How do we find and use public geospatial data?

September 2024

In this Smart Infrastructure Blog, Deryck Chan with Carlos Laguna Sanchez, members of the CSIC Early Career Academics and Professionals Panel (ECAPP), argue for the free availability of geospatial datasets so that infrastructure professionals can use them to make better data-informed decisions. ECAPP also present the results of a survey of data owners with links to freely available data sets.

How does river water quality correlate to bedrock geology? Is there a relationship between buried utility density and socioeconomic statuses in a geographical area?

While many infrastructure professionals have used geospatial data in project work, the datasets often sit in silos. Ideally, the data should be publicly discoverable so that new users can derive value from existing data by applying them in a different context.Dr Deryck Chan CEng MICE, Senior Geotechnical Engineer at Mott MacDonald

blockquote class="clearfix campl-float-right">While many infrastructure professionals have used geospatial data in project work, the datasets often sit in silos. Ideally, the data should be publicly discoverable so that new users can derive value from existing data by applying them in a different context.Dr Deryck Chan CEng MICE, Senior Geotechnical Engineer at Mott MacDonald

These are questions that public geospatial data, with suitable processing and interpretation, can help to answer. As big data and artificial intelligence become the buzzwords of the decade, infrastructure professionals are jumping on the bandwagon to make the best use of data in decision making.

Geospatial data refers to any machine-readable information that is tagged with a physical, geographical location in 2D or 3D, enabling automatic processing to help answer questions about a geographical area. However, to answer questions like the examples above meaningfully, good data sources are required. While many infrastructure professionals have used geospatial data in project work, the datasets often sit in silos. Ideally, the data should be publicly discoverable so that new users can derive value from existing data by applying them in a different context.The data needs to be federated to enable remixing. In other words, multiple sources of data should be processed in the same software and connected to each other, to allow analyses and interpretation that cross-reference information from different datasets about the same geographical location.

CSIC's Early Careers Academics & Professionals Panel surveyed our collaborators to create an initial directory of freely available geospatial data streams for the natural and built environment in Great Britain. Participation was limited, but the results were overwhelming, with suggestions of 18 data owners providing 48 data streams. The results are summarised in this freely available spreadsheet.

We are positively surprised that many data owners are already keen to make their geospatial datasets publicly available for reuse. We are simply joining the dots and are not alone in this endeavour: The National Underground Assets Register (NUAR), as the name suggests, is trying to federate both public and hitherto unpublished geospatial data about buried assets. This will promote construction safety and reduce wasted work by helping constructors gain access to up-to-date records, three-dimensional if available, about buried assets in their locations of interest. You can find out more about NUAR from their website.

The future of data-driven infrastructure relies on having up-to-date information. This depends on the willingness of asset owners to share their data. At the moment, a perception of unclear legal liability has led to an aversion to openness. Standard forms of contract and licensing terms, alongside regulatory incentives to publish geospatial data, will be the key to unlock the benefits of public data federation. The Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction (CSIC) takes an active role in driving the agenda of data openness. If you would like to join us on our journey, please reach out to the Early Careers Academics & Professionals Panel to continue the good work we have started (csic-comms@eng.cam.ac.uk).