Straddling two counties and with a population exceeding 140,000, Mid Ulster District Council (MUDC) delivers local services to a diverse population spread across both urban and rural communities. One MUDC's many roles is the collection of Trade Waste from 250 sites across the Dungannon Area. Although the collection of waste is completed regularly, the actual amount of waste collected varies greatly from truck to truck and, indeed, from route to route. Information from the individual routes, including the amount of waste collected, was collated by the council on Excel spreadsheets.
MUDC required the digitisation of this data to allow them to present it on a map for analysis. This would enable their GIS officer, Nicky Doris, to optimise collection routes based on location, weight, and type of waste. The data itself had no latitude or longitude coordinates but was a collection of addresses which were not formatted correctly to be imported into a GIS.
How Azimap Was Used to Fulfil Project Requirements
By using Azimap, Nicky never had to leave the digitisation workflow to complete this task, which enabled him to increase productivity by 80% compared to utilising similar processes on the council's proprietary GIS. The task of undertaking this project within Azimap involved:
Importing a non-spatial CSV into Azimap as a new layer
Choosing which attributes were 'editable' and 'required', depending on the data
Saving the layers and displaying them on a map
Plotting trade waste sites on the map via a simple address search within Azimap
Editing the database table entries within Azimap as required
Never having to leave the Azimap digitisation workflow process
Saving and exporting the data out of Azimap
Azimap, as a digitisation tool, was fantastic in comparison to the usual methods used to capture data. The digitisation workflow made this process extremely quick and accurate, which is a priority for me. Additionally, the ability to complete each record fully without having to leave the application made it perfect for this task.
Nicky Doris, GIS Officer, Mid Ulster District Council
Benefits of Azimap
A quick and simple process which anyone could complete
Significantly reduced the hours required to complete this time-consuming work
Allowed Nicky more time to complete advanced GIS analysis
Data was easily exported to his preferred format
No incomplete records due to completion of 'required field' attributes
Discover how Azimap can be used to import, visualise and analyse your spatial data by requesting a personalised demonstration or by signing up for a 30-day free trial.