Infrared green vision

Thermal survey spotlights energy action points for Birmingham

Brightly coloured thermal images of cities are a great graphic way of grabbing the attention. Their dramatisation of the energy inefficiency of our badly built environment should be enough in itself to kickstart many a carbon-cutting campaign. But the latest infrared sensor survey of Birmingham, carried out last winter by aerial photomapping company BlueSky, is much more than a wake-up call.

It’s a pretty smart way of planning some very precise interventions, tailored to types of housing and residents’ likely needs and resources. The clever bit is the tie-in between the digital map delivered to the city council, and other data sets held in its existing geographical information system (GIS). These range from architectural styles and stock condition to various socio-economic stats and listings of vulnerable households.

BlueSky’s picture of the heat pouring out of poorly insulated properties can be matched house-by-house with any of this data. (In technical terms, it becomes another GIS compatible layer of the council’s Ordnance Survey MasterMap.) All very timely, this, since the 1995 Home Energy Conservation Act set 2006 as the year by which all local authorities with housing responsibilities should have taken measures to improve energy efficiency, drawn up a report on what they are doing, and reported on their progress. - Roger East

6 January 2006

Roger East