City University London's giCentre wins two

19 May 2010, 9:31am

City University London's giCentre wins two Geographic Information research awards



Researchers from City University London’s giCentre won two awards at the Geographic Information Systems Research UK (GISRUK) Conference 2010 in April – a key event for the international academic and commercial geographic information (GI) community.



City’s Dr Aidan Slingsby, Dr Jason Dykes and Dr Jo Wood took the Best Paper award at the conference for their “OAC Explorer” study, which was conducted in collaboration with Robert Radburn of Leicestershire County Council. This is the fourth year in succession that the giCentre team has won the award for their innovative visualisation work.



The research used data visualisation to better understand uncertainty and variation in the Output Area Classification (OAC) – a technique that simplifies census data, by grouping geographic areas according to the key characteristics of the population living in them. With local authorities increasingly encouraged to use OAC to tailor their public services to citizens, studies that enable the data to be more easily interpreted are vital.



The second award was in the UKMap Challenge, which asks researchers to develop new ways to exploit the recently-created UKMap mapping database. The giCentre’s winning proposal was to extend the role of the traditional map legend by applying interactive overlays to aerial photographs.



Slingsby’s software allows the characteristics of buildings shown in high-resolution aerial photographs of parts of London to be viewed and compared – for instance, highlighting offices and retail premises or transport hubs. Possible applications include helping consumers to navigate an area, or town planners to gain a greater insight into the characteristics of localities.



Dykes, Senior Lecturer in Geographic Information, said: “The awards at GISRUK are always hotly contested, with 65 papers presented this year. We are delighted to receive ongoing recognition from academic and professional colleagues, and that our record of success and impact on the community over the last few years was acknowledged when the awards were announced. It highlights the leading position that City holds in GI research.”

www.city.ac.uk

About the giCentre

GeoConnexion UK