Making an internal geodata portal for the British Red Cross
Our team is and always has been acutely aware that (a) there aren’t enough of us to do everything “geo” British Red Cross needs us to do and (b) that’s actually a good thing because it means we can spend time encouraging and collaborating with others to enable them to solve their own geospatial challenges — thereby spreading and embedding geo knowledge throughout the organisation.
To this end, we’ve had several previous iterations of internal GIS systems designed to enable people in British Red Cross to solve their own geo challenges by making their own maps.
Our previous spatial data infrastructure
Our first exploration was with Google Earth around 2011. This allowed people to interact with a map showing a customised view of data layers. This represented a big step forward in the experience we could provide for users, as before this we could only produce static maps. The ability to import and display GPS coordinates independently of our team was also invaluable for field teams deployed internationally. It created an appetite for a self-service geospatial capability too.
The second was a Geoserver that served a selection of webmaps via OpenLayers that people could interact with and then print. It was simple, people used it and it fitted in nicely with the ethos of the team as it was open source. However, the natural ebb and flow of IT architecture meant that this tool was no longer viable for continued maintenance.
We then set up a Geonode, another open source system that additionally allowed for the setting up of a data browser as well as a self-service element that allowed users to create their own maps. It seemed ideal, but alas, the technical requirements of set up and maintenance was too much of a burden and it never progressed.
Then there was a gap, but then there was Covid-19.
Interactive maps to support Covid-19 response
Our team’s contribution to the British Red Cross and VCSEP response to Covid-19 was several web mapping applications built rapidly and successfully with ArcGIS Online, a cloud-based GIS system — we’d always had licenses for ArcGIS desktop software but had seldom used ArcGIS Online for sharing organisationally, except for specific use cases.
Since those successes, we’ve been steadily increasing our use of and understanding of the ArcGIS Online system. It has a long list of features and tools bundled within it — one of which is the ability to create a geodata portal which would allow us to have something akin to our previous Geoserver and Geonode platforms.
So where are we now?
Using ArcGIS Online, we have built a first version of a geodata portal (aka “Geohub”), accessible to internal staff and volunteers only. The target audience is “data people” in the organisation — an intentionally broad group that includes the data science and Business Intelligence teams — who are familiar with the data from their own service(s), but not necessarily familiar with analysing and visualising that data geographically themselves. We’ve been reaching out, creating accounts and steadily onboarding people.
Why?
By developing the Geohub, we’re contributing to three of the aims of the Digital, Data and Technology strategy:
- “self-service analysis and reporting” — by enabling people to find geodata that they need (e.g., a service area boundary) and use those data in a map directly within ArcGIS Online, or by making available in one of the organisations’ other analysis and reporting tools
- “single version of the truth” — by implementing an accessible, useful and reliable geodata repository for the organisation, people know where they can go to access authoritative geodata and how they can use it to support decision making
- “improved data on the frontline” — the suite of tools within the ArcGIS system (of which the Geohub is one) mean that lots of different types of applications can be built and interact with each other, using the same data. We are currently exploring how the geodata we hold can be used within other frontline systems, e.g., by adding boundary data to in-vehicle navigation systems used in Emergency Response.
What does the Geohub do?
We’ve built the Geohub around four main pages. (1) a data browser, where a user can search for geodata using standard tags such as “health inequalities”, and then click through to use that data in a map:
(2) a page showing a selection of web mapping applications, with others accessible through the data browser (depending on the user’s permission level):
(3) a page holding a gallery of static maps, that can be downloaded for printing:
(4) a page of links to our most commonly referenced or sign-posted to resources for best practice in GIS and Information Management:
What the Geohub isn’t
What we’re working on contributes to an ecosystem of technology architecture: it doesn’t compete with or replace something that already exists in the organisation, nor is it a panacea to hold data about every aspect of British Red Cross work.
For example, the database system managing the vehicles being used in Emergency Response records all sorts of data about the vehicles and their users. We would never want to use our system to manage those vehicles — but we might want to access data held in that system to analyse how long it takes vehicles to get to emergency call outs in different parts of the country, or we might want to contribute geodata back into that system to allow the driver to know which Emergency Response area they are in or where their nearest British Red Cross property is, as they are driving.
What are the next steps?
We will continue to steadily onboard people to the ArcGIS Online system, signpost the Geohub as the first port of call for geodata and increase the ways that the ArcGIS Online as a whole can interact with other systems in the organisation.
We’ll be seeking feedback on what’s working and what’s not, and iterating in response so that we can make it as useful as possible for decision making.
Closing thoughts
Interactivity and an element of self-service have always been key aspects of our previous geospatial systems. From the user’s perspective, the difference between what Geoserver can provide versus what ArcGIS Online can might not actually be that much (both can display an interactive map, that users can customise themselves).
However the real difference and power lies in the back-end architecture that ArcGIS Online has, and perhaps even more importantly, the fact that we have it available to us on a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) basis. This means that we aren’t responsible for the technical hosting and maintenance of the system, nor have we pushed that onto our capable, but in high demand colleagues in IT.
In turn, this means that we can focus on enhancing geospatial understanding and getting that understanding as close to the frontline of our services as possible, by enabling people with geo tools and geodata.
If you are reading this in British Red Cross and thinking “I want access so that I can analyse my data geographically”, then please drop into our weekly surgery space and we can have an informal chat — the details are on our RedRoom page.
