March 30, 2015
Review of the Cadcorp Housing Conference 2015
Housing associations are fast recognising that geographic information systems (GIS) and web mapping can be used to support a range of operational and strategic activities, which are limited only by their own imagination. That was the overriding message that emerged from a conference sponsored by British software developer, Cadcorp, which supplies GIS and web mapping software to social housing organisations throughout the UK.
More than eighty people attended the conference held in both Manchester and London, in the first week of February. Entitled ‘Mapping the future of housing’ the conference was an opportunity for housing professionals to learn from the best practices of others.
It has long been known that geographic information systems can be funded on the back of the cost savings that can be made in negotiating grounds maintenance contracts. The reason is simple: GIS can provide accurate and irrefutable estimates of the extent of the different grounds to be maintained. However we also learned from Graham Naggs of housing association L&Q that the same spatial data captured to support procurement in grounds maintenance can also be used for other purposes. L&Q are now using the same technology and data to ensure fair and transparent service charging for its residents. They are also developing ways to use GIS to allocate housing patches to officers, and to provide geographic profiles of their tenants.
Asset management is also central to the use of GIS by Greenfields Community Housing, as we learned from James Elms. The housing association uses GIS to provide a graphical and geographical interface to their asset and housing management systems from Orchard and Keystone. Thanks to GIS technology the Customer Service Centre now has a fast and intuitive map-based way to locate and retrieve key data from these systems.
James Elms reported that Greenfields Community Housing has deployed a map-based front-end to its Orchard and Keystone systems
Greenfields is also using GIS in tree condition surveys and for the management of street lighting. Their plans for the future include using GIS to identify clusters of tenants in rent arrears, properties in need of repair and using GIS in the planning and execution of house condition surveys.
Attendees who were at the start of their GIS journey undoubtedly benefitted from the presentation ‘Implementing a Successful Corporate GIS’, by Paul Wake of WDH. The housing association is now into its second generation of GIS technology. We heard that the first generation system lacked the flexibility required in order to support the range of activities undertaken by WDH today. It was proving difficult to use, and above all it was expensive to maintain. Paul was tasked with replacing it with a new corporate system.
It came as a surprise to many in the audience that Paul managed to introduce the new system (with all that this entails in terms of data transfer, training etc.) in just nine weeks. The outcome is that today one thousand WDH employees can access a web mapping system and this is saving the association thirteen thousand pounds per annum in the process.
Paul explained that his biggest challenges weren’t technical: they involved data and people. Data had to be transferred without loss, from the old to the new system, and the users have had to adjust to new ways of working. Not content to sit back, Paul now has other projects in mind – notably creating maps for mobile employees, linking GIS with other systems and providing location-based services over the internet.
The importance of geographic data is often overlooked in GIS projects. However if GIS is the engine, geographic data is its fuel. The two rely on each other. Lee Williams of the data provisioning company emapsite gave a whistle stop tour of the different data sources available to housing associations. These include free and open data, as well as licenced data from OS – Britain’s mapping agency, and other providers. He stressed the importance of understanding what you want to do with the data so that you avoid over-specification (which can be expensive) and under-specification (which can be limiting).
Lee stressed the importance of geocoding – the process of associating an address with geographic coordinates – as it is through geocoding that a GIS is able to integrate with non-spatial housing management systems. Lee also described how web mapping services are now transforming the way organisations can access and consume spatial data ‘on-demand’ over the internet and intranets.
Rob Carling of JBA Risk Management presented on the value of one particular data set – flood hazard maps. He surprised many in the audience with his estimate that one in five of the two and half million housing association homes in England are at risk of flooding. Rob related how in 2014, flooding in one housing association had affected fifty properties. It might not seem a big number, however as Rob explained, the outcome was a repair bill of two million pounds.
The flood mapping data which JBA Risk Management produces, is based on acclaimed hydraulic modelling software, and the resultant flood maps are widely used especially by the insurance sector. Rob described how this data is now available in affordable form to housing associations. They can use the data to highlight areas at risk, identify preventative actions, raise awareness and demonstrate to insurers that risks are being minimised.
The co
nference sponsors Cadcorp, brought attendees up to date with the company’s latest GIS and web mapping products. There was a lot of interest in the release 8.0 of Cadcorp’s flagship web mapping application – Web Map Layers. We heard how the application has been completely redesigned to simplify the interface, provide more functionality, and create a tighter binding to the data it serves.
Attendees were directed to a demonstration web site and invited to try the application live for themselves, using their own smartphones and tablets. Attendees could see that the application is able to detect when a mobile device or tablet is being used, and how it launches a much simplified mobile interface accordingly. This features finger-tap data interrogation and navigation, a Quick Search facility and geolocation detection.
Mobile working is undoubtedly on the increase in the social housing sector. At the next Cadcorp housing conference in twelve months time, it will be interesting to see whether the sector continues to be as creative in its use of map-based data on mobile devices, as it has been on the desktop.
Richard Spooner, Marketing Manager, Cadcorp