Height, station proximity, ‘old’ counties and insurance areas – new from MapMechanics

Jan. 15, 2014 - PRLog -- Organisations involved in market analysis now have a selection of new digital map data sets at their disposal from MapMechanics, the leading supplier of digital map data and related geodemographic and business data.

Height information, railway stations and ceremonial counties are all featured in the new versions of MapMechanics’ own ForGIS postcode data files.

MapMechanics has also added another useful map data set to its portfolio, CRESTA Zones, which delineates areas treated as single entities by the insurance business. They include both high-resolution and low-resolution versions, each offering users new ways of identifying data relating to areas with widely-recognised boundaries.

All these new data products can be obtained direct from MapMechanics, or through the company’s fully transactional web site, allmapdata.com (http://www.allmapdata.com).

MapMechanics’ ForGIS is a long-established product range providing latitude and longitude for all UK unit postcodes, giving map coordinates to within 1 metre of the centre point of each postcode.

As its name suggests, ForGIS was developed specifically for GIS activities, which often involve processes such as market planning and catchment analysis. Along with current postcodes, ForGIS data includes historic postcodes dating back to 2001. These standard ForGIS elements are included in the new data sets.

ForGIS Heights for postcodes, UK (http://www.allmapdata.com/forgis-heights-for-postcodes-uk...) adds a new field containing height above sea level in metres for each unit postcode – offering an invaluable new resource for infrastructure planning, risk assessment and accessibility evaluation.

ForGIS Nearest rail stations for unit postcodes, GB (http://www.allmapdata.com/forgis-nearest-rail-stations-fo...) adds new fields indicating name of the nearest railway station to every unit postcode in Great Britain (not including Underground stations), and the distance in metres from it. This information is likely to appeal strongly to users such as estate agents marketing properties, and to people operating car pools.

ForGIS Unit postcode points with Ceremonial Counties, UK (http://www.allmapdata.com/forgis-unit-postcode-points-wit...) provides an invaluable and often intriguing insight into the historical county in which each unit postcode falls. Such counties may not coincide exactly with current metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties, or even exist at all any longer in an official sense (for instance, Cumberland or Middlesex), yet they can still evoke strong loyalties, and might for instance influence which league team a player should join, or which local town consumers regard as their natural shopping centre.

Ceremonial counties often have other practical uses too, since their boundaries may help delineate logically cohesive areas that cannot be described by more modern boundary data. They are often used in the milk industry, and to identify an area of provenance (lettuce from Suffolk, for instance).

CRESTA Zones (http://www.allmapdata.com/catalogsearch/result/index/?cat=0&limit=30&q=cresta+zones) data offers users an alternative way of identifying, visualising and analysing data relating to those parts of a country that are regarded as discrete units by the insurance industry. The zones are based on standard postcodes and administrative areas, but the data sets group these together into areas that are specific to the insurance market.

The boundaries are available at two resolutions. The high-resolution data is ideal for identifying areas that fall within a particular zone, and for natural disaster modelling. The low-resolution is useful for functions such as accumulation control and data visualisation.

Data for nearly 140 countries is available, containing 250,000 CRESTA zones in total. Because the boundaries are recognised internationally, they have relevance that extends beyond borders.