CENTREMAPS Civils 2008 roundup

Image copyright Blom Aerofilms 2008 available through BlomURBEX at centremapslive.comDespite the economic downturn, Civils 2008 proved a phenomenal success. Bringing together the whole industry in one place to facilitate networking, promote education and learning and also encourage recruitment, educate, promote, learn and recruit, visitors this year heralded from every aspect of the civil engineering industry - ranging from major clients through to contractors and consultants - with some attendees even hailing from as far afield as Australia and New Zealand. As a showpiece of innovation in Civil Engineering, Civils saw the announcement of the winners of the Civils 2008 Innovation Awards, open to companies throughout the UK industry. Terravac won the Innovation Service Award for its Six Phase Heating array used for in-situ cleaning of heavily contaminated sites. At CENTREMAPS, we were delighted to be runner up in this category with BlomURBEX. This certainly reconfirmed our technical innovation position for the second year in succession. Running alongside the exhibition the insightful and entertaining Civils 2008 Forum included a programme of briefings, debates, and interviews featuring leading establishment and government figures including climate change expert Charles Secrett, Sir Terry Farrell, Principle of Terry Farrell and Partners and Tony Juniper former Director of Friends of the Earth. Chaired by Faisal Islam, Economics Correspondent for Channel 4 News, the Forum considered a different theme each day; Cities, Living and Regeneration on day one, Transport and Infrastructure on day two and Energy and Environment on day three â resulting in thought provoking and challenging debate that took in contentious issues such as nuclear versus renewable versus carbon capture and storage. In addition, there was a busy schedule of over 20 informative and topical seminars running in two parallel theatres, covering topics ranging from rainwater harvesting and permeable paving systems to combating plant theft and becoming a tunnelling engineer.THE BENEFITS OF EXHIBITING AT CIVILSAs an exhibitor we regard Civils as invaluable. Providing unparalleled opportunity for professionals from the civil sectors to network and engage with one another at an event run for the industry by the industryâ¦and this yearâs event did not disappoint. Over the course of the three days the CENTREMAPS stand was awash with visitors â with us having enjoyed meetings with both engineering and geotechnical professionals and students and the opportunity to showcase some of the latest products and innovations now being made available through www.centremapslive.com. Our efforts this year very much focused on previewing the availability of BlomURBEX from www.centremapslive.com. BlomURBEX is an innovative new online solution that transforms digital images into a virtual toolkit that enables remote location viewing and measurement of buildings and structures in their urban landscape. Uniquely BlomURBEX combines oblique aerial imaging with a state-of-the-art software system. Making available 15cm high-resolution oblique imagery library for the majority of GB towns and cities with a population in excess of 50,000, BlomURBEX provides users with a multi-perspective on-screen viewing and measurement tool that integrates oblique and vertical aerial photographs in a single database system. Simply accessed online, professionals are able to easily and accurately measure objects, gathering detailed visual intelligence simply not available through other onscreen solutions. Required images can then be downloaded for integration with CAD and GIS. Without fail visitors to the CENTREMAPS stand were impressed by the opportunities BlomURBEX offered â and judging by the interest we have continued to solicit following the event many businesses have already recognise how the data stands to benefit their existing working practices.In addition to showcasing BlomURBEX, also on the CENTREMAPS stand was our extensive online offering including; height data available from suppliers including The Environment Agency (EA), Cities Revealed, NextMap, Blom and Infoterra. All of our height data products provide the construction sector with the coverage, currency and resolution required to meet the needs of almost any project. In addition, we also demonstrated the GroundSure Insight products that we have available including EnviroInsight, GeoInsight and MapInsight high resolution historical mapping. Visitors to the CENTREMAPS stand were also impressed with the recent work we have been doing in conjunction with Ordnance Survey to promote their marketing campaign, BoLD â Benefits of Licensed Data which encourages customers to use properly licensed data. Maintaining an up-to-date licence is a legal requirement for use of Ordnance Survey data and using out-of-date or incorrectly licensed mapping data jeopardises that reputation by invalidating indemnity insurance and potentially incurring costly legal fees. Available from www.centremapslive.com, the Plan, Design and Build (PDB) licence for OS mapping is specifically aimed at project managers undertaking schemes in the land and property market. Project specific, the PDB licence includes terms and conditions for sharing data with up to 40 additional project participants and offers a choice of licence period ranging from 12 to 30 months. If you subsequently electronically archive the Ordnance Survey data in a CAD or GIS system then PDB is probably the most cost effective solution.***********************************************MAPPING THE OLYMPICS - Editor\'s ChoiceINTEGRATED MAPPING AND OBLIQUE AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY IS PROVING ITS WORTH IN LARGE SCALE SITE PROJECTS SUCH AS LONDON 2012. BRIAN DIXON OF CENTREMAPS, WHICH DELIVERS ONLINEMAPPING, COUPLED WITH BLOM OBLIQUE AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY, EXPLAINS HOW DESKTOP BASED SURVEYING TECHNIQUES ARE BEING USED FOR EFFICIENCY AND GREAT COST SAVING.The Olympics is not only the biggest and most critical construction project in Europe, but is being constructed on an incredibly complex site which has been contaminated and criss-crossed by railway lines, canals and a tidal river, making it difficult to access.Brian Dixon, Centremaps Strategic Account Manager, thinks that the use of the latest oblique imagery combined with innovative online tools will provide professionals with the opportunity to meet the unique challenges of the Olympic build programme and also help them to save time and money, both of which are crucial to the success of the programme. But it is not just the Olympics that can benefit as the solution is equally applicable to most building and construction projects. (....)You must be subscribed to view this article. 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Author: Brian Dixon

Bio.: CENTREMAPS Strategic Account Manager

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