Adding data value to your current GIS stack
It is common within mining, transport and logistics, government, utilities and emergency services organisations to see extensive investments made into the use of enterprise GIS technologies.
What businesses like about technology like Esri’s ArcGIS, QGIS or Skyline is their ability to scale and perform highly complex GIS tasks for major projects. What many people don’t realise is that there are a number of ways to supplement your investment into these technologies, especially when it comes to the data sources feeding into the platform.
Let’s face it, a great map is nothing without great data. So it’s a good business decision to assess which providers can give you the most flexible offering to integrate with your current GIS technology. Imagine having access to the most accurate, fresh, and robust data that suits the needs of your project, in addition to all of the data you generate in-house.
Our technical team performed an in-depth look into the various data providers on the market to see which one provided the most holistic data offering for our own GIS clients. They found that HERE Technologies’ extensive datasets that cover road neworks, buildings footprints, traffic patterns and more, provided excellent value and data enrichment to existing GIS operations.
Extensive and easily integratable data for your GIS
HERE Technologies Map Data provides clients with extensive data about the surface of the Earth, such as; contours, elevation models and satellite imagery, along with invisible boundaries and areas such as postal codes, local government area boundaries and more. Making up its robust data library is over 57 million kilometres of road data and 125 million points of interest. In Australia alone, the HERE Technologies team is capturing an average of 100,000km of road data annually.
This contextual data can be easily integrated into businesses existing technology such as ArcGIS, QGIS and Skyline to improve productivity, increase public safety and enhance customer and employee experiences. Let’s take a closer look at the different libraries of Map Data that HERE Technologies provides and how they can be used to supplement GIS activities within your organisation.
Road Infrastructure Data
Understanding the road infrastructure for when you need to transport mining equipment to a mine pit, or deploy a firetruck in an emergency situation, can help create safe and efficient routes on your team’s in-cabin map. HERE Technologies provides a full spectrum of data about the road infrastructure with information on:
Road elevation, roughness and curvature
Road signs, signals ,speed limits and warnings
Tunnel height and bridge weight restrictions
This data can be used to warn a truck carrying heavy mining machinery that a bridge on its route cannot take its weight, or if a heavy vehicle cannot fit through a tunnel. Not only will this data minimise the route time, but it can also be used to improve the safety of drivers by alerting them to hazards and minimising distracted driving.
Roads and Routing Data
Organisations can greatly benefit from reliable road network data to enable informed route planning, analysis and dynamic routing decisions to take place automatically. Knowing the fastest and most efficient route can not just save a company time and money; but for emergency services it can dramatically improve critical response times.
HERE Technologies Map Data offers a variety of aspects related to roads and routing including:
Road centre line geometry
Voice phonetics
Routing criteria for all types of road users
Real-Time Traffic Data
Having an accurate and fast route is one thing, but if you don’t know the traffic conditions - you could actually be taking a longer (and more frustrating) route. HERE Technologies offers dynamic map data about road traffic to ensure your vehicles still take the quickest and safest routes. This data includes:
Accidents and road closures
Speed and congestion levels
Traffic safety warning
HERE Technologies provides up-to-the-minute traffic insights about traffic conditions causing delays and congestion, and can either replace or complement existing manual traffic monitoring methods.
How can I access this data?
The great news is that HERE Technologies Map Data is not standardised to any one industry. In fact, when you purchase the data, you will get all of it, providing you with a wealth of options on how you’d like to use it. You would be in complete control of leveraging these data libraries to best meet your business needs.
However, it does take a certain amount of expertise to delve into the data and extract the most meaningful options for your organisation. You may require assistance to find a way to make the data work for you and integrate it into your existing GIS technology.
NGIS has an experienced team of GIS Analysts who have performed HERE Technologies data integration into our clients' existing GIS technologies. Moreover, through NGIS’ association with HERE Technologies’ Australian-based distributor, Next Mile Location Technology, our clients can take full advantage of HERE Technologies product discounts and support services.
Get in touch with our team to find out more.
This blog was originally published by NGIS.