Case Study: Calderdale Council reduces time to locate vulnerable people during floods from hours to minutes with Ordnance Survey

Calderdale Council - Customer Case Study

Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council faced repeated severe flooding along the River Calder and needed a faster way to locate vulnerable residents, assess affected properties and plan rest centres and transport. Working with Ordnance Survey, the council applied geographic information services using OS MasterMap, OS Street View and other OS data layered with the council’s Local Land and Property Gazetteer (LLPG) and Environment Agency flood boundaries to improve situational awareness during incidents.

Ordnance Survey’s GIS data and spatial queries were integrated with Calderdale’s vulnerable persons and Oracle client databases so key staff can query affected addresses instantly; the council reports response times falling from around four hours to a minute or a couple of minutes. The Ordnance Survey-enabled solution delivers rapid location intelligence for evacuations, rendezvous points and transport planning, producing massive time savings and improved emergency decision-making that can help save lives.

Calderdale Council

Phil Shire

Head of Wellbeing and Social Care