TENET MapRite : A Tool to Capture BLPUs

14 August 2008, 10:32am

Since the late 1990s, the Borough of Poole has had a corporate GIS. One of its long term aspirations has been to create and maintain a definitive record of Basic Land & Property Units (BLPUs). There have been several attempts to create this information, but none have been able to maintain currency with the vast amount of development Poole has seen recently. Having been identified as a growth point by Central Government, this difficult scenario will remain the case for the next 10 years. Today the Borough of Poole captures and maintains a definitive BLPU dataset using TENET’s MapRite Capture Tool.

THE CHALLENGE
The Borough of Poole knew the importance of having a definitive BLPU dataset, but was faced with the usual challenges of limited resources and the ever changing OS MasterMap Topographic layer - currently updated every 6 weeks. There were also issues related to managing of the demolition and creation of new properties. This adds a level of complexity where the BLPU needs to be historicised and new BLPUs created, based on the new building boundaries. It was not feasible for Poole to outsource the data capture project as a one off exercise, as it would quickly become outdated.

THE SOLUTION
The Borough of Poole had already been using MapRite software from TENET to assist with their PAI programme. On commencement of the project to capture BLPUs, Poole decided to evaluate the latest product in the MapRite suite – the MapRite Capture Tool.

“We needed a solution that would offer the flexibility and capability to capture and manage the BLPUs with speed and accuracy”, said Jeffrey Van Etten, Corporate GIS Manager. “Due to previous experience with MapRite software we expected the MapRite Capture Tool to have a highly intuitive interface and to be easily configurable. We were proven right!”

MapRite Capture Tool reads directly from the corporate gazetteer with options on the utilisation of the seed points. For example, the user can select the relative positional accuracy option to ensure the accuracy of the BLPUs is maximised. Similarly the ‘parent’ UPRN option can be selected to prevent capturing ‘child’ BLPUs. Missing or inaccurate address seed points are consequently identified and any ‘ghost’ BLPUs generated are highlighted for further investigation and correction.

The MapRite Capture Tool polygonised the complete gazetteer for Poole in only 13 ½ hours, and enabled the users through an extensive set of metrics and confidence factors to quickly identify any geometries with potential issues. MapRite’s integrated topological editor allowed any necessary manual changes to be easily performed, with the edits being recorded and reported as part of associated metrics.

As a result of implementing the MapRite Capture Tool, Jeffrey concludes:
“The Borough of Poole have been working very closely with TENET on the development of the software, and many of the feature requests we made have already been added in the short space of time we have been using it. Accuracy of the data generated was key to us and the confidence metric produced for each object was vital in reducing resources otherwise having to be spent reviewing the data.

It was essential to us that the software would allow us to update the database immediately after the property information was verified. The MapRite Capture Tool enables the users of the Corporate GIS to see the new BLPUs straight away.”

THE BENEFITS
1. CREATED A SINGLE SOURCE CORPORATE DATASET TO BE USED BY ALL APPLICATIONS
Enables land searches, planning, building control, housing, etc to make efficiency savings

2. FULLY AUTOMATED, POWERFUL SOLUTION
58,000 BLPU extents generated in 13 ½ hours, complete with confidence metrics

3. IDENTIFY LEGITIMATE MISSING BLPU POLYGONS
‘Ghost polygons’ highlighted and stored in separate table

4. EXTENSIVE REVIEW AND REPORTING FACILITIES
Audit trail indicates success rates and processes undertaken. Ability to export metric data into own GIS software.

5. ON-LINE EDITING TOOLS
All facilities in the same tool – optimised effectiveness. Topology editor allows the user to edit multiple polygons sharing common boundaries.

6. FACILITY TO MANAGE CHANGE ONLY UPDATES
Maintains dataset automatically

OUR PHILOSOPHY
At TENET, we are continuing to enhance the capabilities of the MapRite product and a range of additional facilities to be announced over the coming months. We are dedicated to improving spatial data quality standards and enabling the constituency to move smoothly to transitions required by the transformational government initiatives.

www.tenettechnology.com

Data Quality with TENET’s MapRite

Dr Sarah Cole, sarah.cole@tenettechnology.com

Product Sales Manager