1Spatial and VISTA's saving streetworks reductions

11 February 2009, 1:48pm

11th February 2009, Cambridge, UK. 1Spatial has supported the VISTA[1] project since 2007. VISTA is being run under the auspices of UK Water Industry Research (UKWIR) and is funded by the Department of Trade and Industry. The project involves both Leeds and Nottingham Universities and a wide pantheon of industrial partners seeking to reduce the impacts of streetworks on congestion.

The School of Computing at Leeds University is carrying out work to create a global schema solution to solve the problem of interoperability. The project is at the stage where pilots are being conducted in Scotland and the East Midlands in the United Kingdom. In parallel with a yearlong dissemination[2] initiative that is underway. This is being funded through the Technology Strategy Board[3].

By creating more readily accessible and understandable information, the VISTA project aims to make this possible and:

· Reduce the numbers of excavations
· Ensure excavations occur in the right place, first time
· Reduce traffic congestion and associated costs
· Avoid unexpected pipes and cables being damaged, and thereby potential injury or fatalities to workers
· Avoid loss of service to business and domestic customers

1Spatial has acted as a technology partner supporting the development of a global data model for utility asset data exchange. In order to populate the global schema with data, the relationship between fields in the source table and fields in the global schema have been defined. On-the-fly data validation during the transformation process is required to ensure data quality as data fields are sparsely or imperfectly populated. The mappings, transformations and validation components represent metadata that allow bespoke utility data models to interoperate at a schematic level via a mediating global schema. These concepts are expressed as rules, which represent a knowledge base for describing and exchanging utility data. The rules are expressed in a form independent of any data store, which means that rules can be easily re-used with different schema and data sources.


Dr Anthony Beck, the researcher on data modelling in the project commented:

" The VISTA team at the School of Computing at the University of Leeds initially employed 1Spatial's Radius Studio to generate and maintain the metadata for mapping and transforming utility data to an agreed schema, resolving the differences between the different utility models. Radius Studio also allows the VISTA team to address data quality issues by creating a number of data validation rules. The ability to share this metadata through the Radius Studio secure web interface will allow the VISTA team to rapidly validate and enrich the schema in collaboration with the project's industrial partners. This has enabled rapid deployment of location information during the pilots."


Dr Mike Sanderson, 1Spatial's CEO said:

" Supporting VISTA has been extremely valuable for 1Spatial. VISTA is identifying the issues associated with data sharing and reuse - something that we have been able to translate into real world benefits with some of the VISTA partners. At Thames Water for example, Radius Studio has been used to create the Oracle Database10g GIS Foundation repository by migrating data from 9 different legacy geospatial applications. We are also deploying the same technology at Ordnance Survey Great Britain as part of the Phoenix project to validate data generation in complex lifecycle scenarios. VISTA will almost certainly reveal opportunities to simplify the geospatial data supply chain. We look forward to engaging with the Utility Industry and other stakeholders to exploit this work, as they strive to share and reuse data in response to industry initiatives, such as the Traffic Management Act in the UK. "

Note to Editors
1. www.vistadtiproject.org
2. See: UK utility data integration: overcoming schematic heterogeneity. Beck et al (2008). Paper presented at GeoInformatics 2008, Guangzhou, China.
3. www.innovateuk.org

For more information please contact Hayley Merrill

Tel: +44 (0)1223 420414
Fax : +44 (0)1223 420044
Email : hayley.merrill@1spatial.com


About 1Spatial

1Spatial delivers integration and quality control software and services to help organisations maximise value from geospatial information. With an open, standards-based, GIS-neutral approach 1Spatial enables the integration and transformation of geospatial data across and between operational planning and decision-making processes. In doing so, 1Spatial can help reduce costs and increase efficiencies, delivering added value into workflows of any scale or complexity. The modern era demands the unconstrained sharing and integration of ever-increasing amounts of geospatial data. 1Spatial is a leader in facilitating such sharing and integration through the creation of cooperative infrastructures and workflows. www.1spatial.com

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[1] www.vistadtiproject.org

[2] See: UK utility data integration: overcoming schematic heterogeneity. Beck et al (2008). Paper presented at GeoInformatics 2008, Guangzhou, China.

[3] www.innovateuk.org

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