eSpatial, a global enterprise geospatial software and technology company announces its involvement in the “ICING” Project, a €5million project funded through the European Commission, to develop a prototype approach for effective e-access to city administration. eSpatial is leading ICING’s “Work Package for Spatial Support & Location Services”

ICING researches concepts of e-Government based on a multimodal, multi-access approach to a ‘thinskinned City’ that is sensitive to the citizen and to the environment, using mobile devices, universal access gateways, social software and environmental sensors.

The ICING project partners are drawn from innovative city authorities such as Dublin, Barcelona and Helsinki & also from leading edge technology companies such as Telefonica and T-Systems Iberia; Academic research institutions Universitat Pompeu Fabre in Barcelona & the University of Art & Design in Helsinki .

eSpatial leads the project Work Package for Spatial Support / Location Services. it works closely with other project partners on the basic research into geospatial and geolocational technologies, and with the three Cities on the tailoring and implementation of solutions to the test-bed platforms. eSpatial will present results to the standards bodies and plans to exploit the results in commercial products for administrations and companies worldwide.

Applications for the ICING project will be built on a range of technologies including eSpatial’s iSMART product suite. By using iSMART innovative new services can be developed within a single framework. These can include advanced public feedback features such as direct web-based feedback and reporting on local conditions and services, for example: reporting of faulty public equipment (e.g. street lights) or a simple application to report locations of litter or graffiti. iSMART’S unique pure-web data capture facilities allow such examples to be developed & delivered via online maps. In addition custom reports can be provided to illustrate service improvements for the citizen.

Orla Power, Head of Marketing, eSpatial said, “eSpatial is excited to be part of the ICING Project. We’re looking forward to developing interactive web-mapping applications that add real value to both internal processes as well as innovative services for the citizen. Through the ICING project we believe cities can harness technology to enhance quality of life and public service provision. This delivers on eSpatial’s vision of seamless integration of location information in online services in the future”.