PR - Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council
is sharing the latest aerial photography from Bluesky with thousands of council
staff, local school children and visitors to the Council’s website.
The highly
detailed imagery is being served to 4,000 desktops via the Councils intranet
based geographical information system (GIS) aiding decision making and improving
service delivery across a number of diverse projects and applications. The
Bluesky aerial imagery, part of the GeoPerspectives product range, is also being
used as a classroom learning resource by more than 50,000 local school children,
aged between 4 and 16, and visitors to Dudley Council’s acclaimed Walkzone
website who will use the imagery to plan walking routes within the Black Country
borough.
Users of the Council’s intranet based GIS, GIS-MO
‘Getting Information Simply – Mapping Online’, can access the GeoPerspectives
imagery to support decision-making and improve service delivery. The photography
provides additional detail, not available from conventional mapping, is easy to
use and easy to interpret. “The imagery is used across the organisation
providing additional intelligence and reducing the need for site visits,” said
Brian Higgs, Corporate GIS Unit Manager. He continued, “In addition to the 325
professional users, who create and maintain data, more than 3,500 PCs have
accessed the imagery, that’s 92% of the Council’s Network. Some of applications
are surprising, for example initial evaluation of properties where child care
support has been requested can be undertaken at the desktop where potential
risks, such as swimming pools and ponds, are instantly
visible.”
The Bluesky imagery is also being used to power Dudley’s
highly popular online resource Walkzone, which encourages and supports physical
activity by residents of the West Midlands town. Using the aerial photography
more than 800 visitors a month are planning walking routes, calculating exercise
times and even estimating the number of steps per walk. “Not only does the
imagery draw people to the site, it encourages repeat visits,” commented Higgs.
“In addition by monitoring where and when people are walking we can feed
information back into other service areas and strategy developments such as
transport, community safety and green spaces.”
“As we hope to
demonstrate the use of aerial photography is only really limited by the
imagination. Walking into a classroom and seeing a group of 4 year olds
confidently using the imagery, planning routes to school and gaining additional
knowledge and understanding of their locality is a real eye opener,” concluded
Higgs.
Dudley Council is a long-term user of aerial photography
holding survey images dating back as far as the 1940’s. “The Bluesky imagery is
the perfect complement to our existing data. The quality and level of detail is
excellent, in fact almost indistinguishable from data purporting to be of a
higher resolution.” The Bluesky imagery was captured, using the latest digital
imaging technology, in 2007 at a resolution of
10cm.
GeoPerspectives is a joint venture between BlueSky and
Infoterra providing national coverage of orthorectified aerial photography,
digital terrain & surface models (DTM/DSM) for 3D modelling, and colour
infra-red imagery (CIR) for vegetation analysis.
About GeoPerspectives
GeoPerspectives delivers the most
comprehensive range of airborne acquired geospatial data for England and Wales.
GeoPerspectives uses the latest technology to capture the most accurate aerial
photography, colour infra-red imagery and digital terrain & surface models.
Only GeoPerspectives offers existing national orthorectified aerial imagery and
a guaranteed rolling five-year update programme. The data is used by government,
commercial and academic professionals, including the Department for Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), Highways Agency, Yorkshire Water and over 240 UK
Local Authorities. GeoPerspectives is a joint venture between Infoterra
Ltd and BlueSky International
Ltd.
www.geoperspectives.co.uk
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