Luton Borough Council, UK

Background

Luton Borough Council provides the local community with access to a range of data through the Luton Community Information Observatory website. This uses ArcIMS from ESRI to publish thematic maps depicting small area statistics such as crime, deprivation, income and mortality.

Problem

The observatory consists of numerous copies of a customised version of the ArcIMS HTML viewer application. As more data is added to the observatory, more sites are created, and it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain these sites or add new functionality.

Solution

Luton chose the Geowise Internet Map Framework (IMF) for three main reasons

  • It allows new sites to be created very quickly and easily with minimal configuration
  • Its use of simple XML configuration files allows multiple diverse sites to use common code
  • It includes a rich array of functionality that would otherwise require bespoke development, for example downloading data into excel or grouping map layers into themes

Geowise provided Luton with a their own customised version of IMF including Luton’s own corporate branding and an address search tool using Luton’s own address database

The Luton Observatory is planning to launch the customized version of IMF within the next couple of months with a new range of local quality of life indicators that cover a cross-section of areas (health, crime, education, deprivation, environment).

Verdict

Nadia Cockar, GIS analyst with Luton Borough Council, said

"Geowise’s IMF solution has offered us a secure and flexible platform to enable the increased functionality envisioned for the further development of the Luton Observatory, while still being accessible to all types of audiences."

Further information

To find out more about how IMF can help your organisation,