With millions of pounds of public money being spent on civil assets every year, it is the role of the Strategic Investment Board (SIB) to keep citizens and industry informed about current and planned projects. To assist it in this mission, SIB has launched a new on-line Strategic Investment Portal incorporating ArcGIS at www.isni.gov.uk.
Unique in many respects, this interactive solution points the way ahead for governments around the world.
Strategic Investment Board Case Study
Introduction
Across Northern Ireland, schools and colleges are being modernised, a new water and waste water infrastructure is being delivered, roads are being improved and much more besides. So much so that ESRI’s Gov 2.0 web site now features the SIB Investment Portal site on their home page. See http://www.esri.com/industries/gov20/mapping-applications.html
The Client
The Strategic Investment Board(SIB) supports the Northern Ireland Executive and government departments in delivering the investment strategy for Northern Ireland. Owned by the Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister (OFMDFM), the organisation provides strategic advice on the co-ordination, financing and procurement of major capital projects across the region, with the singular aim of accelerating delivery and securing value for the public purse.
The Challenge
One of the SIB’s biggest challenges was to find a way to communicate government plans to all of the various stakeholders, as well as the general public. “It is important in these more challenging economic times that the government can communicate the positive things that are happening”, says Martin Spollen, Strategic Adviser at SIB. There is a lot of change and tangible investment going across the region. We wanted to find a way to help the Executive to communicate this to a diverse stakeholder base”
Solution
To address this challenge, SIB decided to develop an on-line information portal to provide private sector contractors and the general public with visibility of all current and planned capital investment in Northern Ireland.
Benefits
“The solution is an outstanding example of how GIS can be used to really drive forwards people’s understanding of what is happening across a large and diverse landscape in different timescales, with different bodies”, believes Spollen.
Technology Used
The entire project took less than six months to complete, with most of this time being devoted to the development of the back end systems. “The deployment of ArcGIS as part of the total solution was very straightforward” recalls Spollen.
Environmental Management
Northern Ireland Environment Agency were faced with the challenge of migrating all of their spatial information into a GIS Platform – Why? So they could communicate this information to local authorities, port authorities, other government bodies, clean up contractors and waste management companies who all play a part in the response to a major coastal pollution incident.
Environmental Management
Client
Northern Ireland Environment Agency (formally Environment & Heritage Service) is the largest Agency within the Department of the Environment in Northern Ireland, with approximately 700 staff. EHS takes the lead in advising on and in implementing, the Government`s environmental policy and strategy in Northern Ireland.
The Challenge
The NIEA is the repository for a diverse range of coastline, in total over 40 distinct types of data. The challenge was to migrate all this information to a GIS platform that would enable the EHS Coastal Survey Team integrate all the information they held on coastal assets and communicate this information to external stakeholders such as local councils, port authorities, other government bodies, clean-up contractors and waste management companies who also play their part in the response to a large incident.
The Solution
The solution was delivered through the development of an online spatial data catalogue served from ArcGIS Server. Using ArcGIS Desktop any user can now access and visualise all base mapping from Ordnance Survey Northern Ireland - including all large scale mapping and aerial photography, in conjunction with Coastal Survey Team’s very own business layers that include hyperlinks to additional non-spatial data.
The Benefits
“The outcome has been extremely useful – the user-friendly desktop data management and planning tool has been as good as, if not better than, we had originally hoped for prior to the project completion”, remarked Conor Symington, Coastal Contingency Officer, NIEA “I believe we have led the way within EHS in this respect as other teams within the Agency have expressed an interest in following the model of data management enshrined in the Coastal Contingency Planning GIS.”
The Technology Used
Following the Requirements Analysis a decision was made to build upon the Enterprise GIS environment already implemented within EHS, by ESRI Ireland. This solution is based on the ArcGIS 9 technology suite and utilised ArcGIS Server for the management, visualisation and dissemination of spatial data. ArcGIS Desktop (ArcEditor) clients are used for desktop visualisation, analysis and data capture.
ArcGIS Desktop & ArcGIS Server
The solution was delivered through the development of an online spatial data catalogue served from ArcGIS Server. Using ArcGIS Desktop any user can now access and visualise all base mapping from Ordnance Survey Northern Ireland - including all large scale mapping and aerial photography, in conjunction with Coastal Survey Team’s very own business layers that include hyperlinks to additional non-spatial data.
Following the Requirements Analysis a decision was made to build upon the Enterprise GIS environment already implemented within Northern Ireland Environment Agency, by ESRI Ireland. This solution is based on the ArcGIS 9 technology suite and utilised ArcGIS Server for the management, visualisation and dissemination of spatial data. ArcGIS Desktop (ArcEditor) clients are used for desktop visualisation, analysis and data capture