Data Assurance and The Environment Agency
Matthew White, Senior Business Development Manager at 1Spatial, hosted a recent webinar with a panel of guests to talk about the ‘The Road to Smarter Asset Information Assurance’.
We were joined by:
- Nicola Pearson, Engagement Lead at the Government & Industry Interoperability Group (GIIG)
- Emma Walker, Flood & Coastal Risk Management Senior Advisor – Digital Asset Data & Information at the Environment Agency
- Adrian Porter, Managing Consultant at 1Spatial.
The importance of accurate data
Government, utility, and transport organisations manage huge volumes of asset data related to large-scale, complex-built environment infrastructures, for example, HS2 and NUAR (National Underground Asset Register). With asset data usually being held by multiple suppliers or systems, data assurance is critical for data reliability in the Common Data Environment and wider Information Management Platform. Moreover, data often needs assuring against certain standards to be compliant with internal and external specifications, for example, a Reference Data Library (RDL) at point of delivery, creating a need for asset data governance and asset data management.
How 1Spatial supports the Environment Agency
Adrian Porter delivered a walkthrough of 1Spatial’s involvement in designing, building, and supporting the Environment Agency’s (EA) Datastore, Rules and Visualisation (DRV) service, and evolving EA’s Information Management Platform. Adrian is 1Spatial’s technical; lead for DRV, helping EA deliver on their business objectives.
Adrian provided an overview of how, using 1Integrate and FME, data assurance can be enabled within the Information Management Platform. Adrian’s presentation covered:
- The 1Integrate approach
- UI-driven rule-building
- Codeless rule writing
- Data context
Overall, this approach is enabling the Environment Agency to deliver on their digital asset data and information (DADI) objectives.
Delivering reliable digital data and information management for EA's physical flood and coastal defence assets
“1Spatial’s 1Integrate technology and Safe Software’s FME Server technology provides robust asset data and information assurance capabilities, to enable our strategic objectives and further digital transformation. The automated geoCOBie data assurance processes for collecting, collating, analysing, and sharing data appropriately on asset performance provides us with the insight we need to improve productivity and deliver benefits to society.”
Flood and Coastal Risk Manager, Environment Agency
How 1Spatial can deliver improved data assurance
1Spatial’s technology and solutions provide robust asset data and information assurance capabilities, integrated within an Information Management Platform. The automated data assurance processes for collecting, collating, analysing, and sharing data appropriately against asset performance provides organisations with the insight they need to improve productivity and make better decisions.
Environment Agency: Implementing a digital management system
The Environment Agency is currently focused on using standards and specifications to achieve more digital ways of working. Emma explained the challenges her team faced when looking at implementing a digital asset data and information management system, and what was required to allow the organisation to move to a more digital way of working.
The steps outlined and taken were as follows:
- Specify
- Procure
- Deliver
- Assure
Emma expanded on the journey that her organisation went through, and the steps taken to achieve their goals which consisted of:
- Integration with systems
- Visualisation
- GIS (Geospatial Information Systems)
- Dashboard
- Insights
GIIG: Information Management Platform
The GIIG’s objective is to work with the government and industry to improve their ability to exchange and use information securely. Nicola discussed the GIIG’s information management mandate and the recommendation to businesses in establishing an Information Management Platform that enables digital asset data and information to support decision-making.
She talked about the benefits of an Information Management Platform and informing clients operational decisions:
- Controlled data delivery
- Golden thread system of record
- Data quality & data reliability
- Data visualisation & system integration
- System of systems – the foundation of digital twins
How 1Spatial can help you:
- Improve asset information management working practices for assuring, accepting, and storing asset data
- Enable infrastructure owners to automatically verify their asset data against specific standards or specifications, helping to ensure trust in data
- Provide infrastructure owners with a secure, simple, and controlled web portal for submitting asset data
- Reduce the time taken to process asset data from data supply chain and integrate it into your Common Data Environment and wider Information Management Platform
- Drive asset data accessibility, interoperability, and reusability
- Build trust, consistency, and transparency in asset data
- Improve resource efficiencies through the automation of previously manual data and information assurance
- Ensure continual assessment and improvement of processes across complex data supply chains and allow for 'change only' updates
- Provide more robust asset data and information audit trails to help meet statutory requirements