Caged Fish web design Market Harborough

Leicestershire, UK – March 2008

Bluesky Photomap Powers Council Services in Northampton

Northampton Borough Council is using highly detailed 10cm aerial photography from Bluesky to boost the provision of council services across the entire organisation. The 2007 aerial survey images are facilitating service delivery in virtually every department, from the reporting of Abandoned Vehicles to the creation of Zones as part of the authorities planning, for example.

Accessible from each of the 250 GIS communities desktops via the Councils geographical information system (GIS), the Bluesky aerial photography, part of the GeoPerspectives product range, will also power a brand new online mapping portal delivering a range of information and council services to both residents of England’s largest town via the council’s website and to all 1600 employees of the council via the Intranet.

“By making the imagery accessible from every desktop via our Intranet based GIS, ‘MapGEM’, we will discover new applications on an almost daily basis,” said Karen Chapman, GIS Manager at Northampton Borough Council. “From A to Z virtually every service delivery area is gaining benefit through the use of the Bluesky aerial photography, for example Neighbourhood Wardens can analyse crime locations in their real world context identifying possibly contributing factors such as overgrown footpaths, trees or unlit public spaces.”

The current ‘Interactive Mapping’ Module has been piloted on the Council’s public facing website as a prelude to ‘MapGEM’. The trial site currently delivers map-based information about a range of council services including Waste Management and Recycling, Parks and Leisure together with Housing, Transport and Planning. The addition of more advanced map layers, such as the Bluesky photomap, plus third party information will lead to the launch of the new ‘MapGEM’ site later this year. “We have ambitious plans designed to deliver the maximum return on the investment we have made in the Bluesky aerial photographs,” continues Karen. “These include a total revamp of our online mapping service plus additional development of our Intranet based GIS and partnership working wherever possible.”

The Bluesky imagery captured in 2007 using the latest digital imaging technology also provides the 250 users of Northampton Council’s full GIS corporate software from Innogistic plc, an easy to interpret real world view of the Borough. Perfectly complimenting the Council’s Ordnance Survey MasterMap data, other mapping layers and previous aerial survey images, the Bluesky photomap is also gives real world context to the Council’s centralised property and street gazetteers.

Bluesky is a UK-based specialist in aerial imaging and remote sensing data collection and processing. An internationally recognised leader with projects extending around the globe, Bluesky has unrivalled expertise in the creation of seamless, digital aerial photography and 3D landscape/cityscape visualisations. Bluesky also runs a national mapping centre, providing digital maps, site plans, satellite imagery, aerial photography and ultra-high resolution imagery of cities and towns.

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.