Land and Property Services (LPS) recently awarded a contract through open tender to Esri Ireland to deliver the technical component of the Northern Ireland Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI).The new system will incorporate a catalogue of Open Standards web services, a web based Geoportal and interactive map viewing facilities.
The immediate aim of “Spatial NI” is to meet the objectives of the EU INSPIRE Directive. In addition, Spatial NI will form an integral part of the Northern Ireland GI Strategy. This strategy aims to make Northern Ireland a spatially enabled society by 2019 – with government using GI (geographic information) as a decision making tool, businesses using GI to increase efficiency and the public actively using GI on a daily basis. As a result of this procurement, Spatial NI will become the de facto infrastructure to support the publication, discovery and use of geographic information in Northern Ireland.
Spatial NI will be enable stakeholders to use, visualise or analyse geographic data whether they have a mandate around the INSPIRE Directive, whether they are part of the Northern Ireland Mapping Agreement (NIMA) community or whether they form part of the wider digital community in terms of private sector organisations, special interest groups or members of the public.
The system will provide both a consolidated area where geographic information can be stored and also a catalogue where geographic information stored by stakeholders can be registered. Mechanisms will be provided by which to manage this data ensuring its currency and accuracy for anyone who wishes to interact with it. Costs of data storage, data capture and management can be lowered due to these economies of flow.
Spatial NI will facilitate more effective decision making through having access to the best source of quality, up to date geographic information, collected once but shared and used many times, effectively enabling crowd sourcing of data.
Both LPS and Esri Ireland, together with technology partners IT Assist and con terra are excited about working on this progressive initiative which will help engage a wide range of stakeholders in the effective use & application of geographic information.
Trevor Steenson, Chief Survey Officer at Land & Property Services remarked “In addition to helping Northern Ireland meet the INSPIRE Directive obligations, Spatial NI will provide a platform for the development of GI applications within and beyond Northern Ireland. This will stimulate demand for geographic information and underpin revenue generation opportunities for the private sector. It will assist in driving the use of geographic information across Northern Ireland in a structured, consistent manner”.
Paul Synnott, Country Manager, Esri Ireland commented “We’re incredibly excited about this project and indeed we think it facilitates joined up thinking across both public and private sector organisations around how we best use location based information for better decision making. We have many years of experience of working in the Northern Ireland market place at both Central, and Local Government level providing us with a thorough understanding of the challenges and opportunities that Spatial NI represents. We are again looking forward to continuing our work with LPS to make the vision for the Northern Ireland GI Strategy something real, tangible and with far reaching benefits for stakeholders and customers”. www.esri-ireland.ie
