GIS Capability GreenLight Reports
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GIS Capability GreenLight Reports

Wilbourn Associates has chosen Lovell Johns and Cadcorp to provide an online map ordering system and associated back-office GIS software. Wilbourn Associates set up and registered a new subsidiary company, Green ASAP Ltd, which trades primarily as a web-based company.  

 

The Green ASAP website offers, amongst other things, a GreenLight Report in which a user can specify a geographic location using address based searching to order an environmental risk assessment. Underpinning this report offering is the deployment of a transactional website process and back office GIS system capable of handling such enquiries and of processing orders.

 

In development of the online ordering system, Lovell Johns firstly liaised with Wilbourn to fine tune the details then wrote the necessary software to deliver the website experience required. This ordering system, developed by Lovell Johns, was integrated with Cadcorp's web-based GIS software, GeognoSIS and deployment licences were provided for the intranet mapping order processing server. For the back office GIS and data system requirements, Lovell Johns developed a VB.NET application linked to Cadcorp SIS Map Modeller and Map Editor desktop GIS software.

 

Once a user has selected a report type, report purpose and property address, GeognoSIS provides a map showing the location of the property using OS MasterMap Topography Layer data. This allows the user to confirm the correct location for the report before they submit a request. In order to provide a wider context to the view a separate key map is also displayed using the Ordnance Survey 1:50 000 Scale Colour Raster mapping product.

 

Amongst the reasons why the Cadcorp SIS - Spatial Information Systems product family proved to be a good technical match for the project was its ability to load, maintain and interrogate national coverage of OS MasterMap data stored centrally in a PostgreSQL object-relational database, using the PostGIS spatial database extension. PostGIS is one of the large number of CAD, GIS and database formats supported by Cadcorp SIS, including all Ordnance Survey map formats.

 

Once the request for the report has been submitted, qualified Wilbourn Associates Environmental Surveyors using Cadcorp SIS desktop Map Editor licences produce the report.  To make this process as streamlined as possible all of the environmental risk data is preloaded into PostGIS. To produce the report the Surveyor is automatically prompted to respond to a comprehensive list of questions and is asked to use their professional judgement based upon the mapping overlays shown in Map Editor. The Lovell Johns developed software then produces the GreenLight Report which is automatically attached to an email and sent back to the client.

 

In addition to the core use of ordering and producing GreenLight Reports, the scalability of the back office Cadcorp SIS and associated PostGIS database architecture has enabled Wilbourn to spread the use of GIS through the environmental consultancy side of the business with some cost savings already being achieved.

 

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