A group of housing professionals with an interest in all things GIS-related have created a community to offer support and share ideas and best practice.
GI4Housing aims to bring together the individuals in housing who are doing excellent things with GIS through a series of bi-annual meetings. The group is aimed at people who currently use GIS in housing but is also open to housing providers who want to establish an in house GIS solution and want to learn more.
The most recent meeting was held at Midland Heart and featured speakers from Ordnance Survey, Land Registry and Ambiental Technical Solutions talking about the types of data they can provide. Representatives from Aster Group, Bracknell Forest Homes and Midland Heart also presented case studies on how they were each using GIS.
Emma Holgate, research and data insight analyst, Midland Heart, said, “We are using GIS as a tool to view and map our properties and we also perform some really interesting spatial analysis using the software. As someone who is fairly new to GIS and housing, it’s great to be a part of a group which gives me the opportunity to learn a lot from others in the sector.”
Alex Dane, GIS manager, Plus Dane Group, said, “We are seeing more and more housing providers becoming aware of the benefits of GIS and they are turning to GI4Housing as an impartial source of knowledge and advice. Even organisations that have had GIS for several years are joining to network with their peers, and learn about the many new ways GI is being successfully used.”
The next meeting will take place in April 2017. Anyone who would like to get involved with the group can find out more from the GI4Housing Linkedin page: www.linkedin.com/groups/8190166/profile.
