14 September 2011 - For immediate release

The Welsh Government is publishing essential flood risk mapping after a hosted solution from Europa Technologies was implemented in less than a week.

viaEuropa for PSMA is a new Data as a Service (DaaS) offering that includes key Ordnance Survey data sets covered by the new Public Sector Mapping Agreement (PSMA).

It gives PSMA signatories access to rendered mapping data ready for immediate customisation and deployment on web, mobile and desktop platforms.

The Welsh Government has chosen viaEuropa for PSMA as a high-performance, cost-efficient way to host, update and maintain the supply of data direct to its public-facing flood risk website http://data.wales.gov.uk/apps/floodmapping

The solution combines PSMA data with free-to-use OS OpenData, enabling a seamless transition between backdrops at a variety of scales from an all-Wales overview with hill shading down to street level mapping and building footprints.

Data sets involved are Strategi, Land-Form PANORAMA, OS VectorMap District and OS VectorMap Local.

The website, which has an intuitive, easy-to-use interface, is intended to support guidelines for the management of all future building development in flood risk areas.

Warren Vick, Director and Founder of Europa Technologies, said: "The Welsh Government were given a tight timetable by their Minister to publish this mapping which is part of their obligation as a public body. The solution is a prime example of the strength of viaEuropa for PSMA in that we were able to implement it in less than a week having already processed the raw data, rendered it as map tiles and made it ready for deployment".

The website was implemented without any downtime to other services and, as a hosted solution, viaEuropa puts no burden on the Welsh Government's server capacity or data management overhead.

The solution enables data to be re-used as often as required in desktop, web and mobile applications, providing a consistent style of mapping across Wales.

As well as creating an elegant, standard map style, Europa Technologies has tested it extensively to make sure that the cartographic design suits users with a colour vision deficiency.

Europa Technologies is highlighting the Welsh Government's use of viaEuropa for PSMA as part of the company's Silver Sponsorship of AGI GeoCommunity 2011, taking place at the East Midlands Conference Centre in Nottingham. Europa Technologies is exhibiting at the event where visitors can learn more about this application and viaEuropa in general. For more information on viaEuropa for PSMA, visit http://www.viaeuropa.uk.com/psma

About Europa Technologies

Europa Technologies is a specialist manufacturer of digital world map data for a wide variety of market sectors and applications. Our products allow organisations with international interests to better understand their customers, assets and markets, in a geographic context, to gain a competitive or strategic advantage. Digital map products from Europa Technologies are used by many Fortune Global 500 companies and several missions of the United Nations. The company has global licence agreements with a number of leading Internet-based service providers including Google Earth/Maps (USA), Microsoft Bing/Multimap (UK), and ViaMichelin (France). Through deployment via Google alone, our world data products have been seen by over 700 million people, approximately 1 in 4 of Internet users world-wide.

For more information, visit www.europa.uk.com, following on Twitter at @europatech or join the LinkedIn group at http://www.linkedin.com/company/europa-technologies.

Contact

For further information, or to request an interview, please contact our Marcomms Manager

Press Centre