Climate and Sustainability

The United Nations (UN) has highlighted a need for Affordable and Clean Energy, which are key to achieving Net Zero and combating climate change. The journey from reliance on fossil fuels to clean energy, and the process for making that journey affordable and sustainable, is intrinsically linked to geospatial data. Energy suppliers need to understand where best to tap into renewable resources.

The Danish Agency for Data Efficiency (SDFE) are building an automated process to continuously update a national 3D city model. The authoritative data will be free and open to help solve challenges such as climate change and natural disasters. For example, 3D data will enable SDFE to make decisions on where best to place solar panels on buildings to provide affordable and sustainable energy to cities and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 1Spatial are working with SDFE on the automated validation of 3D data to ensure the data foundation can be trusted for decision making.

Building resilient infrastructure is high on government agendas post pandemic, as countries work to build back better. Accurate location data is critical for infrastructure projects above and below ground when deciding where to build, invest and innovate.

In the UK, projects such as High Speed 2 (HS2), aim to deliver zero carbon transport that creates high-speed rail connectivity between London and major cities up the country, while catering for an increase in capacity. Huge innovative infrastructure projects such as this rely on accurate location data to understand the geological location of rail lines and the impact on local communities and habitats. A core element of the works involves commissioning high volumes of Environment and Ecological Impact Assessment surveys to minimise harm to biodiversity, including protected species such as bats, badgers and great crested newts. 1Spatial have been working with HS2’s leading engineering and construction companies – Laing O’Rourke and J. Murphy & Sons Ltd (LMJV) to ensure data from specialist ecology surveyors is accurate before being supplied to LMJV and HS2 to make decisions on the potential ecological impact of work and avoid irreversible damage to the local ecosystem.

The Geospatial Commission are building the National Underground Asset Register (NUAR), a digital map of underground pipes and cables to improve the efficiency and safety of underground works. The project, when complete, will revolutionise the way the UK installs, maintains, and repairs its buried infrastructure, and will create a single platform that allows consistent access to data related to underground assets. This requires a tremendous amount of industry innovation and collaboration, with siloed data being cleansed, validated and centralised to improve the efficiency and safety of underground works. 1Spatial are leading the data transformation and data ingestion programme to transform data from asset owners source representation to a target NUAR data model.

The sustainable management of water resources and sewage includes identifying and protecting water-related ecosystems such as rivers, lakes and wetlands, and reducing pollution such as hazardous chemicals, materials and untreated wastewater. This is underpinned by data to ensure these ecosystems are identified and the use and disposal of water is monitored above and below ground.

Many sewer systems are remarkably old and identifying the location of underground pipes can be a challenge. Sewer inference capabilities give industry bodies the ability to validate their networks, to highlight areas at risk and to locate potential pipe systems through inference alone. Historical leaks, pipe materials and soil type can help predict the likelihood of new leaks and this data can be used to prioritise pipe repairs and replacements without the need for costly exploratory digs. We are working on both solutions to help reduce clean water leaks and the risk of wastewater from sewers moving into protected ecosystems. Location data is critical to proactively preventing these issues.

Confidence in network data is important when making business decisions, and these decisions are increasingly rooted in sustainability. The ability to accurately map networks to a high level of detail makes analysis more efficient, this gives companies a range of powerful capabilities including geolocation, preventive actions and incident control. Our 1Water product gives water network owners the ability to map and analyse their networks to previously unattainable levels of details, making decision making efficient and sustainable.

Location data plays a significant role when analysing environmental impacts, and how these impacts may affect the communities around them. Life underwater and life on land are of equal importance, and they are deeply interconnected. We all have a responsibility to protect our woodlands, rivers, grasslands, oceans and countless other habitats, but we need reliable data to give us confidence in the decisions we make.

Below water, we’ve seen the damage plastic pollution causes to waterways and seas, but it is often hidden pollution, caused by leakage and sewage that cause the most pernicious damage, as mentioned above. We’ve also touched on the impact of infrastructure and the need to protect habitats and endangered species, but natural disasters such as flooding can also have a devastating impact on our environment. To strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters, location intelligence is needed. This is especially true when predicting the impact of floods on local communities and the environment, and in proactively planning where to build flood defenses.

The Environment Agency (EA) in the UK are responsible for managing flood risks around the country. Their approach to flood protection is based on data, informing their decisions around flood risk investment and better serving the communities they need to protect. 1Spatial have been working with EA to validate and improve the quality of asset data they receive from suppliers so business decisions can be made faster and with confidence for use downstream.

Building effective, accountable and inclusive institutions requires accurate location data to proactively make decisions around people or places at risk, respond to emergencies and evidence these decisions.

Many US states, including Arizona, Montana and Michigan are using location data to improve the infrastructure and processes that support 9-1-1 efforts. Accurate geospatial data is essential to ensure calls are routed to the correct Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs), which require statewide data validation and integration to be successful. 1Spatial are working with these states to ensure emergency services are using validated and integrated data, and any issues with the data are rectified as quickly as possible. The automated processes save a considerable amount of time and resources and provide a single source of truth for multiple emergency service departments.

In the UK we have developed the Police Data Quality Hub (PDQH), which uses location data to help regional policing teams keep communities safe. Our Location Master Data Management approach to data removes siloes in crime information, uniting the data through shared location attributes. By having a complete dataset, departments can view trends for proactive policing, react to incidents with speed and make decisions confidently, based on quality data. Therefore, communities receive a better level of service and increased confidence in local forces.

Geospatial data is at the heart of building sustainable cities and creating inclusive, safe and sustainable communities. We are seeing a movement towards the need for digital twins to help model and predict the impact of change on cities, communities, and our environment, and this relies on accurate location data. Spatial data is also proving powerful in driving towards a sustainable use of workspace.

In the US, Google use location data to design, build and maintain the amazing spaces for which they are famous. Data is used in resource planning across its significant estate, both through the design and build stage and across the lifecycle of the facility. It is relied on by multiple key areas of the Google organisation, such as the food delivery teams, health and performance teams, facilities management and logistics. It is vital that this data is accurate and reliable for decision making processes. 1Spatial have helped to automate the submission and cleansing of AutoCAD data into Google's IBM TRIRIGA Asset Management Planning System.

This project speaks to the power of data in urban and built environments around us, driving towards a sustainable use of space that is economical and positive for the wellbeing of the citizens and users of these spaces.

Many of the natural resources we use are finite, and even those considered renewable need to be carefully managed when considering responsible consumption and production. An understanding of the world around us helps to tackle challenges like food waste and ensure we are using our land responsibly.

The Rural Payment Agency (RPA) in the UK are using location data to promote responsible production in farming to help farmers produce the food we need. With subsidy payments drawn from our mapping tools, RPA can directly help producers with the most sustainable practices. RPA are using 1Spatial products to enable the collection of accurate and correctly formatted location data by inspectors via mobile devices while out in the field. This enables compliance to be checked swiftly, ensuring subsidies are paid to landowners correctly, efficiently and without disruption.