GEOSPATIAL DATA SOURCES
Introduction
Intricacies and nuances of the data
Characteristics of the data source
Nature of the spatial units and georefencing
Crime figures
The reference spatial system adopted for the study is the SGB_1936_British_National_Grid while the
projection used is Transverse_Mercator Geographic Coordinate System: GCS_OSGB 1936. The use of two
different systems in the data makes it uncorrelated. When the data is overlaid on the boundary shapefiles,
it does not fall on the exact location and there is need to introduce a shift that lowers the accuracy of the
project.
Some of the statistical data lack the spatial information, thus the process of linking the data to a spatial
system is lengthy and in most cases it is not geo-specific. There is a need to standardise the parameters
used in the spatial representation of data for ease of representation in the GIS based software.
A geospatial data source provides the necessary information to a GIS platform or spatial based database for
numerous GIS manipulation and applications. There are wide geospatial data sources available. Choice of
which data source to be used in accruing geo-data depends on so many factors namely, project type,
geographic extent of the area of study, cost/budget of the project or data capture, time and so many others.
Each data source has its pros and cons especially in this fields that is very critical and sensitive to the
authenticity of the geo-data in terms of accuracy, relevance, age and quality. One of the type of geospatial
data source highly embraced nowadays is the internet geoportals. Internet is a major player of providing GIS
data in digital format. Lets Focus On the following geospatial data source and more keenly on crime figures in
United Kingdom.
The information give the record of crimes recorded in
the area, the frequency of the crime, the locations the
incidence occurred and the status of the investigation
on the authorities’ part. The information keeps a
statistical follow up on the actual reported crime rate.
The data has spatial attribute linked to it for accurate
mapping of the hotspot areas.
The data has geographic coordinates that can be imported into the ArcGIS
software for the mapping. The correlation of the values and the software
enhances the accuracy in mapping the crime with the area it was reported. The
information helps to develop a hotspot map on where crime rate is high and a
linkage with other factors common to the area helps explain the patterns. For
instance we can see the rate and area where burglary in Westminster
And London in the large context
occured
The statistics reveal the geographic location where crimes have taken place and the reported crime is
recorded. The data given has been sourced from the government records on how the crimes have been
reported and the status of the crime that is either concluded, under investigation or suspect is being
charged (met.police.uk, 2015).
The data was linked to a spatial database to generate a map that shows the location of the crime. An
analysis was conducted to establish the neighbourhood correlation of the crime statistics, analysing the
correlation of the data with population, depravation index and the reported cases.
The currency of the data is limited to the level of statistics that the state reports, records and releases to
the public.
Population Census
The census shows the distribution of the population across the country in different wards. The population
is distributed based on the gender, age, income, location and income levels (Anon., 2016). The data is broad
and easy to manipulate by assessing the records of metadata. It gives the rate of population increase over
the years after census reports.
The data availed for the study was quite bulky without any analysis on the data. Data was
sampled from police records on the reported crime rates in the country with a major interest on
Strand and Whitehall area of Westminster.
The boundaries were provided as shapefiles and the metadata was in excel sheets that were
linked to the boundary data to show the relationship. The source of the data was deemed
accurate based on the person reporting the crime, the occurrence and frequency of reporting
crime. Burglary crime has a significant statistics at (5 percentage) with a high record at (33 in
Lambeth).
Index of Multiple Deprivation
The index is a tool used by the government to assess the deprivation in various areas in the U.K.
The index assesses seven aspects of the neighbourhood renewal unit to establish the correlation
these indices have with the levels of crime in U.K. The data is used to identify the most deprives
areas in the U.K, to compare different geographic areas and identify factors that shows the patter
of stud (Go.UK, 2015). In this study, the enviro-crime mapping will be
 Education Skills and Training – Education reveals the reasons why the employment is low and
the crime rate is high.
 Barriers to Housing and Services – Shelter is a basic need of any individual and the deprivation
of the same leave individuals to live on the street. The homeless people on the street steal
from the people thus increasing the crime rate in the state.
 Crime-The assessment of the crime rate establishes the relationship between all other factors
and the deprivation. It is expected that crime is high in deprived area and it spreads across the
neighbouring regions.
 Living Environment- it gives the condition of the population environment in terms of
accessibility to basic amenities, utilization of the same and hindrances to adequate use of the
resources.
This information gives the relocation rate of individuals within a given area. The
findings help
to correlate the migration into or out of an area and its relationship to crime and
the environment. The data is sourced from government records on the property
sales.
Residential property sales data
Mortality or morbidity statistics.
The data gives the birth rate, the death rate and the information is
used to assess increase or decrease in population and the rate of
change (go.uk, 2011).
The data acts as a measure of the effects of crime rate in causing
deaths, or establishing the correlation between the crime rate and
the increasing populations. The assessment gives a pattern that is
studies to show the correlation between data
Its strengths and weaknesses
The raw data is imperative without the analysis and the distribution of the crime
location. The format of the data requires a lot of linkages with other sources to
make conclusive derivation of it. Since, the storage is in different format, while
some are compatible, others are not and a common factor has to be generated
to make it logic.
Another challenge is the lack of clear facts to analyse since the data is collected
without specific focus on the analysis to be carried out.
The data however gives spatial location attributes that map out the areas where
it was reported that makes it easy to analyse the centre with the highest crime
rate reports. The density map analysis gives us an understanding of locality that
crime is likely to occur or rampant from the trends and patterns: seen as below
The level of spatial (geographical) detail
The analysis using GIS gives us the relationship between crime rate and other
non-spatial attributes such as education, health, population data and others.
The relevance of this data is linked to the depravation index of different wards
in the country and the areas with multiple depravation have high crime rates
compared with areas with low depravation.
The analysis helps the decision making process on areas to develop,
establishing ways to reduce the crime rate such as increase police vigilance,
positioning of cameras and engage the public.
The data can also be used to monitor the trends and patters on spatial and
non-spatial attributes over time by creating a real time and updatable database
The potential utility in GIS-based analyses
Bibliography
Anon., 2016. Crime and justice. [Online]
Available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice
[Accessed 6 February 2017].
go.uk, 2011. peoplepopulationandcommunity. [Online]
Available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/
[Accessed 6 February 2017].
Go.UK, 2015. Index of Multiple Deprivation. [Online]
Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/englishindices-of-deprivation-
2015
[Accessed 6 February 2017].
landregistry, 2015. land registry. [Online]
Available at: http://landregistry.data.gov.uk/
[Accessed 6 February 2017].
met.police.uk, 2015. Crime map in U.K. [Online]
Available at: http://maps.met.police.uk/tables.htm
[Accessed 6 February 2017].