The Serious Science of Knowing where Things are – The Importance of Maps

Through the centuries, explorers and mariners have staked their lives on accurate maps, and although the stakes do not appear so high, lives and livelihoods of landowners and managers also depend on accurate maps.

Maps are essential in confirming the extent of what an estate or individual owns, where they have authority and responsibility, and the area within which they have a duty of care in law for the safety of others.

Having supported owners and managers of large tree populations across the UK to meet their duty of care and to proactively and cost-effectively manage their trees and other assets for over 30 years, we have built a team of experts in this field. As well as some of the UK’s leading Arboricultural Consultants our team also includes highly skilled and knowledgeable AutoCAD and GIS Mapping Technicians.

The implications for any tree manager of not having ownership boundaries clearly mapped are twofold; first, you may be unaware of trees located on your land that require risk management to prevent them from failing and causing injury, and second, you may carry out work to trees that do not belong to you, potentially resulting in legal claims for damages.

We often find that our first job to support tree owners and managers is for our Surveyors and Mapping Technicians to produce clear ownership boundary maps.

And once the boundaries are properly defined, knowing where your trees are located and the condition that they are in enables you to proactively and cost-effectively manage them and to provide clear information to stakeholders and contractors when required.

Over the years, we have developed digital mapping and tree management software (MyTrees) that shows the location, size and condition of all inspected trees, and this has become an invaluable tool for pro-active tree management.

As approved Ordnance Survey Partners we supply landowners with OS products under license including MasterMap (OSMM) basemaps and aerial imagery so that they are able to produce clear informative plans of their trees and other assets, such as play areas, benches, lawns and paths.

We are often engaged to inspect and map these types of assets and to analyse the quantity, area and condition of these so that reliable budgets can be set. For instance, if you wanted to invite quotes for grounds maintenance works, you would feel a whole lot more confidence in the bids you receive if you were able to locate and quantify the lawns, shrub beds, trees and hedges that the quotes had been priced for.

For anyone who is managing large areas of land with high numbers of trees and other features, whether hundreds of properties within a Housing Association’s portfolio or a Historic Parkland or an Urban Regeneration Scheme, being able to analyse for trends and identify “hot-spots” of poor condition or high risk is essential for budgeting, reporting and pro-active management.

This is where our mapping team apply our specialist tools for spatial analysis to highlight important areas and produce reports.

The expertise of our team and the technology that drives our mapping service makes the business of sharing this key information easy and straightforward.

You may need to share information across your organisation via your corporate digital platform, it could be you want to take a paper map out into the middle of a field for a contractor meeting, attach pdf plans to a tender package or review a 3D model of your development on the big screen in your boardroom. Whatever you need, our AutoCAD and GIS Team produce clear and informative outputs which are easy to navigate, so you won’t get lost.

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