluding some trees based on size this figure was reduced to 2,058 dwellings containing 2,101 trees of six metres or taller. "Based on these results we have been able to screen out many properties from our upcoming survey of trees in tenants' gardens, providing significant cost savings," said Steve Glazebrook, consultant to Central Bedfordshire Council.
Pictured: A section of the National Tree Map
Bluesky National Tree Map: www.bluesky-world.com/#!national-tree-map/c1pqz
Ordnance Survey signs new five-year agreement with Openreach
Ordnance Survey has entered into a new five-year agreement with Openreach worth more than £23 million for the supply of a range of data products, services and value added solutions.
Openreach, a part of BT Group, is responsible for the copper wires and fibre connecting homes and businesses to their local telephone exchanges. The five-year agreement, worth £4.6 million per year, enables Openreach to supply Ordnance Survey data to contractors to support engineering and maintenance projects. Under the agreement, Openreach will access a range of Ordnance Survey's premium datasets including OS MasterMap Topography Layer, OS MasterMap Integrated Transport Network Layer, OS VectorMap Local and 1:50 000 Scale Colour Raster. The agreement also includes a range of addressing solutions providing an intelligent suite of products to support operational and insight work. The agreement will also see Openreach extending their use of Ordnance Survey's web mapping service, OS OnDemand. The service enables Openreach, and their engineers, to access detailed and up-to-date data, providing information on road geometry, house numbers, landmarks and building names. Other collaborations include exploring the introduction and utilisation of an asset tagger solution and understanding how Ordnance Survey can support Openreach in mapping their assets, such as street fibre cabinets.
Ordnance Survey: www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk
Openreach: www.openreach.co.uk
FCO Services cloud platform awarded IL3 accreditation
FCO Services, a trading fund of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office providing secure ICT services to UK public sector bodies, has announced has received Pan Government Accreditation for its cloud platform, Government Secure Applications Environment (GSAE).
The accreditation is up to business impact level 3 (IL3), suitable for use at Official level under new Government security classifications. The platform includes Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), providing access to virtual servers and storage to allow departments to move their services to the cloud; and Platform as a Service (PaaS), providing the hardware and operating environment to allow departments to host applications. The GSAE platform is already in use by several government departments. It operates from FCO Services' UK-based secure facilities, on secure government owned sites.
FCO Services : www.fcoservices.gov.uk
UK Hydrographic Office delivers maritime intelligence to Ministry of Defence
The UK Hydrographic Office (UKHO) Defence Maritime Geospatial Services (DMarGS) capability has been launched on the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) Defence Information Infrastructure. The service, developed with geospatial systems specialist Envitia, delivers UKHO's Digital Defence Maritime Charts and other maritime geospatial products and services to the wider UK MOD community in support of situational awareness and mission planning activities, the office says. DMarGS is accessed through an Open Standards Portal running within a standard web browser, without the need for plug-ins. Users have access to all the UKHO's Chart and Maritime Products visible using OGC Web Services. Other value-added services are available through the portal, delivered using web processing service interfaces, such as cross sections, total tide and oceanographic profiles of sound-speed and salinity.
A UKHO case study can be downloaded from: www.envitia.com/resources
