Friday 31 October 2014

Paranormal Energy and InFEARstructure Report!

We'd like to wish everyone a Happy Halloween from our Legal Team! 

For this special occasion we have made some new changes to our Energy and InFEARstructure report.

 ​Please ensure that you read and digest the important information on the attached sample and if you have any questions, do not hesitate to get in touch! 

P.S We are making changes to our actual Energy & Infrastructure report and will be in touch soon.

Wednesday 29 October 2014

Promap Masterclass - Article 11

This instalment of our Promap Masterclass articles looks at ordering reports from Promap. This process follows the common style of online purchasing:

  • Select your product
  • Add it to your shopping basket
  • Confirm your delivery details
  • Checkout at the end

Whilst this is a fairly simple process there are a couple of features which can assist with this.

The Promap Masterclass is run in conjunction with our free Promap Masterclass webinars, which demonstrate the features in action.  To register for the next free webinar click here.

Use the free to view layers to order your reports



When ordering your reports from Promap, define the area you want for your report using one of the free to view layers, such as VML Raster, to avoid an unnecessary viewing charge.

Editing the address for your report


To ensure the correct address for your site is shown on your report use the edit option on the left hand side of the reports section to alter it as required.

Tracking and re-downloading your reports


To locate your report and track its progress, click on the Order tracking option under Reports to access a number of different search options.

Once you have located your report, re-download it using the following steps:
  • Click on the orange plus sign to the left of the order date to view the details of the report.
  • Select the “Retrieve this file” option from the right hand side of the screen
  • This will now add the report to the download manager section of Promap which can be located under the “Export data” tab on the left hand side of the screen.

Where to obtain sample data and reports



There are a variety of methods within Promap for obtaining information about our data or accessing samples reports.  Some of these are listed below:

  • Click on the “Maps & Data” option on the Promap login screen to view details of all the datasets and reports contained in Promap.  You can also view samples in a variety of formats.
  • To access samples of our reports follow the process for ordering site reports. Then on the “Product Selection”  screen select the option under the product name for “More info and samples”
  • To obtain information about the datasets in Promap Export hover over the orange ‘I’ button to the right of each dataset to display a dialogue box 

For more detailed advice on Promap why not book one of our training courses (which are all now FREE) or visit our training website by clicking here to find other useful tips and training aids.

If there are any other topics you would like to see included in the Masterclass blogs or if you have any other questions please call us on 0844 844 9965 or email us at training@promap.co.uk

Friday 24 October 2014

Promap Masterclass - Article 10

This week we deal with exporting data from Promap.

The Promap Masterclass is run in conjunction with our free Promap Masterclass webinars, which demonstrate the features in action.  To register for the next free webinar click here.

Using the free to view layers to export OS Detail Data



To avoid an unnecessary viewing charge when exporting OS Detail data from Promap:
  • Define the area you want to export using one of the free to view layers i.e VML Raster
  • When you are at the stage of selecting your datasets choose the OS Detail layer from the options.
Defining your export site using the shape tool


To avoid unnecessary time cropping your data and to keep costs down, you can more accurately define the area you are looking to export by using “Set shape frame” in “Step 1 options” under Export Data. This activates the shape tools which enable you to accurately define the site, this way you only export and pay for the data you want.

New datasets and dataset information 


  • Any new datasets that have been added to Promap are now displayed under the “Current Mapping and New Data” category. Promap will automatically take you here once you have defined your site and clicked on the “Get export data” tab under the export options.
  • Hover over the orange ‘I’ button next to the listed datasets to view dataset details, including delivery times and available formats.
Download Notification       


The delivery time of some datasets, such as our bespoke range, is slightly longer. To relieve you from having to log in to Promap to check the data availability, we’ve included the option “Email me when my files are ready to download”.  Select this option and confirm your email address to receive an email notification.

If you found this Masterclass useful, keep an eye out for the next one. For more detailed advice on Promap why not book one of our training courses (which are all now FREE) or visit our training website by clicking here to find other useful tips and training aids.

If there are any other topics you would like to see included in the Masterclass blogs or if you have any other questions please call us on 0844 844 9965 or email us at training@promap.co.uk

Wednesday 22 October 2014

Envirocheck Masterclass - Article 3

This week we look at advanced drawing options to help you accurately define your site.

The Envirocheck Masterclass is run in conjunction with our free Masterclass webinars, which demonstrate the features in action.  To register for the next free webinar click here.


Envirocheck advanced drawing tools


When using Envirocheck to outline your site there are some keyboard shortcuts which can help speed up the process:
  • “add point/remove point” – If you realise you have made a mistake after outlining your site rather than delete the shape and start again, simply use either the “add point” or “remove point” options to amend your shape.
  • Space Bar – Instead of clicking on each dot around the curve to outline your site when using Snap to Point:
    • Click on the first white dot
    • Then hold down the space bar and click on the last white dot
    • (Note: The orange and white dots are sourced from different databases. So if you have an orange dot along the curve you will have to click to that before the next white dot to use this shortcut)  
  • L Key – Press L whilst using the shape tool to fix the length of the line.
  • A Key – Press A whilst using the shape tool to fix the angles for your shape. 

For more detailed advice on Envirocheck  or if there are any other topics you would like to see included in the Masterclass emails or if you have any other questions please call us on 0844 844 9965 or email me at nick.mills@landmark.co.uk.

Tuesday 21 October 2014

Wildfire TV takes a walk through history with Landmark

 Walking Through History - Channel 4

Television production company, Wildfire Television has selected Landmark Information Group to source and supply a range of data terrain images for a series commissioned by Channel 4.

WalkingThrough History’ is the third series of six history documentaries that are presented by Sir Tony Robinson.   The programmes start broadcasting  on Saturday 25th October at 20:00hrs on Channel 4 and will focus on locations across the UK, including the Cairngorms, Sherwood Forest, Pembrokeshire, the Yorkshire Moors, and the Channel Islands.

Landmark has worked closely with the production team to produce a series of images showing stylised terrain data overlaid with reference features including key road networks and coastlines.  This has been produced using a combination of Ordnance Survey open data and OS Terrain® 50 datasets.

Marisa Verazzo, Production Manager of Walking Through History for Wildfire Television said: “We are pleased to be working with the team at Landmark Information Group to provide us with a host of contoured terrain maps for Walking Through History.  The maps really put the areas that we will be focusing on in the series into context, and by working with Landmark we have been able to access exactly what we need.”

Matt Wills, Senior GIS Analyst at Landmark Information Group said: “We are pleased to be able to deliver a host of hill-shaded and coloured OS Terrain 50 maps to Wildfire Television for use in the new Channel 4 documentary.  It just goes to show another great way that our extensive range of datasets and maps are being put to use in the commercial world – so, as well as supporting the environmental, land and property industries, our data and mapping tools are also here to support media, marketing and other similar industries in piecing together the history of a given location.

Monday 20 October 2014

Jayne Coppinger appointed as Sales & Relationship Manager

Jayne Coppinger has been appointed as Sales & Relationship Manager for Landmark's 'Landmark Quest' division.  Jayne is responsible for supporting mortgage lender clients with their use of the Q-Guard risk management and fraud prevention platform.

Jayne joins the division having considerable experience in the UK’s property industry.  Prior to Landmark, Jayne was Business Development Director at Move With Us in addition to National Sales Manager for Zoopla Property Group. Jayne also spent four years as Business Development Manager at Rightmove.

Peter Stimson, Managing Director – Landmark Quest, Landmark Information Group said: “Jayne is a great asset to our financial risk division; she brings with her a huge amount of experience in the property industry and has an excellent grasp on the current legislations that are facing the lending community related to risk management and security. She will work closely alongside our existing lender clients, particularly those that are already using our Q-Guard platform, as well as support the sales team in further increasing adoption of our risk management and fraud prevention tools.

Added Jayne Coppinger: “I look forward to meeting many new and existing client and contacts from the industry over the course of the coming weeks.   From my point of view, I will be on hand to support our lender clients in ensuring their current risk strategies are backed-up by the very latest risk alerts and automated detection methods.”
Jayne Coppinger, Sales & Relationship Manager

Friday 17 October 2014

On This Day In History: The 1814 London Beer Flood

As specialists in providing flood risk data and reports, we often report on the various flooding incidences that occur across the UK – from fluvial (river), pluvial (surface water), coastal and groundwater.  Our data provides accurate details that can be assessed to determine the potential risk posed at any given property or location.

Our colleagues at JBA Risk Management, specialists in hazard mapping and catastrophe modelling, have provided us with details on a major flooding event with a difference, which occurred exactly 200 years ago today.  We wanted to share the details of the 1814 London Beer Flood to mark the anniversary and illustrate the impact that surface water flooding can have on a location, regardless of the source:

“Exactly two hundred years ago today, over one million pints of beer flooded London’s Tottenham Court Road when the vats from a local porter brewery gave way.

The vats at The Horse Shoe Brewery on the corner of Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Street, now the site of the Dominion Theatre, were owned by Meux and Company, (which became Friary Meux in 1965) a successful supplier of porter style beer. There was a trend for larger and larger vats at this time and Meux & Co were proud of theirs, one of which was said in 1785 to be able to hold the equivalent of 4,500 barrels of beer.

However, on 17 October 1814, disaster struck: a vat containing 3,550 barrels of fermenting beer exploded. In so doing, it knocked the cocks out of another huge vat, brought down a wall and part of the roof which in turn smashed many hogsheads, each containing 420 pints of beer. In total some 1,080,000 pints of porter rushed out into the street in a wall of beer around 15 feet high, flattening two houses and badly damaging the nearby Tavistock Arms pub.

The area around St Giles parish where the accident took place was known as “Rookeries” due to the number of persons living in each house and their generally low standard of living and housing. Had the flood occurred in the night time, there would have been many more fatalities. Fortunately it took place in the daytime while most folk were at work; even so, some eight unfortunate souls were unable to escape in time from the rapidly flooding basements and cellars of the Rookeries.

Reports at the time claim that people in the nearby area were seen scooping up beer from the streets and in some cases, kneeling down to suck it up straight from the ground. It's hard to imagine such an extraordinary industrial accident occurring today, but if it did, would we behave any differently?  Whatever the answer to that, this will probably be the best day for a long time to come to go to your local and have a pint, remembering the day that London was awash with beer.

Alison Ford, Marketing
---
What really happened in the London Beer Flood 200 years ago?
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/what-really-happened-in-the-london-beer-flood-200-years-ago-9796096.html


Thursday 16 October 2014

Flood - protect or prepare

I think we all know by now that flooding is a real issue. There are all sorts of statistics bandied about, such as 5,000,000 properties being at risk of flooding and 1 in 7 businesses having been harmed by flooding, but the reality is that it happens and it hurts. The changing climate means that more deluges are on their way, so that some previously dry properties will become wet in the future. Thankfully, it is now safe to buy a house: there are great reports available that highlight any risks and say what can be done about them.

But what can be done? Knowing about the problem is one thing, but it is solving it that really matters, especially if you already live in a house under threat. The good news is that there are ways to live with flooding.

Knowing like Noah
When you know the waters are likely to rise, you can protect your home and keep it dry. This is often called flood resistance and works by making your house waterproof, very much like a boat. Most buildings are full of far more holes than just the windows and doors, all of which have to be sealed if you want to stay dry. It can be fairly obvious to deal with the water you can see, but with most floods of any duration, the ground becomes saturated and water rises vertically up through the foundations.


The walls are all fairly easy to make water tight, such as fitting waterproof covers to doors and air-bricks. Costs usually range from about £2,000 for providing covers to air bricks, doors and windows, as well as fitting non-return valves to foul pipes and making sure the bricks are well pointed. These are the basics and can be enough for short floods from rainfall or rivers. Longer floods or rising groundwater will also need the floor to be made water tight, which is often highly disruptive and can cost well over £10,000.

These resistance measures will only work for comparatively short periods – days to weeks – as water will eventually get in. A ‘sump and pump’ arrangement will help to get rid of such water from a low-point in the foundations, but remember that a fair amount of cleaning and drying will be needed after every flood event. There is usually significant damage to gardens, garages and outbuildings.

Keeping the waters out will only be feasible for floods of less than about one metre deep, as beyond this the water becomes so heavy that is crushes the walls and can collapse the entire building. Worth avoiding! In deep floods, or when costs are prohibitive, the only sensible option is to adopt resilience measures.

Cleverer than Canute
Resilience works by allowing the water into your house, but being prepared for it. It is impossible to avoid some disruption whilst your house is full of water, but with careful preparation it need not be catastrophic. There is a pub in York that floods almost every year and has got its resilience measures down to such an art that they open the day after the waters recede.

Resilience works by changing the fabric of a building to make it safe during the flood, then easy to clean and dry afterwards. Common changes include moving wiring and power points higher up the walls, replacing normal plaster with waterproof varieties and taking all wood away from the flood zone (including doors and floor boards). The latter can be replaced by alternatives that do not absorb water, such as plastic or glass. It is also worth fitting non-return valves to the foul water pipes, since you do not want any return visits from the sewer!

Most flood waters are extremely dirty and leave behind a drift of mud and muck. It is therefore important to be able to sweep out and hose down the flooded areas, so nooks and crannies should be avoided. A sump and drain to wash the dirty water away will also be useful.

The cost of refitting a house with resilience measures will vary massively, depending on what needs changing. However, costs are unlikely to be less than £5,000 to do the job properly.

One size fits one
The solution to your flood problem will depend on many factors, from the type of flooding expected to the construction of your building. It is worth carrying out detailed research and probably consulting an expert, since making you home resistant or resilient is not generally a DIY undertaking. Experts will have to carry out much of the work, so it is worth talking to them to begin with.

The first step is to understand your flood risk – its type, depth and frequency – then design the most effective measures to deal with it. Landmark Information Group can help you take the next steps for your property, but there is also a lot of detailed generic information and case studies at www.knowyourfloodrisk.co.uk


Flooding is becoming a major concern of insurers and lenders, as well as affecting the value and saleability of your house in the future. The cost of action may be daunting, but is it nothing to the financial and emotional cost of not taking action. 

Author: Angus Middleton, Consultant, Argyll Environmental.

Monday 13 October 2014

Envirocheck Masterclass - Article 2

In this Envirocheck Masterclass we continue to deal with locating your site and looking at the methods for most quickly and accurately defining your site once you have it displayed.

The Envirocheck Masterclass is run in conjunction with our free Masterclass webinars, which demonstrate the features in action.  To register for the next free webinar click here.

Tools to define your site


A variety of options in Envirocheck allow you to accurately define your site. These are as follows:
  • Point Tool – Obtain information around a point on the map using the buffer zones
  • Autofill Tool –Automatically apply an outline to a single self-contained shape on the map
  • Shape Tool – Define your own site outline and combine it with the snap to point option for greater accuracy
  • Linear Tool – Ideal for trenches, Roadways, river systems etc., use along with the Linear Site width option to more accurately define the width of your site

Undo option



Use the delete button to undo the last click and make corrections if you click on the wrong point while drawing outlines. 

Opening a shape to repair it


If you realise that you have made a mistake with your site outline after completing it, there is no need to delete it and start again. Instead  left click on the map away from your shape to deselect it and then left click back on your shape to reselect it then press return on the keyboard to open it back up.   

If you found this Envirocheck Masterclass useful, keep an eye out for the next one. For more detailed advice on Envirocheck  or if there are any other topics you would like to see included in the Masterclass emails or if you have any other questions please call us on 0844 844 9965 or email t nick.mills@landmark.co.uk.

Landmark Information Group introduces new Licence Management Service to digital mapping products

We've introduced a new Licence Management functionality to the Promap digital mapping platform. The service makes it easier to renew export data licences in accordance with Ordnance Survey regulations, as well as viewing and managing licences online. 

The new Licence Management tool is designed to support clients in ensuring all export data purchased from our Promap service fully complies with Ordnance Survey terms and conditions, avoiding any penalties for expired or incorrect licences.

Carole Ankers, Product Development Director at Landmark Information Group said: “The introduction of Licence Management is one of our latest product enhancements and is designed to support our customers in keeping all data in licence.  It makes it easy to renew digital data export licences and centrally manage them in one single place. It also helps keep users notified of when a licence is about to expire so a renewal can be organised.”

Nick Macready, Strategic Partner Manager from Ordnance Survey: “We encourage the use and exploitation of mapping and data by providing a wide range of licences that focus on how customers wish to use our information and the rights we grant for those uses.   We have a series of licences, which underpin the rights being granted for use of Ordnance Survey products.  By implementing the new Licence Management tool in Promap, Landmark ensures its customers can benefit from the most current version and also fully comply with the correct licence for the mapping and data that each customer accesses via the service, and we applaud them for supporting our drive to clampdown on un-licenced data.”

For more information on Promap, telephone 0844 844 9960 or visit www.promap.co.uk.    

Wednesday 8 October 2014

Promap Masterclass - Article 9

The ninth instalment of our Promap Masterclass blogs looks at Promap IQ, which enables you to obtain planning application, listed building and points of interest information for your site and the surrounding area.

These blog articles are run in conjunction with our free Masterclass webinars, which demonstrate the features in action.  To register for the next free webinar click here.



Accessing Promap IQ



 To access Promap IQ:
  • Open the map of your site
  •  Click on either the Promap IQ tab above the top left hand corner of the map or the Promap IQ teaser box on the left hand side of the screen.


The teaser box will appear on the  “Street” , “VML Raster”, “Aerial” , “OS Detail” or “UKMap Detail” (for sites in London) layers for your site and shows how many planning applications, listed buildings and points of interest you have within 250m of the site.


Promap IQ – Filters Screen


The filters screen enables you to specify what information Promap IQ will display. Your options are:
  • Search Radius –select a search area anything from 50m to 5km
  • Planning Applications –select applications based on category, date (as far back as 1997), type or size. You can remove all the planning applications with an estimated project value under £100,000 by unticking this last option
  • Listed Buildings – These can be selected by the following grades:
    • Grade 1
    • Grade 2*
    • Grade 2
  • Points of Interest – These can be selected by category.  There is also an option to edit each category for the information you need. Points of Interest data enables you to view the social infrastructure for an area i.e. doctors, surgeries, dentists, schools etc.

Note 1: The 500 search results provided by Promap IQ for each of the three categories are the 500 nearest rather than the 500 newest.

Note 2: Listed buildings will not appear for Scotland and Wales.  This data is only available for England.

Note 3: All the data in Promap IQ is updated on a regular basis to ensure accuracy. The update cycles are:
  • Planning Applications – 6 Weeks
  • Listed Buildings - Annually
  • Points of Interest – 6 Months  


Your search results are then displayed on the map via icons, the key for which can be found under the “Spot Legend” at the top of the screen. 


Promap IQ – Detailed Information


Once you have paid the charge to view the detailed information you will be taken to the above screen.  You can use the “Detailed Information” section on this screen to view the following:
  • High level information about planning applications. You are able to copy the application ID number to a clipboard and use the provided link to the local authority website where you can paste the ID number and view the full application.   
  • Detailed information about listed buildings using the Listed Buildings information, which enables you to access English Heritage’s website “Images of England”.
  • Points of interest will give you high level information on all of the results in the area.

The local plan tab in the top right hand corner of the screen will display links if you wish to access the local plan or local development framework.

At this stage, you have the opportunity to purchase the information in PDF or spreadsheet format (the spreadsheet can also be selected with geo-coordinates for more accurate positioning of information).
  
If you found this Masterclass useful, keep an eye out for our next Masterclass blog. For more detailed advice on Promap why not book one of our training courses (which are all now FREE) or visit our training website by clicking here to find other useful tips and training aids.

If there are any other topics you would like to see included in the Masterclass blogs or if you have any other questions please call us on 0844 844 9965 or email us at training@promap.co.uk

Tuesday 7 October 2014

Envirocheck Masterclass - Article 1

Welcome to the first in a series of Envirocheck Masterclass articles.

Our aim is to help you save time, improve accuracy and enhance your outputs when using Envirocheck. Our first Masterclass deals with locating your site for your report.

The Envirocheck Masterclass is run in conjunction with our free Masterclass webinars, which demonstrate the features in action.  To register for the next free webinar click here.



Uploading a shape file to locate your site


You can search for your site by entering the address information. Alternatively, you can upload a shape file directly to Envirocheck and immediately view your mapping with the polygon of your site pre-drawn.  


View your site from various map layers  


There are three zoom options available to you on the Envirocheck mapping screen which enable you to zoom in to improve your scale and also view four available mapping layers (Road Atlas, Town, Street and Detail) these are:
  • The slider bar
  • The plus and minus options on the slider bar
  • Your mouse wheel 

Roaming around your map



There are three different methods of roaming around your map in Envirocheck. These are:
  • Place your cursor on the map, hold down the left-click button on the mouse and drag the map in your chosen direction.
  • Click on the grey arrows on each side and at each corner of the map.
  • Use the red box in the map area in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen to roam around the map.


Obtaining addresses for sites on your map 

To update the address for your report or to check the address of a property on the map, simply move the desired site into the centre of the screen (using the roam options mentioned above). Then click on the “Get address from centre” tab on the left hand side of the screen.
NOTE: The address shown on the left hand side will be the address displayed on your report so always ensure the correct address for your site is shown here before you move on to the next stage of ordering.   
If you found this Envirocheck Masterclass useful, keep an eye out for our next Masterclass. For more detailed advice on Envirocheck  or if there are any other topics you would like to see included in the Masterclass emails or if you have any other questions please call us on 0844 844 9965 or email nick.mills@landmark.co.uk.