The 2021 Geography in Government Awards opened for nominations in January, seeking examples of excellence in geography across the range of disciplines and organisations. The awards are now in their third year, and all the judges were impressed by the outstanding quality and range of examples the profession can offer. Once again, reading the nominations it was clear that geography in government is a broad profession with excellence across the public sector and a profession which is full of dedicated and talented individuals.
Although we’re again unable to host the award ceremony in person this year, the Government Geography Profession would like to take this opportunity to share the short listed nominations for each category. The virtual ceremony will take place on Thursday 27th May where the category winners will be announced, along with the overall winner. The overall winner is invited to the hugely prestigious Royal Geographical Society Awards, recognising the impact and importance of geography across the public sector.
Here are the shortlisted nominations for the category of "Excellence in local government", along with a short description of the work in alphabetical order.
TAME (Technical Assurance, Modelling and Economics Team) & Strategy team Transport for the North
Transport for the North’s Future Travel Scenarios
Transport for the North (TfN) have worked to develop an innovative Future Travel Scenarios approach to help understand, navigate and respond to transport uncertainties. The Future Travel Scenarios offer this by providing an agile and flexible modelling framework to interrogate evolving and new trends at a detailed geographical level. The application of Future Travel Scenarios is not simply a one-off exercise but is now integrated into TfN’s wider evidence-building, planning and decision making frameworks. This is delivering a lasting and enabling resource which supports our Local Transport Authorities and delivery partners in considering uncertainty and better understanding the challenges and opportunities ahead for different places across the North.
Welsh Government/Newport City Council (and GeoPlace)
Shielding – importance of location
Individuals who are clinically extremely vulnerable are at an increased risk of serious complications from Covid-19 and were advised to shield (i.e stay at home and avoid face to face contact with others) early on in the pandemic. To ensure that those individuals in Wales had the support needed a range of organisations worked at pace to bring together a solution that gave supermarkets, local authorities and utilities companies accurate location information to best plan their services. Using an accurate Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN) is fundamental for that as it is an integral part of many local authorities systems.
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