Unlocking geographical information…
by GEOrGI Giraffe

The full potential of geographical information is not being realised even though the systems are readily available in the market place to handle it. There is a significant amount of geographical information in the public and private sector that is ‘locked away’.

SO WHY DO WE NEED GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION?

For government, geographical information enables real improvements to the citizen including identifying areas that require neighbourhood renewal and to inform planners of potential sites to satisfy emerging housing requirements. These techniques are required for the development of policies in crime, education, health, and the environment. In the private sector, the information is fundamental for identifying areas of business potential, locations for advertising products and services, the sites of land and property particularly for developing business strategy in the construction industry. Therefore there is a potentially large part of the community who could benefit: individual citizens, academic/professional bodies, information industry, UK ministers/government and the European Union.

THE PROBLEMS...

In a lot of cases nobody knows the information is available and even when found it is often difficult to access the information in a way most appropriate for a users needs. Even on obtaining the data, which may be from different sources, analysis is difficult because different reference systems have been used to create the data, e.g. one set of data may have been created using a co-ordinate reference system whereas the other may be statistics referenced to postcodes. The solution to this problem are the Government funded askGIraffe services, aimed at increasing the use of geographic information and increasing awareness about what geographical information exists.

In the UK today, over 40 government departments and other organisations produce geographical data for their own needs, spending approximately £400 million annually on data collection and assembly. Much of this data is not available for re-use or is collected in ways that make it difficult to use with other datasets. Most datasets remain poorly documented. There are still inconsistencies in the ways different computer systems treat sophisticated geographical data. The geographical information that is available is often embedded within services and is taken for granted.

The free to use askGIraffe services aim to address these issues through the delivery of two unique web based services, the Data Locator and Data Integrator.

SEARCHING FOR GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION?

The Data Locator is essentially a search engine for geographical information allowing users to search by phrase, time, or area to locate geographic information Metadata. This Metadata contains standard information about the geographic information products including description, currency, coverage and contact details for further information.

The Data Locator is of benefit to both users and suppliers of geographical information. As more and more geographic information becomes available, it allows users to pinpoint the product which best suits their needs in seconds, thus avoiding lengthy research. Alternatively as suppliers of geographical information, data custodians can use the Data Locator as a free promotional tool, ensuring maximum publicity for their products to an ever increasing audience.

INTEGRATING INFORMATION...

As more data becomes available there is a greater chance that datasets are incompatible and therefore difficult to analyse. Imagine trying to analyse a couple of statistical datasets, one based on administrative areas and the other based on census areas. The Data Integrator aims to reduce this complex problem by defining and providing access to definitive geographical units in the UK.

The Data Integrator service also delivers an interactive postcode demonstrator. Upon inputting their postcode, users are presented with a wealth of useful information relating to their locality.