exeGesIS has worked closely with Powys County Council over several years to provide this service. The process involves analysis of the current network’s state to create a 5% sample, preparation and organisation pre-survey plus supplying and supporting the surveyors whilst they are out in the field.

A 5% sample of the Powys Path Network is approximately 420km. exeGesIS surveyors complete this within a few weeks. The data is then processed and imported back into the PCC CAMS and reports are provided to indicate the condition of the network. 

For more information, please contact Simon Allen or Timothy Derbyshire. 

In keeping with established BVPI standards, exeGesIS worked with a team at Ceredigion to analyse and create a 5% sample of the Rights of Way network. A straightforward task when completed within CAMS.

After establishing a sample of approximately 130km in length, exeGesIS provided professional surveyors and completed the fieldwork promptly.

Post survey, exeGesIS analysed the condition data and produced reports to help Ceredigion prioritise their tasks and structure a workplan for the following year.

The raw survey data was also returned to the Ceredigion Rights of Way team and imported into their live CAMS. This allowed them to get up-to-date summaries about any furniture with poor condition or outstanding problems within the network they needed to respond to.

For more information, please contact Simon Allen or Timothy Derbyshire. 

Data were collated to create a dataset of candidate Greenspaces, an access network dataset and an access point dataset, all of which were checked by local authority staff. A dataset showing population distribution was created from national census data. Analysis was undertaken to determine the distance between each postcode and the nearest access point on the nearest Greenspace. With 14,000 postcodes, 12,000 candidate Greenspaces and 12,000 kilometres of access network this represented a significant data processing task.

Additional analyses were carried out that assessed the slope of each section of the access network and reanalysed the data excluding sections of the access network regarded as being too steep.

Further information from Kathryn Steemson.

The data included Path Order Plans, the original Definitive Maps for Rhondda, Cynnon & Taf Ely, OS County Series maps and the Definitive Statements for the paths, as well as modern digital mapping such as the Ordnance Survey MasterMap data.

The first stage of the project was to scan and register the Definitive Map sheets and the Order Plans so that the base mapping could be compared to MasterMap. Direct tracing of the routes from the Definitive map scans was not practical, as many of the original Definitive Maps were of too small a scale, so the maps had to be interpreted by the digitisers to plot the routes against the MasterMap cartography.

Next, the changes made by the Orders had to be applied to the digitised network to bring it up to date. This included several large orders that came into force when major new roads were built, as well as smaller scale orders. The result from this was a digitised network which accurately reflected the Definitive Maps, as amended by all the subsequent Orders.

As part of the process, anomalies that could not be corrected were highlighted to the officers at RCT. These included things like developments built across the Rights of Way of which the authority had not been informed.

There was another strand to this project, which was to integrate the Definitive Statements and the scanned Orders with the authority’s CAMS. This involved passing the statements through Optical Character Recognition, and importing the checked text into the CAMS database. The scanned Order files were linked to the relevant CAMS records via LibraryLink

This project gave the RoW team at RCT an accurate, up to date digital mapping layer of their rights of way that was loaded into their CAMS solution. This was combined with integrated Orders and Statements so that all the legal information for their Rights of Way was available in one place.

Working with a number of local authorities, under a project led by the Countryside Council for Wales (CCW) and part funded by the Heads of the Valleys Regeneration Programme, exeGesIS were able to build comprehensive and consistent greenspace datasets - making good use of MasterMap data, aerial imagery and workshops with authority staff. This dataset was used to assess whether the target standards were met. Network analysis techniques were employed to ensure the shortest walking distances from every postcode area, to the nearest greenspace could be identified and measured.

The results showed that whilst the total area of greenspace in the region was generally high, it often wasn't near to, or accessible from the residential areas. Because of this even in the best served area, some 25% of the population fell outside the 400m target.

Further information about the Greenspace project can be found here.

Click on the map to the right for a larger image.

Further information from Kathryn Steemson.