Innovation has become synonymous with digital transformation today as the gap between niche tech incubation and mass user adoption narrows. While technologies such as AI, IoT and 5G are breaking barriers, and are at the vanguard of a fast-changing world, they are being enhanced, augmented and complemented by geospatial and location data.
Almost every country that aspires to be a tech and innovation powerhouse either has a geospatial strategy in place or is deliberating upon it. The UK has been a forerunner in this regard: recognizing the utility of geospatial data and enabling collaboration around it.
Founded in 2018, the Geospatial Commission is an expert body in the UK government that sets the country’s strategy and guidelines for widespread use of geospatial data across sectors to enhance efficiency, unlock innovation, and enable better citizen services and infrastructure.
Dr. Steve Unger, UK Geospatial Commissioner, has a wide ranging experience in bridging the gap between market implications of disruptive technologies and maximizing their public policy impact. He previously served as a board member of Ofcom, the UK’s digital communications regulator.
“There are around 60,000 cases of accidental damage to buried infrastructure each year in the UK, leading to injury, disruption, and increased operational costs. We think there’s an enormous opportunity for better use of geospatial data to make a difference”, says Dr. Steve Unger in an exclusive interview with Geospatial World
Geospatial is an important discipline in its own right, but its real power comes from its central role within a wider digital ecosystem.
Wireless networks can now collect an amazing variety of data from different types of sensor. We can measure the congestion on roads, the condition of crops, the location of drones, and our own heartbeat. But none of this data makes sense unless we know where things are, and where they are going. High quality location data, and the ability to combine this with other information, is at the heart of the next industrial revolution.
Advanced data analytics can then provide various forms of feedback, enabling humans to make better decisions, and the automation of complex processes. I emphasise that both types of benefit are important. Automation will sometimes be impractical for technical reasons, or undesirable for ethical reasons. I’m particularly interested in how we might use technology to empower human beings, leveraging new types of human-machine interface, such as those based on augmented reality.
There are many practical applications, from route optimisation to smart agriculture. What they all have in common is that they enable more efficient use of resources, supporting economic growth that is environmentally sustainable.
This is a subject close to my heart, having spent much of my career working on new means of improving connectivity. We now face a major challenge, upgrading the UKs legacy communications networks from copper wires to optical fibre, which is necessary to provide better broadband to homes and businesses, and also essential for advanced wireless networks relying on fibre to carry the large amounts of data generated by each network node.
The cost of deploying a fibre optic network is dominated by the cost of burying the cables underground, and of maintaining them once there. The cost of the fibre itself is negligible in comparison. Some work has already been carried out within the telecoms sector to make laying fibre easier, by making use of existing ducts and poles. But that isn’t always an option. If we want to connect everyone, as we must, then we need to go further.
That’s where our National Underground Asset Register (NUAR) comes in. This will provide a “Digital Twin” for the 4 million kilometres of pipes, cables, telecoms, and sewers which are buried beneath our feet. NUAR will be built on a platform that protects the security and confidentiality of asset data. It will provide those who are designing new networks with the data required to minimise construction costs.
NUAR will also reduce the cost of maintaining existing networks. By this I mean both the financial cost to utility owners, and the disruption to all of us caused by unnecessary street works. Around 4 million holes are dug every year to access buried utility networks.
There are around 60,000 cases of accidental damage to buried infrastructure each year, leading to injury, disruption, and increased operational costs. We think there’s an enormous opportunity for better use of geospatial data to make a difference.
The transport sector remains the largest emitter in the UK. Our ambition to be net zero by 2050 means that we must encourage cleaner transport options. These include active travel (walking and cycling), electric vehicles (scooters, bikes, cars and buses), and shared mobility schemes (ride sharing, freight aggregation, public transport). Location data is fundamental to many of these technologies.
Let me take electric vehicles as one example. Obviously, location data is critical to the design of charge-point networks, but we can do much more.
We can use location data to make recharging an electric vehicle a seamless experience for drivers. My satnav can already predict when I’m going to arrive at a charge point, to within a few minutes. So, there’s no reason why I shouldn’t be able to book access to it in advance of arriving, and maybe order a coffee at the same time.
We can even use location data to improve the range of electric vehicles, by maximising the use of recuperative braking. This can be achieved by using information on road geometry and traffic conditions to slow down early enough that the vehicle can recover as much energy as possible. A genuinely smart electric vehicle should always brake by returning energy to the battery, not dissipating it as heat.
I’ve already talked about the role of geospatial data driving innovation across the wider data economy. I’m also fascinated by the potential for innovation in the type of geospatial data we gather. Instead of having to base our National Underground Asset Register on historic records, can we use surface-penetrating radar to produce accurate maps? Can crowd-sourced location data deliver new insights as to what’s happening above ground? What new applications are opened up by drone imagery that weren’t possible with satellite data?
Scalability is certainly a challenge in the UK tech sector. We produce plenty of excellent start-ups, but they often struggle to scale-up their businesses. There’s no easy answer, but schemes such as our Transport Location Data Competition can help. This provided a modest level of initial funding to 28 innovative transport companies, and then supported seven of these through the next phase of development.
Resilience has of course become a big topic across the economy, from food supplies to semiconductors. It’s often suggested that the answer is to bring production of various goods back to the UK, so that it’s under domestic control, but that simply creates another single point of failure. Genuine diversity is a better way of ensuring resilience, but that requires a detailed understanding of supply chains. Based, of course, on geospatial data.
This is an issue that policy makers around the world are grappling with. I’m optimistic we can find a way forward, for several reasons.
First, everyone agrees that we must use data in a manner that is ethical. That consensus extends to those who want to exploit this data, who realise that they will be unable to do so unless they retain the trust of the people who make their data available. The principles that we recently set out for the ethical use of location data – that it should be Accountable, free from Bias, and used with appropriate Clarity – are uncontroversial.
Second, everyone benefits from the innovation that can be enabled by this data. I see an increasing awareness that, whilst we do need to protect privacy, we need to do so in a manner that is not so burdensome as to destroy innovation. That means asking what people really care about, and what trade-offs they are willing to make. It is then possible to implement regulation which delivers what we want as a society, rather than tick-box rules.
Finally, to make these principles real, we need to look at specific case studies. Location data provides a great opportunity to apply the general debate about the ethical use of data to a specific set of applications, and to develop practical ways forward.
Our EV chargepoint location data programme, launched in March, is exploring how location data can be better used to support planning and delivery of electric vehicle charge points by local authorities. We’re working with 9 different authorities at this stage, selected so as to illustrate the full range of challenges we’re likely to face nationally.
We need to understand what will drive demand for access to charge points. For example, it’s important to understand locations where a lack of off-street parking makes it impossible to charge electric vehicles at home. It’s important to understand which locations might be convenient for charging, on the basis that drivers stop there for long enough to be worth it. We also need to understand factors which affect the cost of providing charge points, such as access to capacity of the electricity grid.
As to smart mobility, this clearly has enormous potential. I’m particularly interested in the concept of transport networks as an interconnected system, rather than a set of individual assets. Most journeys we make combine several different modes of transport, and there’s a lot more that could be done to help people optimise their use of these different modes. This could make travel both easier and more sustainable. Similar arguments apply to the movement of freight.
The immediate response to the Covid-19 pandemic demonstrated the power of location data. It helped us understand where outbreaks were happening and enabled targeted approaches to intervention. It demonstrated the value of knowing where things were happening, in real time. And it showed how it is possible to quickly adapt existing data and technologies to innovate in a crisis, delivering new insights at pace. The power of location data is now widely recognised within government.
Furthermore, it significantly raised the profile of data among the general population. Many more people now understand how location data can be used to deliver tangible benefits, such as saving lives. That’s likely to enable a more sophisticated public debate about the ethics of using location data.
Post pandemic there are many new applications for location data. One that I find fascinating is understanding how travel patterns will stabilise, as we all work out what balance we want between real and virtual contact with other people. No-one knows the answer yet, but this is of course of fundamental importance for anyone investing in new infrastructure.
Since publishing the UK Geospatial Strategy in 2020 we have made great progress. For example, in the last year alone:
The vision that we set when we published the UK’s Geospatial Strategy in 2020 is evolving. This year, the developing priorities of the Geospatial Commission include:
