Mr Paul Stanton CGeog (GIS)

Biography

Occupation: Director Employer: GeoSpecial Consulting Ltd Memo: Holding charterships in computer science, IT and transport planning, I specialize in the application of geospatial technologies to business analytics, development and location planning, accessibility analysis, network demand forecasting and sustainability best practice. For the past decade and a half, I have been engaged mainly on transportation studies, both in the UK and abroad, devising and applying several novel GIS applications along the way. More recently, I have concentrated my efforts on process improvements, project management and business development. Throughout this time I have promoted the use of GIS and spatial statistics: to realize efficiencies in the structuring, combination and application of data; to extract greater richness and insight from complex and voluminous data; and to help render the entire planning and decision process more transparent and open to non-specialists. My academic background (which encompasses architecture, cartography, surveying, computer science, systems and quantitative geography) betrays an open and enquiring mind with many interests, but increasingly I have focused on two particular themes: " the multi-dimensional nature of the objects of geographic study; and " the potential for geography to bridge the many artificial divisions that several centuries of positivism have erected, such as the demarcation between 'human' and 'natural' ecologies, between physical and social networks, and indeed between the burgeoning professional disciplines themselves. Having spent more than a decade in commercial consultancy, I recently set up my own company, GeoSpecial. This has allowed me to spend more time pursuing my research interests (e.g. currently Membership Secretary for the BCS's Geospatial specialist group and reading for a research masters at Cambridge) and to extend my campaigning activities (e.g. opposing the relentless spread of 'BigBox' developments and co-founding the Trellis group, which aims to promote alternative energy futures amongst built environment professionals).