The client required an affordable, mobile system for data gathering in the field. A key requirement was the ability to synchronise the data wirelessly with CAMS Desktop in the office from anywhere at any time.

CAMS Mobile gives you:

• Live data collection in the field
• Portable, lightweight Smartphone / tablet
• Fast, accurate GPS
• Fast, simple recording of data
• Mapping and intuitive forms
• In-built camera
• Seamless data sync 

CAMS Mobile is ideal for:

• Carrying-out condition surveys
• Ad hoc recording of work
• Information resource in your pocket
• Populating asset registers
• Recording issues
• Recording details of site visits

Download a flyer. Further information is available from Simon Allen.

The development and User Acceptance Testing were undertaken rapidly to allow the volunteer surveyors to get out in the field as soon as possible - five weeks from design to deployment! The results were hugely positive with nearly 800 surveys quickly completed and all surveyors enjoying the process.

The National Park Conservation Officer concluded that this project had shown the way for future Heritage at Risk surveying, with significant advantages over previous methodologies.

In 2014 we are enhancing the app for a new round of surveying.

See also the Ordnance Survey case study. Further information from Crispin Flower.

The core of the site is the interactive map of heritage assets, including listed buildings, places of worship, historic gardens, conservation areas, and a 5% sample of the county’s archaeological sites. Map and attribute data are drawn live from the Lincolnshire County HER via the HBSMR Gateway, rather than being managed in a separate database. The map uses the OpenLayers API, with free Ordnance Survey Open Data and Bing maps.

From the map, volunteers download and print a user-friendly survey-pack for the sites/buildings they wish to survey, including everything known about the site, a location map, and a site-specific survey form. Once the fieldwork has been done, the volunteers enter the survey results back into the web site, along with digital photos. Project staff validate the surveys to ensure consistency, and can also view on-line statistics on the complete dataset as it accumulates, and download the data for further analysis.

Further information is available from Crispin Flower, Liz Bates at the Heritage Trust of Lincolnshire on 01529 461499 or www.lincshar.org.

The quality of core survey data was optimised through the use of hand-held computers linked to Global Positioning Systems and the automated downloading of data directly to a central database eliminated errors that might otherwise have arisen during a manual transfer process. Advanced spatial analysis of the survey data was achieved using GIS.

Results showed that the frequency of serious problems (i.e. those that render a path unusable) along the network ranged between authority areas from 1 every 1.75km, to 1 every 400m. Nationally the frequency was 1 every 650m. It was concluded that the public rights of way in Wales were generally in poor condition and that this was preventing the full realisation of sustainable tourism, amenity use and the generation of potential health benefits to users.

Conclusions were drawn about the limitations of some existing approaches to monitoring network condition and recommendation made to improve annual monitoring surveys through the use of more rigorous sampling regimes, the convergence of evaluation standards and the adoption of a new 'best value performance indicator'.

Further information from Kathryn Steemson.