exeGesIS Spatial Data Management

We were contracted to provide technical GIS support to Scottish local authorities as they zoned relevant areas of land based on their potential for litter.

Exegesis were appointed by Natural England to compile a national HLC dataset, drawing together the existing sub-regional HLC datasets and applying a common framework, structure and terminology to a new unified dataset. The aim of the project is to improve the awareness, understanding and ability to manage and monitor England’s historic landscape at a national scale.

exeGesIS successfully incorporated the changes made by over 140 public path orders into the digital map layer, and linked the scanned order files to records in CAMS. This provided the client with an effective, efficient tool to help manage their rights of way.

We demonstrated through spatial processing and statistical analysis that it may be possible to predict wood pasture and parkland quality. This project generated a model that could be used to target survey effort to those sites with the highest predicted quality.

The Wales Active Travel Act required Local Authorities (LAs) to produce a route map of existing safe footpaths and cycle-ways for their designated areas. Data would then become part of the national Active Travel map for Wales focusing resources on linking residential areas with schools, town centres, leisure locations and other walking and cycling destinations. Exegesis staff were tasked with providing a cost-effective web-mapping solution to enable the collation and management of this information.

This desktop application imports archives from the UKDMOS database into SQL Server and converts the spatial data into SQL geometry layers. It creates layers that can be used by JNCC when assessing the extent of UK marine monitoring according to each broad marine discipline (e.g. biodiversity, physical oceanography and fisheries).

Exegesis quickly and efficiently standardised existing polygon data to MESH Translated Habitat DEF using a range of tools within ArcGIS, QGIS, GRASS and MapInfo. We also imported survey data into Marine Recorder following expert analysis of the data to determine biotopes.

exeGesIS were contracted to investigate the distribution of non-native species on protected sites in England, to help develop a programme of work to tackle Invasive Non-Native Species. Large scale data analysis was used to determine which protected site each species occurred within. We also reviewed data flow within Natural England.

The Peak District National Park Authority has had access to the HER data of the five constituent local authorities, stored in separate HBSMR databases, for nearly ten years. In order for the National Park Authority to maintain SHINE (Selected Heritage Inventory for Natural England) data within the Park a merged dataset was required.

Exegesis investigated the options for creating an Annex I habitat inventory for England. This involved a review of approaches taken by other European Union countries and the data available in the UK. A recommended approach was suggested, along with the provision of prototype inventories to show potential coverage.