Cadcorp selected by Irish local authorities

19 December 2008, 11:17am

Stevenage, Herts. 19 December, 2008. – Digital mapping and geographic information systems (GIS) software developer Cadcorp has been awarded a contract to develop and provide a web-based GIS for use by the local authorities that constitute the East Border Region in Ireland. The East Border Region is a cross-border body comprising the local authority areas of Down, Newry and Mourne, Craigavon, Ards, Banbridge and Armagh in Northern Ireland and Monaghan and Louth in the Republic of Ireland. Although Louth was unable to participate at the time the others were joined by Cavan County Council, bringing to eight the number of local authorities involved in the project.

Cadcorp is providing multiple licences of Cadcorp SIS Map Modeller desktop software together with licences of the company’s dynamic, web-based GIS server, Cadcorp GeognoSIS.

Cadcorp SIS Map Modeller will be used to integrate and manage spatial data at each of the participating local authorities, six of which already had and will continue to use existing GIS software from other vendors. Cadcorp GeognoSIS will be used as a ‘thick’ client to serve spatial data in whichever format it is required, both internally within each local authority and externally to local businesses and the public via the East Border Region web site.

“A strong influencing factor in our selection of Cadcorp software for this ambitious project was its ability to directly read from and to write to a very wide range of GIS, CAD, graphic and database formats on-the-fly, without the need for additional-cost translation software,” explained Canice O’Rouke, director, environmental services, Down District Council, which lead the project implementation. “This has enabled a seamless map base to be built comprising both Ordnance Survey Northern Ireland (OSNI) and Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSI) map data. It has also enabled layers of spatial information relating to each local authority to be developed, irrespective of the specific GIS used to produce it originally”, he added.

All councils now have the option of storing and managing spatial data in a local PostGIS database at each local authority. In addition, a remote, central PostGIS database that can be updated by each local authority and that serves data for the East Border Region web site has been provided.

Wide-spread benefits
The new Cadcorp SIS-based GIS is expected to benefit the eight participating local authorities in a number of ways. Council staff will have ready access on their desktops to up-to-date spatial information, whether council-owned or provided by external agencies, and will be able to create, edit and share information with other departments in order to get their jobs done effectively.

It will also provide local businesses and citizens with greater access, via the East Border Region web site, to information covering a wide range of location-based interests and will enable the public to provide feed-back on various issues that require a location as part of the identification process.

“We are very proud to have been selected for this important project,” said Mike O’Neil, managing director, Cadcorp. “We have already done a lot of work with the East Border Region GIS project team to help develop the system and we look forward to continuing to work with them in enabling the East Border Region to realise its ambitions”.

About the East Border Region GIS Project.
Part-funded by the European Union, through the East Border Region Interreg 111A Partnership, the East Border Region GIS Project is part of a coordinated plan of action to improve the economic and social landscape of the border region between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The eight local authorities involved in the project are Down District Council, Craigavon Borough Council, Ards Borough Council, Banbridge District Council, Armargh City and District Council and Newry and Mourne Council in Northern Ireland and Monaghan County Council and Cavan County Council in the Republic of Ireland.

Down District Council led the project implementation on behalf of the East Border Region GIS Project Board while consulting and business services group Mouchel acted as GIS consultants for the project management and system delivery.

Cadcorp

Geo: International