Place DiggerDig before you decideTeam Members:Mahtab FarshchiRowena ParsonsLise QuesnelSunny TownsendChris Taylor

How can I understand what a place is like?

● Before I move there● Before I invest in property there

It is difficult to find out about the quality of the natural environment e.g.

● Air quality

● Land contamination

● Quality of green space

particularly when moving from far away.

The Problem Being Solved

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Lots of sites for property searches e.g. Zoopla, rightmove

These site have rich functionality e.g.

● Price comparison

● Map of local schools, transport, healthcare, etc.

● Local ratings, e.g., crime rates, tax rates

– but they lack the environmental dimension

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House buyers have the option to pay for an “Environmental Search” but in effect this is only a Land Contamination search.

● Costs about £30● Takes about 48 hours● Most people opt out

We believe there is a gap in the market for a complete overview of Environmental Open Data in a convenient format.

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It also means there is less pressure from citizens to improve the natural environment.

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This means people make bad decisions about where to live

The Solution

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Dig before you decide

PlaceDigger Phase 1 Customers

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● People looking for an area to move to

● People at the point of buying a new property,

undertaking due diligence on their purchase

● Existing residents interested in their local area

● Institutional investors in property

How PlaceDigger uses Environmental DataPotentially there is a lot of data to present

● users need help to dig it up

But it is likely to have gaps ● some types available for some areas but not others● in some areas issues may not be significant e.g. no risk of coastal flooding if you live

inland

And different users will be more or less interested in different things ● consider different factors to be more or less important e.g. greenspace v air quality● what is important may vary over time e.g. if you already live there vs if you’re looking to

buy

Our ‘relevance engine’ makes the best of the data we have for each user who wants it

PlaceDigger’s Relevance Engine

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Schools, transport,

communities

Mortality, health problems

House price trends, local jobs

Relevance engine

User preferences

Social

Health

Economic

Environmental air quality green space

contaminated land

Monetisation & Value

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• General consumption

Phase 1

• Advertising

Phase 2

• Licensing

Phase 3

Evolution of the PlaceDigger productTarget user or customer

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● General public● House buyers● Renters● Local authorities

Phase 1

● Property Developers● Commercial users● Institutional investors● Insurance companies

Phase 2

● 3rd Party websites

Phase 3

PlaceDigger: Monetisation PhasesPhase 1PlaceDigger Beta

15

Phase 2PlaceDigger

Phase 3PlaceDigger LitePlaceDigger Pro

Free search by postcode Free search by postcode

Free searchInstant Paid Report

Ad Sales

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Ad SalesClick Through Referrals

Report Charges

Ad SalesClick Through Referrals

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Natural EnvironmentNatural Environment

Quality of Life

Natural EnvironmentQuality of Life

Property Quality Report

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Ads c5p to £5 per click Referrals c£5

Conveyancer environmental search : £30

Full conveyancing report: up to £2000taks 48hrs to a weekC

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PlaceDigger Pro offerings

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Natural

Air WaterLandWildlifeBiodiversityGreen spacesCommon land

Social

CrimeSchoolingAverage ageCommunitySocial trends (newspapers, life style, etc.)Care homes

Health

Hospitals’ quality ratingsLocal hospitals A&E departmentsGPs and clinicsMortality ratesLife expectancy

Economic

Property pricesTransportShopping JobsEmploymentCouncil taxInsurance ele/gas/internetGround ratesRemoval ratesStamp duty

Some EDX datasets with relevant subject areas...

Risk of Flooding from Rivers and Sea

Postcodes in Areas at RiskHistoric Flood MapSource: Environment Agency

3 hourly weather forecast and observational data - UK locations

Source: Met OfficeSPOT-1Source: Astrium GEO-Information ServicesTerraSAR-XSource: Astrium GEO-Information Services

Applications: Cartography, surface, civil planning and mapping, digital terrain models, environmental monitoring, maritime monitoring, surface movement monitoring, change detection

RDF International Waste Shipments from England ...

URL: http://www.geostore.com/environment-agency/

Category 1 and 2 pollution incidents by source to ...

URL: http://data.defra.gov.uk/env/spfg15-serious-poll-incid-201112.csv

Atmospheric Model Data from the TEMPEST

Source: NERCUK-DMC1

UK-DMC2 2010 Archive Direct DownloadSource: DMCiiApplications: Forestry, Agriculture, Emergency and Disasters, Land Cover Mapping

Air Quality Monitoring StationsSource: Salford City Council

PlaceDigger Partners

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People who give us property data to display on our site e.g.

● Zoopla

People we refer our visitors to e.g.

● solicitors

● conveyancers

People from whom we get data to show on our site, e.g.

● local authorities

● Defra, EA,

● Twitter

● local community groups

● Project Dirt

Validation

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Internally:

Defra

Environmental Agency

AMEE

Future validation will include survey of the users, focus groups and other scientific studies relating to choice of places for residential and nonresidential purposes

#edxhack CSV file downloaded

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#edxhack Bluemix: Browse to CSV file

#edxhack Bluemix: Specify date formats

#edxhack Bluemix: Preview the data

#edxhack Bluemix: Select ‘Create New Table’

#edxhack Bluemix: Preview Data Types

#edxhack Bluemix: Success!

Mining the Datasets

Good News! Many datasets with relevant titles

Challenges

not all accessible for “automated download”

not necessarily immediately usable information

Requires more costly human expertise & intervention

initially…

Linked Data is part of solution….

Potential partners / channels and next steps

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Thank youspecial thanks to DigiCatapult, the

judges, Lewis@RedNinja, Nick@AMEE

© 2014 Gabriella Karney Photography