UKMap Supports Climate Change Research on Trees

Cambridge, 07 September 2010:  The GeoInformation® Group announces the supply of UKMap, a highly detailed and feature-rich mapping database, to Forest Research for testing the latest climate change models. 

Forest Research, the Forestry Commission’s research agency, is Great Britain's principal organisation for forestry and tree related research. With climate change being one of the biggest challenges facing Britain’s trees and forests, Forest Research is tasked with exploring its impact on the UK’s urban tree population and its potential effect on the movement of high-risk organisms through the landscape.

UKMap was acquired to provide the accurate location of trees, adjacent land use and the location and height of surrounding buildings - all significant aspects in the modelling of the changing climate and spatial arrangement of trees and greenspace throughout urban areas.

Andrew Brunt from the Centre for Forestry and Climate Change at Forest Research, comments, “The GIS spatial modelling we are undertaking uses the Oak Processionary moth (a moth that poses a health hazard) as an exemplar that requires highly detailed and accurate data on the environment. Although the Forestry Commission has many datasets of its own, UKMap provides us with various cost-effective sources of data that are key to our research”.

This study will undertake an investigation using empirical and published data to explore how this moth and other potential pests might migrate through urban environments in relation to the location of green space, its connectivity, the structural complexity of the built environment and climate.

This research is just beginning. To find out more, please contact Andy Brunt of Forest Research at: andrew.brunt@forestry.gsi.gov.uk

UKMap and The GeoInformation Group

UKMap is published and owned by The GeoInformation Group, a company that has for the past 10 years been one of the UK’s leading providers of geographic information products.  Its products include the award winning Cities Revealed product suite that has been chosen by Blue chip companies, such as Vodafone, Google, T-Mobile, Autodesk, Thames Water, BAA, and Government organisations including MOD, Metropolitan Police, Communities and Local Government, along with 325 local authorities.

UKMap is a highly detailed, feature rich mapping database, which comprises integrated map layers and attribute tables and is free of Ordnance Survey® copyright.  Captured for use at 1:1,000 scale, UKMap includes buildings with 3D information, road detail including pavements, lane markings, pedestrian crossings and speed humps, a full address gazetteer, inferred property boundaries, land use coding and a wide range of points of interest.  It also includes aerial photography and terrain layers.

Forest Research

Forest Research is part of the Forestry Commission, which is the government department for forestry in Great Britain. It has an international reputation for its world-class scientific research and technical development in support of sustainable forest management for a range of internal and external clients. For further information visit www.forestry.gov.uk/forestresearch.