Spatial Roundtable

Bridging the Gap between IT and OT

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 16:38:18 GMT

GIS: The universal language

To understate the obvious, there appears to be a communication gap in many public works departments between information technology (IT) and what could be called operational technology (OT). However, clear communication between these departments is critical for the successful completion of city projects.

Communication relies on mutually accepted rules so that it is clearly understood. IT must follow data standards to make sure that the data is reliable, trustworthy, and available across the entire enterprise. While not always understanding back-office data requirements, OT has its own rules that must be strictly followed. For example, you don’t jump into a trench to fix a water main break wearing open-toed sandals, and you use protective equipment when necessary to perform a job safely and effectively.

A critical part of understanding the perceived IT/OT dichotomy is that operational functions tend to be the reason for the public works department’s existence, and IT is there to support the operational business function. GIS represents a bridge between IT data management and OT fieldwork.

Maps have been a common communication tool for thousands of years. Even today, paper maps spread out on the hood of a work truck are a familiar sight. However, the moment we moved those paper maps into the digital realm, things seemed to get unnecessarily complicated, even though effective communication is still vitally important. Today, with the abundance of data collected by the IT department and the ability to serve it directly to the field, GIS is critical for all public works operations.

GIS provides data integration, analytical functions, and visualization displays that allow many disparate pieces of information to be examined together. For example, the analysis of a toxic plume infiltrating local groundwater may have been performed for an Environmental Protection Agency study completely unrelated to public works operations. However, because the IT department collects and maintains all municipal data, it can provide a map of toxic areas to public works field crews, so that they are aware of potentially dangerous contaminants in excavated soil. This analysis is possible because the IT department has worked out data sharing agreements with other departmental organizations and worked with operational supervisors to identify their requirements. With its ability to communicate information that is relevant to operational needs throughout your enterprise, GIS is truly a universal language.

How has GIS streamlined communication between your information technology and operations departments?

Meeting a Titanic Challenge for Oceans

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 14:57:35 GMT

What have we learned after 100 years?

On April 15, 1912, more than 1,500 passengers and crew aboard the RMS Titanic perished at sea in one of the most infamous maritime disasters in all of human history. She was the largest ship afloat at the time, but the location of her wreckage remained a mystery until 1985. Many have seen similarities between the sinking of Titanic and the struggles of the gigantic cruise ship Costa Concordia, which ran aground off the coast of Italy almost 100 years later.

The oceans can indeed be a dangerous place, and the news is replete with stories of the hazards of sea level rise, hurricanes, tsunamis, rogue waves, coastal flooding, shark attacks, toxic spills, oxygen-poor "dead zones," and even modern-day pirates. On the other hand, the oceans are critical for human life itself. They feed us, regulate our weather patterns, provide over half the oxygen that we breathe, and provide for our energy and economy. Yet there is much we still don’t know about the oceans. Less than 10 percent of the ocean floor has been explored and mapped in a level of detail similar to what already exists for the dark side of the moon, for Mars, and for Venus, and less is understood of the waters beneath the surface than of our atmosphere.

Titanic was thought to be unsinkable. And 100 years later, it remains a metaphor for our continuing conundrum: we think we know what’s critical about our oceans, but we really don't know the titanic scale of the problem. We need the knowledge provided by sound science and data to inform the responsible use and governance of the oceans, as well as effective management and conservation. We are slowly moving toward an integrated, global ocean science agenda, and yet the scope of scientific discovery remains enormous. The health of the oceans is gaining traction as a socioeconomic, political, and corporate responsibility issue, but progress is slow and expensive.

How can GIS help? How do we advance the use of GIS to make better, more-informed decisions not only about the health and stewardship of our oceans but also as a framework for ocean safety?

Enabling Better Decision Making Among DOTs

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 17:21:14 GMT

Integrating enterprise data

For many Departments of Transportation (DOTs) and roadway agencies, the days of rapid highway construction have passed. DOTs now primarily focus on preserving existing investments and maximizing the performance of built infrastructure. Effective decision making with respect to the mix of operational improvements, investments to advance safety, and maintenance spending requires access to a wealth of information to help drive these decisions. And while almost all of this data is available within these larger organizations, few have been successful at bringing that information together in ways that could help foster more intelligent decision making.

The root of this problem stems from the original development of these data and information systems. Each department often developed its specific functional applications (whether for pavement management, structures, or safety) independently and often using different ways of organizing and storing information. As a result, state DOTs commonly find numerous linear measurement and relational database systems being used to capture and manage the various inventory information and data. And for many agencies, this has been the central hurdle preventing them from optimizing their data management practices.

At the same time, geospatial technology has come a long way toward removing this obstacle. GIS now brings together and integrates disparate data from across the enterprise, helping organizations more effectively exploit their vast information stores to carry out their objectives. Because the location of these various assets and roadway information is inherently spatial in nature, GIS provides the foundation for information integration that gives transportation professionals and decision makers unprecedented access to data. With a completely integrated data management infrastructure, they can analyze complex tradeoffs and make more informed decisions.

While many transportation organizations have implemented GIS to help them manage a number of their individual systems, fewer have been successful at using the technology to create enterprise information systems. This remains the central question for information technology professionals and one to which only GIS can provide the answer.

How can enterprise information systems benefit transportation organizations and their constituents?

GIS in Education: Beyond Instruction

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 16:06:42 GMT

Expanding GIS use throughout educational institutions

Typically when people reflect on the incorporation of GIS technology in education, the picture that comes to mind is framed by classroom instruction and research—for instance, a high school world geography class, a community college GIS certificate program, a university urban planning course, and basic scientific investigation that advances knowledge. These and other areas of academic and career instruction and research do, in fact, represent the lion’s share of the GIS activity occurring within educational institutions, and which is vital to fostering successive generations of geospatial leaders and problem solvers. However, these are not the only settings where GIS is providing an essential service within educational entities.

While learning is the goal and learners are the manifest stakeholders, there is typically a place where they intersect: the learning milieu—the physical world of campuses; schools; districts; and associated components; such as buses, emergency plans, and demographic analyses. As we consider the use of GIS in education, we need to include the environments, places, and things connected with these learners and their experiences. Visible brick-and-mortar components are quickly apparent. However, the less evident aspects of our educational organizations are equally vital to the planning, development, operation, and sustainment of them.

On this administrative side of education, the mission is not unlike that of a local government—keeping people and property safe; conducting key studies to support the larger mission; transporting people and goods efficiently; maintaining current facilities and managing resources well; and being wise planners and decision makers, especially in times of lean finances. It is in these areas where GIS is on the rise, but it seems that GIS is still viewed through a lens of niche use or silo placement when, in fact, it can be pervasive and foundational and ultimately serve an array of mission-critical functions within these organizations.

How do we advance the use of GIS within and across mission-critical areas of educational institutions?

Big Data—A Banking Boom or Bust?

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:21:18 GMT

Location-based insight

Business data is growing at such a rate that many organizations can become overwhelmed by the big data problem. A recent McKinsey, IDC, and Department of Labor Statistics analysis [PDF] of data in business found that financial/securities organizations have 3.8 petabytes per firm—that’s more than 400 million gigabytes, or about 12.5 million iPads, per company! Banking comes in a distant second with 1.9 PB. This puts big data found in financial services companies into perspective since this is even greater than most communications and media companies’ average of 1.8 PB.

What does this mean? Your bank has more data than that cable news show you watch, the media service you stream into your office, or all the words the national financial journal you read has ever printed—combined. Big data in banking is really, really big. In fact, it is equivalent to a quarter of the entire global hard disk capacity manufactured in 1995.

Financial services companies are trying to make sense of what they have—to get to the facts, connect the dots, and get some actionable business intelligence. Yet the very nature of big data makes it hard to understand. Financial institutions store almost everything, including financial transactions, social media messages, customer histories, demographic trends, and economic indicators. The whole sector is trying to get better answers and shorten the business cycle. However, for many companies, the answers just lead to more questions; business intelligence becomes just another data point, and the whole cycle starts again.

Location analysis and GIS are a powerful way to connect people to place, transactions to actions, responses to trends, and customers to both where they do business and what kinds of business they do. Location analysis is converting big data into packets of insight, gaining understanding from intuition, and demystifying questions so they may be properly understood for the first time. From fraud detection to branch optimization, and customer loyalty to product segmentation, location analysis is helping shift the advantage of big data in favor of financial services companies. The only question now is how many will seize the opportunity and put location analysis and GIS on the front line of the big data battlefield.

Where do you think location analysis and GIS can best help the financial services sector overcome the scourge of big data?

Can Government Improve Its Image?

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 16:32:37 GMT

Restoring trust in government

The growing distrust and poor image associated with government continue. As a result, I see citizens asking more and more questions of their government and wanting leaders to hear their voices. The citizens I hear are speaking loudly and growing in number. They want to know how their tax dollars are being allocated. They want to find out if corruption in a neighboring jurisdiction is also happening in their backyards. In the absence of effective government forums, disruptive apps are providing a place for these citizens to communicate with each other.

On the other hand, there are those who question whether the need is real. Colleagues have said to me, “Citizens really do not want to participate in government. They elect individuals to take care of their communities so they do not have to think about it.” Others add that citizen engagement is a nuisance that will increase workloads and raise expectations. These same groups view soliciting public input as providing more ways for citizens to complain.

Perhaps I am becoming tainted by the company I have been keeping lately, but the reality is that citizens want to know whether government is going to be there when and where they want to interact. Diminishing is the notion that government can get by with merely communicating information to citizens without providing an effective way for them to respond. Delivering transparency, accountability, and engagement to citizens can provide an opportunity to restore trust in government; however, that no longer means just hiring someone to do the job. Instead, it is about providing the opportunity for others to validate or comment when the need arises or a passion is stirred. Worldwide, governments are grappling with how to achieve this openness.

It is clear that there are many options, ranging from information websites to town hall meetings to social media, that can be used to meet the demand for more transparency and accountability. The question becomes, “Which is the most effective?” Even with all these choices, governments are turning to the GIS technology that they have had in their organizations for years. Governments in places such as Singapore, Boston, New York, Corpus Christi, and San Francisco have seen great success and proved that citizens respond positively to location-centric civic engagement apps because they show how government activity relates to people in their communities. GIS provides a transparent solution that engages citizens, demonstrates accountability, and fosters collaboration. However, we are beginning to see a bit of a slowdown as the process becomes more bureaucratic.

The proof and technology exist to create a more open government, however, the debate continues.

Can GIS bridge the gap between government agencies that are reluctant to open up and citizens that want to participate?

GeoDesign for Climate Change Adaptation

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 22:12:49 GMT

Designing a more sustainable future

The earth’s climate is changing, leading to serious problems for humanity in areas such as food security, health, and public safety.

As our environment changes around us, we need to adapt swiftly. But where do we start? Should we reinforce or rebuild existing structures? Or should we abandon existing settlements and relocate the population in some cases? And how can mass rebuilding/relocation efforts be best accomplished from human, environmental, and economic perspectives?

GeoDesign is a framework for understanding the complex relationships between human-designed settlements and the changing environment, for quickly planning ways to adapt existing communities and build new ones in a more sustainable manner. This methodology helps us assess risk, identify change, create synergies, develop strategies, adapt to change, and monitor the results. GeoDesign takes an interdisciplinary, synergistic approach to solving the critical problems of future design—to optimize location, orientation, and the features of projects at local and global scales.

By bringing social, environmental, agricultural, meteorological, and other sciences into a common geographic perspective, people can better see the optimal solutions needed for planning and building our future. Governments, NGOs, businesses, and communities already use the GeoDesign approach to minimize climate impacts, increase resiliency, predict cause and effect, calculate sustainability capacity, rank risk levels, allocate resources, and prioritize action.

By incorporating geographic technologies, such as visualization and modeling, into analysis of community development, people can intelligently answer far-reaching design questions such as these.

The GeoDesign framework lets us design and test various alternatives, thereby helping us make the most educated and informed decisions for adapting humankind to a rapidly changing environment and world. It acknowledges the inseparable relationship between humans and nature and lets us take an active role in designing where and how we live.

How can GeoDesign best be applied to climate adaptation in the next 15 years?

Facing the Challenge of Aging Infrastructure

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 14:47:44 GMT

The right tool for the job

In 2009, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) gave America’s infrastructure a “D.” When most of America’s infrastructure was originally built, the country was in a growth mode and engineered every specific project to be optimal before moving on, not always understanding the mechanics of the complete system—how the various projects or components worked together and how they affected each other at a more regional scale. To add to this complacency, underground infrastructure also suffered from the adage “out of sight, out of mind.” Today, with our limited budgets and declining workforce, we are experiencing the results of this oversight. We understand that infrastructure decays due to in situ conditions and operational extremes, material degradation and manufacturing defects, and dynamic loads not taken into account in the original design. We now know that skipped maintenance schedules shorten the life expectancy of our assets. Entire systems are being brought down by their weakest links.

A fundamental premise to asset management is understanding specific infrastructure performance metrics and derived useful life from an empirical review of failure history and condition assessment due to aging. The power of GIS technology comes alive when you extrapolate the performance of the known assets of your entire system, allowing you to define and understand the scope and magnitude of your aging infrastructure. It can show you what you don’t know. Once the problem is defined, it can be funded, engineered, and rehabilitated in a prioritized fashion.

Many GIS tools can be used to face this challenge. The spatial nature of distribution, collection, and transportation systems mandate a GIS-centric approach to your asset inventory. Spatial algorithms built into GIS can help you understand the causal effects of external factors on your infrastructure, both man-made and natural. Enterprise GIS is now reaching out beyond the office to field crews with mobile solutions and extends your workforce into the citizenry with smartphone applications. These help improve the accuracy (field markups) and define the events (work orders) occurring on your asset inventory. The next GIS implementation phase for public works departments is secure cloud computing, with its ability to lower costs through managed application use and data sharing. GIS is the right tool in preparing for our future.

How are you leveraging GIS to get a better grade on the next ASCE report card?

LightSquared: Man-Made Solar Flares?

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 16:42:51 GMT

High-accuracy GPS is at risk

Solar flares are naturally occurring explosions that occur on the sun’s surface from energy, suddenly released, that is stored in twisted magnetic fields. Solar flares produce a burst of radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum and disrupt some electromagnetic instruments on earth. The sun is currently at the peak of an 11-year cycle of solar flares. You may have noticed GPS interference while out on the job recently. Solar flares are the probable cause of this interference.

Unfortunately, solar flares aren’t the only thing that can interfere with your GPS signal. Planned interference from LightSquared, a broadband company, is on the horizon. LightSquared proposes to build 40,000 high-powered transmitters to deliver wireless 4G service to the majority of the United States. Combined with a satellite that provides Internet access, the transmitters will serve the entire country. The wireless portion of this spectrum is adjacent to one of the two frequencies that high-precision GPS units depend on. GPS is designed to receive very weak signals transmitted from orbiting satellites. The signals produced by the proposed LightSquared ground stations are over a billion times stronger than GPS receivers were designed to receive, which will cause great interference with the high-accuracy GPS tools of many trades. This interference will render GPS unreliable in many industries that rely on GPS; its broad impact will affect such industries as precision farming, aviation, construction machine control, and public works, to name a few.

If you are unfamiliar with this serious issue, you may want to watch two videos that were filmed at the inaugural Survey Summit, held in July 2011. The first is of LightSquared’s Jeff Carlisle, and the second is from Trimble’s Pete Large, who also represents the Coalition to Save Our GPS. Each gentleman does an excellent job of explaining his side’s position on the issue.

Despite independent tests demonstrating that the LightSquared network essentially destroys the ability to use high-precision GPS, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has given LightSquared a waiver permitting the company to continue through the permitting process. Unlike solar flares, which occur naturally and only interrupt GPS occasionally, the implementation of the man-made LightSquared network may eliminate high-accuracy GPS as we know it.

How will your investment in high-accuracy positioning be compromised, and what can you do to protect it?

The Changing Face of Mapping Organizations

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 14:56:23 GMT

Riding the wave of new technologies and trends

The map, chart and data production (MAPS) industry is being revolutionized by changes in technology, societal trends, and the mapping community itself. This wave of change is not only reshaping the MAPS industry landscape, but providing new opportunities.

Mapping has evolved from manual methods, to computer assisted cartography on workstations, to map publishing software on PCs and now to database-driven cartography that can be accessed by a variety of devices including mobile phones, tablets, notebook PCs, and personal digital assistants.

Society is changing and so are its expectations of what a map is and how it should be used. Consumers expect to receive their desired online content quickly and easily, including maps. People are beginning to expect maps with all their apps from driving directions and Point Of Interest searches, to multi-model way finding and 3D map visualization.

The MAPS industry has experienced a 50% drop in production of paper maps, charts and atlases in the last decade, and another 50% drop is expected in the next five years. However, the number of maps generated online has increased substantially in this time. This increase can be found in electronic maps and derivative map and data products for the web and mobile devices. Business is booming in these areas and smart MAPS organizations understand this is where the growth opportunities are. Providing the right map to consumers accessing web and mobile devices is the key to harnessing new business opportunities.

Some MAPS organizations are riding the waves of change, tapping into their core mapping competencies and revolutionizing their organizations, while others are not adapting to these changes and have been washed away. The turbulent MAPS community itself can provide opportunites to savvy MAPS organizations partnering to find synergies and strengthen their collective businesses.

What strategies and resources are organizations employing to leverage changes in technology, social trends, and the mapping community?

Improving the Claims Management Process

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 16:33:17 GMT

Integrating intelligent maps

As the single largest expense for P&C carriers, the claims management process is a focal point in driving improved customer satisfaction and increased underwriting profits. In fact, a recent study by Deloitte shows that a single percentage point improvement in claims costs could return significant savings for insurers.

If this is true, then what can be done to improve costs? The answer: build a workflow based on intelligent maps.

Think about the process of managing the response to a catastrophic weather event. Animated weather maps track the storm’s path and intensity only. Once the storm makes landfall the information about the impact and severity may be available, but there is no way to accurately gauge the true area or understand the extent of the damage that has occurred.

Today, responding to customers who have had a loss is dependent on receiving their calls. Adjuster assignments are scheduled based on the order a call is received instead of the more efficient manner of proximity to the location of the adjuster’s last visit. This lag in action can add time to the process. The additional time often times drives higher costs and can increase customer dissatisfaction.

Insurers who have built their claims management workflow on intelligent maps are achieving significantly better results. Real-time event tracking and geocoded customer points, integrated on a map using GIS, simplify and improve the accurate identification of customers in the impact area. Customer information that is stored in the map is used before the event to make reverse 911 calls, plan triage support, and calculate maximum potential loss in real-time. Intelligent maps both in the office and on an adjuster’s mobile device efficiently route customer visits. Mobile maps also give adjusters access to location information, such as “before” photos that improve their effectiveness at the loss site. Maps embedded in dashboards in the back office provide easy to use tools the leadership team needs to effectively staff, manage performance and identify potential fraud. The integration of intelligent maps in the claims process holds the key achieving a percentage point improvement in claims costs or more.

Will using GIS and intelligent maps provide what claims organizations need to make significant improvements in claims costs?

Citizen Engagement: Applied Gov 2.0

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 14:57:05 GMT

Reinventing government

Ever since Tim O’Reilly captured our imagination with the term “Government 2.0,” the world has scrambled to understand its true meaning. Some dismissed the idea as a passing fad. But much like Al Gore’s “Reinventing Government” initiative, it moved us toward an ideal. Early Gov 2.0 efforts sought to define this concept and understand how it could alter the reinvention of government. Since Gov 2.0 is grounded in Web 2.0 technology, startups and traditional companies explored how they could fit into the grand scheme of things. The concept was given a boost when politicians as high ranking as President Obama challenged governments to enhance civic engagement. Could we turn even large cities like Singapore, Boston, or Seattle into communities whose citizens have a strong role in shaping the future?

Gov 2.0 is driving this generation’s version of “reinventing government.” Concepts like transparency, accountability, and open data are all being explored, but the strongest movement impacting our daily lives on a personal level is the rise of citizen engagement. So far, it focuses primarily on leveraging social technologies to connect governments with their constituents. It’s being driven by those looking to disrupt government in the name of progress, including technology startups, social activists, non-profit organizations, and businesses seeking a competitive edge.

The platform for Gov 2.0 is geographic information systems (GIS) technology – the same technology cities and counties use to build map data, perform analyses, and increase operational efficiency. Projects throughout the world have already demonstrated GIS’s ability to engage citizens. Many civic leaders reacted to the concept of citizen engagement tools with concern that they would just open up government to more criticism. When Gov 2.0 applications began to prove their effectiveness, leaders’ concerns shifted toward what they perceived as a high cost of implementation. Now, they’re realizing that engaging the public through these tools may just be the catalyst for solving key challenges they can’t otherwise resolve via tax-funded efforts. Today, citizen engagement applications enhance a variety of government-citizen interactions involving public information, requests for service, public reporting, citizen as a sensor, unsolicited public comment, and even volunteerism. I suspect these are just the beginning stages of geo-centric citizen engagement.

What do you think the next applications of geo-centric citizen engagement will be?

Accessing Historical and Current Remotely Sensed Data

Mon, 16 May 2011 16:38:13 GMT

Managing data for internal and public use

It was the military and large corporations such as oil and mineral exploration companies that first saw the value in imagery. This launched a new industry bent on acquiring the most accurate, highest resolution imagery with newer satellites, aerial sensors, photogrammetric equipment and specialized software, to help interpret the images.

Availability of imagery is no longer the problem—accessibility is. The flood of imagery data is overwhelming. In response, users have shifted their work habits to include tools that help them get their jobs done easier and faster. Because of the size of imagery, most users are demanding access to the data over the web or from a cloud in near real-time, but they don’t want to be forced to download it. They are using technology, like image services, that let them work with data from their desktop, browsers and SmartPhones.

Managing the data becomes another concern. When the volumes of data grow into the terabyte range, it becomes tricky to manage and provide fast access. Storage and network bandwidth become an issue. Experts in this field are looking towards cloud solutions to help them manage large volumes of imagery, and technologies that enable them to disseminate large quantities of data to anyone who needs it in a timely manner.

Imagery is no longer a black box mystery; it is now used by everyone as a tool to help them understand the world around them. As we go forward, citizens and non-remote sensing experts are expecting they will be able to understand what their government, environmental scientists and news reporters are talking to them about because they will demand to see the proof, using imagery.

The amount of historical and current remotely sensed data is growing exponentially, and the only way to get ahead of the curve is to have the right tools that simplify everyday tasks while maximizing access.

How are you improving access to historical and new imagery in your organization?

Spatial Analysis Helps Utilities Manage Risk

Mon, 18 Apr 2011 16:22:34 GMT

Creating a better risk model

When dealing with the complex infrastructure of an electric, gas or water utility system, things often go wrong. Things go wrong because there are so many factors that can contribute to a problem. Utility operators face an enormous task. They must gather accurate and timely data, understand the relative importance of each factor, and determine relative risk of damage to the system. Once utility risk is understood, a rational mitigation and investment strategy can be developed. Most utilities are able to prioritize maintenance and replacement projects based on factors such as equipment age, and the history of maintenance, operation, and failure.

Despite such measures, unexpected things happen. In the event of an outage or leak, you will often hear experienced field workers say, “I knew this water main would burst,” or “I suspected this transformer would fail,” and “That gas main has always been troublesome.”

The problem is this: Some of the factors that often contribute to system failure or add risk of failure are not systematically built into the utility risk model. What these experienced workers are doing is a form of spatial analysis in their heads.

Experienced workers know that a pole at the bend of the road is more apt to be hit by a car than a pole along a straight-a-away. A transmission line that crosses a river or canal has a higher risk of being damaged due to river-way traffic. A direct buried cable is more likely to fail if it has experienced a deep freeze followed by a fast thaw if it is buried in rocky soil. While crucial infrastructure information is often known by employees, it is hard to quantify in a risk model. The key to better risk management is a risk model with spatial analysis that reaches both within and outside the utility.

Utilities can now access all kinds of information online and easily incorporate it into a risk model using GIS. We must look to web-based data sources, and take advantage of geo-enabled handheld devices to help build a better risk profile. In addition to internal data, utilities have access to a wide variety of information related to weather, soil, flood patterns, hazards, newsfeeds, and more. Sources include predictive and measured data as well as social media data.

Further, a utility can update its risk model to include information from those experienced workers who have a qualitative understanding of the company’s infrastructure vulnerabilities. Most of this information is spatial in nature, and can be collectively organized on a GIS platform for risk analysis. GIS has the most convenient way of presenting the results of the analysis--in the form of an interactive map that can be viewed over the web, in the field, and from the desktop.

How can GIS technologies and spatial analysis be more readily employed by utilities to enhance their risk models?

Matching Your Home to Your Lifestyle

Mon, 14 Mar 2011 20:32:50 GMT

The perfect home may be a hot spot away

Ocean breezes; able to walk to shops and public transport; stunning mountain views. These aren't phrases for advertising a holiday getaway—they are descriptions used to sell houses I've bought.

In the U.S., we've been accustomed to buying homes based on their physical characteristics instead of our lifestyle and neighborhood preferences. While the number of bedrooms and the size of the garage are important features, more and more people want their dream home to truly reflect their needs, aspirations and social connections.

“Lifestyle search” is one of the fastest growing ideas in residential real estate that promises to match the best properties with the right owners. Using neighborhood attributes, from demographics to the location of schools and other civic and social amenities, lifestyle search uses spatial analysis to match buyers’ desires to the best property.

Searching in this manner is hyper-local and smart because it supplements the realtors knowledge with local information and the latest socio-demographic statistics. Any factor or variable can be considered and the outcome weighted by how desirable or undesirable each is to a person’s need.

Want to live within two miles of the best school, within walking distance to a park but away from the highway or noisy industrial area? Lifestyle search will find an ideal location by combining all the options and desires, then highlighting the best candidates using hotspot analysis, which compiles this large amount of information and visually shows which locations meet the most criteria.

Thanks to real estate apps, lifestyle search is changing how people think about buying a house. Home buyers (and realtors?) now have the ability to instantly understand neighborhoods, compare like homes and search based on location. It is no wonder these apps are some of the most popular downloads on smart phones.

Some experts have commented that lifestyle search is really just an extension of the analysis that has been going on in commercial real estate for a decade or more. Even so, empowering everyone with better tools to help make a decision about the most important financial investment of their lives has to be a good thing.