Aerial mapping company Bluesky has supplied Enfield Council with BlomOBLIQUE aerial images covering the whole of the north London Borough. The imagery, taken at an angle of approximately 45 degrees, allows for sides of building to be seen and easier interpretation of the environment by non-specialist users. The product BlomOBLIQUE is captured by Blom UK, and is designed to complement the more traditional vertical imagery already available from Bluesky. The dataset will be utilised by staff from across the Council to improve efficiency and customer service and reduce costs.
“The oblique images supplied by Bluesky complement our existing geographic data holdings,” commented Lee Merrison, GIS Team Leader at Enfield Council, “and we are gradually rolling them out to end users via our MultiVision software.”
One of the early adopters of the Bluesky supplied BlomOBLIQUE imagery is the Councils Planning, Highways and Transportation division. Jim Ventris, Horticultural Engineer within Highway Services commented, “These images allow for identification of areas not viewable from other systems. The exact location of assets can be mapped and their positional accuracy verified, and we can capture additional measurements such as the height of buildings and trees. We are also creating a corporate ground based photographic library to complement the aerial datasets.”
“Using the BlomOBLIQUE imagery calls from residents are being dealt with more efficiently, with officers able to identify problems from their desks, thus reducing the need for multiple site visits,” continued Ventris. “In fact through the on-going use of the Bluesky supplied BlomOBLIQUE images multiple benefits have been identified and are being continuously realised and we hope to share these with other departments.”
BlomOBLIQUE imagery allows a user to examine the sides of buildings; exposing blind spots, entrances and exits. They also improve the identification of previously hard to see assets and features such as lamp posts, which due to their small footprint can be hard to see on traditional vertical images. Using a front-end web based solution, desktop Geographical Information System (GIS), mapping software or CAD application direct measurements of assets or features can be made from the oblique images and they can be also be viewed in stunning 3D extending the more traditional 2D scope of geographical data.
