Cambridge, 23 February 2010: The GeoInformation Group announces today that London Fire & Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA), the world’s third largest fire fighting organisation in the world, has selected UKMap to enhance its risk analysis modelling to reduce fire fighter risk.

UKMap is a new large scale map of London showing the heights of all buildings, along with building types, road detail, land use and points of interest. The map also includes trees, retail sites and aerial photography making it the most comprehensive map of London.

Alun Jones, Managing Director, The GeoInformation Group, comments: “UKMap is not just another large scale mapping product but a highly enriched dataset that brings together detailed street-by-street information about London. It will enable the Brigade to extract accurate and meaningful data to aid them in assessing and reducing risk to the community".

The purchase of UKMap complements their existing Ordnance Survey mapping. However UKMap’s wide range of detailed and intelligent data layers will enable the Authority to perform more advanced studies for analysing fire risk.

Using UKMap will support LFEPA in a number of ways including; identifying buildings across London that may pose high risk to fire fighters and target tall buildings to ensure correct water pressures are applied and aerial appliances are effectively directed. Additional information available in UKMap, such as building use to model occupancy numbers and risk profiles, will further enhance LFEPA’s strategic and risk planning capabilities.

A significant benefit to LFEPA, only available through UKMap, is the opportunity to capture and retain its own mapping information derived from UKMap. This will significantly enhance the operational efficiency of LFEPA enabling sharing of information with other organisations and providing long term costs savings.

Alun Jones concludes: “LFEPA is one of the world’s foremost emergency service organisations and we are delighted that UKMap can play an important role in reducing fire fighter risk and ultimately saving lives”.