South Kesteven District Council: Data Sharing to parishes made simple through XMAP
South Kesteven District Council, located in the East Midlands, comprises a diverse mix of urban and rural communities, including numerous parishes. Effective collaboration with these parishes is essential for local governance, planning, and public service delivery. However, sharing geographic data with parishes in an accessible and cost-effective manner presented a challenge.
To address this, South Kesteven turned to XMAP as a means of sharing data seamlessly with parishes that utilise the webGIS platform Parish Online. Geoxphere happily provided South Kesteven with a free XMAP account designed for data sharing, along with additional support (also free) to help upload and share GIS data effectively with its parishes.
Parish Online enables parishes to access data without requiring specialised GIS software or any additional expertise in uploading or maintaining data supplied by the Council. For parishes working on Neighbourhood Plans or managing local facilities and services, having access to current and authoritative data provided by the Council delivers significant benefits. It has not only brought about a multitude of business benefits but has also greatly improved collaboration and dialogue between these two tiers of government.
XMAP customers such as Bath and North East Somerset, Somerset, Surrey Heath, Bolsover, and North East Derbyshire also share data with parishes using Parish Online in their areas. For example, Bath and North East Somerset share data with 51 Parish Councils.
While South Kesteven is not an XMAP customer for the full corporate GIS package, Geoxphere remains committed to supporting them and any other local authority looking to share data with town, parish or community councils in England, Wales or Scotland.
Simon Miles - January 2025
Related Articles
Accessing the Admin Panel in XMAP
Overview The Admin Panel is a platform administrators can use to create and manage user accounts, manage the administration's collections and layers, and input your own data into XMAP. Accessing the Admin Panel Log into XMAP as an administrator. ...360 (Street View) Viewer in XMAP
Overview The 360 viewer splits your map view into two, showing your usual map alongside 360 imagery. Accessing 360 Imagery To open the 360 viewer: Zoom into the area you want to view Go to View in the menu Select XMAP 360 Choose your project from the ...Export Data
Exporting Data from XMAP You can access data from XMAP as WFS, WMS or export a Shapefile. Shapefile Export: Log in to XMAP Click the Settings cog (top right) and select Administration Once the admin panel has loaded, select Data on the left hand ...Using Workspaces in XMAP
Overview Workspaces allow you to save a location and set of layers. They are designed so you can focus the map down to just the layers you're interested. Workspaces work much like Bookmarks (Using the Bookmarks tool) with a few differences: When a ...Public Map Watermarks
You may wish to add watermarks to your Public Map to prevent redistribution of data or comply with licensing agreements. Under the Public Map options, you will find the 'Watermark' text field. In this field you can enter: A URL of an image, e.g ...