Tools & Outcomes
The following tools were created as part of this project and are available online for general non-commercial use. For any questions or requests, please contact Edd Read.
Geocoding Tools
In Chapter 2 we discussed building a geocoding tool to convert place-names
into coordinate values for mapping. There are two main geocoding services available online. The first is a standard
web-based search tool with a Google-style results listing where you can query place names and
be presented with a list of possible results. There is also a geocoding API which is accessible via
http://gis.eddread.co.uk/QuickSearch. This will return a comma-separated pair of coordinate
values which can be used by any application which is able to perform HTTP GET.
Full documentation is available in the report.
• Experiment with the Search Tool »
• Access the API »
Map Builder
The Map Builder is a tool created using the Google Maps API which is designed
to rapidly display maps from data created in MBML format (see below).
The Map Builder also makes use of several data parsers (accessible via its right-hand menu bar) which attempt to produce maps
from a variety of data formats, including (but not limited to!) BBC News, Travel News (Telegraph.co.uk), LastMinute.com holiday
deals, Country Life Property For Sale and a specialised news feed produced by the
Pattern Analysis Research Group at the
University of Bristol. Each of these is linked from the Map Builder menu.
• Experiment with the Map Builder »
Traffic Browser
Built using the Map Builder's underlying code, the Traffic Browser uses data collected from
the BBC Backstage website over a period of several months to display historic and up-to-the-minute traffic information in the
UK. Using a set of options provided in the left-hand menu bar, you can choose a date-range or type of incident, and instantly
generate maps of traffic incident locations.
• Experiment with the Traffic Browser »
Accident Blackspots
Using the historic data collected from the BBC, it was possible to generate a map of accident blackspots. This was
done by dividing the map into a grid and counting the number of accidents occuring in each grid square since records began.
By generating an intensity-map of these points an interesting map has been made showing accident blackspots on almost
every junction along each motorway (along with several other interesting points). This map can either be downloaded as a
PDF or explored in more detail via the 'Accident Blackspots' tab in the Traffic Browser.
• Download Accident Blackspots Map (PDF, 28kb) »
• Traffic Browser (Use the Accident Blackspots tab) »
MBML
In Chapter 3 we introduced a new subset of XML for use in the map tools we created in this project. MBML has a very simple specification, and is used by the Map Builder exclusively. Nevertheless, the full specification is available as an XSD file.