The Business Need
The client, a safety regulator for a first world country, wanted to map all the nuclear sites in its boundary according to the new REPPIR determination. When the client took a closer look at its nuclear sites after the new REPPIR determination, they wanted to make sure that the sites were insulated away from civilian populations and vulnerable groups such as schools, hospitals, prisons, etc.
This required collecting data sets from third parties about the locations of the civilian populations and the aforementioned vulnerable groups. Three different layers of maps were to be created in order to synchronize changes or updates in the datasets and to achieve maximum accuracy.
Challenges we faced
Manual, labor-intensive process for mapping made it difficult to recover revenue lost to contractual underpayments; lack of right tools with the employer’s clients, and the life-threatening magnitude of importance of this project. It demanded great focus and sensitivity as it the big picture was larger than one could imagine.
How we solved the problem
Mobius reviewed and collected the required dataset from third parties for information pertaining to vulnerable groups such as the civilian population and schools, hospitals, prisons, etc. We began by creating a map (Map I) which depicted an area defined by a circular radius from a central grid point reference with population data within and on the boundaries of the area.
After which, we created a map (Map II) that redefined the circular area from Map I following the boundaries as instructed by the client. There was also a requirement to overlay population, vulnerable group information on these maps. Finally, we created a map (Map III) which was to be used for publication of the determined area (e-mail transmission, file format and reworking to meet the needs of GIS users within the Local Authorities community will need to be considered by prospective suppliers).
Additional mapping for communications purposes was required for some sites. For example, ‘aerial-zoom’ maps where a satellite view of an area can be refocused to show more detail in successive ‘slides’ for use in presentations to stakeholders was done.
Mobius’s strategy was powered by tools such as Quantum GIS(QGIS) Open Source that was used to create the polygons for vulnerable groups. We also acquired an ArcGIS Licensed software that was used for final validation checks such as Geometry checks, topological checks, etc.
Results
Mobius’s GIS systems gave insights to enhance the safety checks of 45 nuclear power plants and the vulnerable populations that they could potentially harm. Mobius used it’s GIS expertise in creating Map I, II and III data in ESRI shapefile format, that shed light on mapping the nuclear sites.