Thursday 28 November 2013

What are the Big Issues in Geographic Information?

This is an important update, not my usual ramblings!

The ideas contributed by the AGI Showcase: North
As I have previously mentioned in the blog there are changes a-foot for our event programme for 2014. As we all celebrate 25 years of the AGI, it is a time to take a step back. Yes, we can reflect on all that we have achieved and how our industry has changed in this time – but more importantly it is a time to think about how we want it to move forward in the next 25 years. How can we (the AGI membership) shape the development of our industry?

In 2014, the AGI will host a number of Nationally Significant events around the UK. These will provide a focus for our members to debate the big issues in our industry, how are they impacting on our industry, how do we respond to these and where can AGI play a role to drive forward positive change.

We are looking to you, the AGI Membership, to tell us what you think these industry issues should be. We have had input from our Special Interest Groups, Regional Groups, through our event survey and at the AGI North Showcase event, but we want to make sure everyone has a chance to contribute.

There is a discussion open on the AGI LinkedIn Group, which we would encourage you to participate in. Alternatively, contact your SIG or Regional Group and express your thoughts and ideas.

2014 is a big year for AGI, more than ever this is a fantastic opportunity to have our collective voice heard, please get involved and help us develop our plans. The participation of our members is crucial for success in 2014 and into the future.

Some of the contributors at AGI Showcase: North


Thursday 21 November 2013

GI Beyond the AGI - My Foray into Geotechnics

I have talked before about taking GI beyond the ‘traditional’ user base that the AGI tends to represent. Well yesterday I put my money where my mouth is and went to a conference on ‘Slope Engineering and Geotechnical Asset Management.’ My thinking was that as GI is such a huge part of traditional asset management (utilities etc) that this could possibly transfer to geotechnical assets. Also it is always interesting to see how a different industry goes about solving problems. Anyway this is just a short report on what I found from by brief foray into slope engineering.

The first thing that struck me was that I had no idea how big an industry/issue this is. In the context of geotechnics an asset is effectively actually a risk to an infrastructure asset (slope overlooking a road, railway cutting, canal embankment etc). Now unsurprisingly there are an awful lot of railway cuttings, canal embankments, road tunnels etc so managing the risk across these is quite difficult. Also I did not know that there are actually a significant number of historic landslide complexes in the UK that have been built on but that are still active and moving. (I took the climatology modules instead at uni).

The upshot of all of this is that a number of organisations (infrastructure bodies and local authorities largely) have a massive amount of risk to manage. What I was surprised to find out is that only a few of the organisations use GI to help map and assess assets allowing things like risk based maintenance/inspection scheduling. All of these organisations have data on at least a significant portion of their assets but this is often held in many different areas and has no spatial representation. I think there is a significant opportunity for GI providers and consultants to take advantage of this gap.

Many of the people I spoke to were aware that a solution like this would help with the management of their asset network but they did not know how this could be achieved. In many cases the asset data already exists (eliminating a lot of the hard work) it just needs a spatial component added to it. With the increasing in the field availability of GI data (web and mobile mapping platforms) this could have a real benefit to the engineer. Obviously the issue that needs overcoming here is showing the potential cost reduction value of GI. The organisations managing these assets are facing the same budget constraints as everyone else and if ROI in terms of cost reduction can be shown there is definitely a strong case.

One thing that became clear at the conference is that this is not a sector afraid to innovate (which should bode well for pushing GI). There was an excellent presentation by Somerset County Council on the remedial work done following the collapse of the waterfront at Bridgwater in a landslip event. The collapse had led to the closure of a road, massive disruption to businesses and also a threat to utilities infrastructure if any further collapse occurred. The initial plan of action was expensive and time consuming however through innovative engineering, novel technical work-arounds and a willingness to accept a certain degree of risk (weighed against the benefits of course) they managed to stabilise and then restore the waterfront for £1.8 million and months ahead of the initial plan. This project was almost like a return to Victorian ‘improvise and get it done’ engineering combined with modern project management with one contractor improvising a concrete spraying nozzle from tyre inner tubes when the specialised version was not available (saving about £4000 a nozzle).

The scale of the challenges faced in geotechnical asset management combined with a willingness to innovate and adopt new practices combine to mean that this is a sector that is ripe to benefit from increasing its use of GI. I’m off to the http://www.ncetunnelling.co.uk/ event next week to see if this is another sector that can benefit, I’m expecting that they may already be using BIM...


As a final note slope engineers REALLY do not like the rain!

Monday 18 November 2013

AGI Showcase: North Review

The Calm...
Yesterday saw the penultimate event in this year’s showcase event series. I believe I've already explained the purpose behind the showcase events in the Northern Ireland summary so I won’t repeat myself here.

The event was held at the Food and Environment Research Agency (FERA) labs just outside York (well it was in the conference room not the actual labs). The sprawling landscaped FERA complex provided a bright and airy venue (although slightly sinister if you've ever seen a Resident Evil film) for the showcase event.

The event ran two concurrent streams, one of presentations and one of technical sessions. The overall themes of the conference were around Asset Management and Risk with an undertone of 3D and BIM particularly in the Asset Management presentations.
The conference opened with talks on Implementing BIM to realise benefits and Master Planning of cities. Both talks contained a message of progress in integrating BIM and GI and the danger of missed opportunities for both if this does not continue. There was also a suggestion (which was picked up later in the day) that BIM should be incorporated within the broader label of SMART cities.

After the break I attended the presentations stream (not wanting my ignorance to be exposed in a technical session). This consisted of a presentation from STAR-APIC/1Spatial on 3D data, Peter Mingins looking at integration benefits of GIS and Asset Management and Rollo Home making the case for integration of BIM and GIS in managing the nation’s infrastructure. A couple of particularly interesting points came out of these presentations (in my humble opinion). Firstly Peter Mingins raised the Government’s smart metering scheme as the second biggest infrastructure project of the coming years (after HS2) and an excellent example on
integration between BIM (smart metering itself) and GIS in managing the roll out and then management of these assets. All of which come together to help inform a smarter city... holistic. Rollo Home followed up on the case for a joined up approach to infrastructure and raised the issue that maybe the ‘Building’ in BIM pigeonholes what is an extremely versatile concept/tool. Maybe it’s time to lump all the various tools for infrastructure management under SMART cities (or SMART countries...)?

After lunch we had three different case studies on risk management (two on flood risk and the other a little less specific). One of the flood risk presentations was an overview of an interesting project to asses all risk structures in Manchester. This actually tied in well with the asset management theme of the earlier talks as each hazard (culvert, reservoir etc) was effectively being treated like an asset to be catalogued and monitored leading to a better schedule of maintenance.

If something goes wrong you don't
want to live within these circles
This was followed up by an interesting presentation from Kirsty Forder of the Health and Safety Laboratory. This showed how they use the National Population Database to look at populations near hazard sites (COMAH sites, Nuclear Power Stations, dodgy night clubs). The ability to produce demographic modelling that can display vulnerable populations with different projections for night and day was quite impressive. However it would have been interesting to have a presentation on how this information is communicated to and used by the relevant parties.

The final session had a great presentation from the BGS on how they are using mobile and web apps to make their extensive geological mapping data available (and a claim that geologists were the first to be making 3D maps, a matter of some dispute I believe). This was followed up by some fiery rhetoric from Bob Barr on ‘the great data robbery’; the privatisation of PAF data under the sale of Royal Mail. This well supported rabble rousing presentation provided an excellent finale to the event.
The Storm!

Overall the event had a good deal of variety amongst the speakers whilst managing to hold on to a key theme. Highlights of the event were the ongoing conversation around BIM, GIS and SMART cities and how we can leverage all the tools at hand to manage our infrastructure and environment in increasingly more efficient ways. The challenges and opportunities provided by the smart metering of energy was also an interesting point and it seemed that the scale of the project was not perhaps previously apparent to many of the delegates.


Next up the final showcase of the year AGI Cymru in Cardiff on December 3rd.

Tuesday 12 November 2013

Business Planning – 2014 and Beyond

Last weekend I was at the AGI business planning session down in Southampton (thanks to Ordnance Survey for the office space, I'm jealous of their building). It seemed the logical thing to blog about today would be some of the highlights of the weekend. Yes that’s right weekend, that’s how dedicated we are (OK it was a Friday and Saturday but still).

Heated Debate
Obviously I’m not going to go into the fine detail of the discussions and many of the agreed actions are work in progress with details being added all the time. Future council minutes will provide the real detail on what is going on however I suspect no one ever reads them (must add Google analytics to that page) so here is a bit of an overview of what you might see in the coming months.

The overall plan and sentiment of the planning meeting was one of investing for the future. Like most organisations we suffered from the financial crisis and then the cuts of 2010. However we've stabilised and are now ready to grow again with a focus on how we can better serve our members and the wider interests of GI. 

One thing I can definitely tell you is that we will be getting a brand new website in 2014 (around the end of Q1). This is not going to be a re-skin or facelift but a whole new toy bringing benefits to our members. A dedicated member’s area will be central to the site and we will be working to fill this with useful content, a geo news hub if you will. We often talk about how the AGI is its members but recognise that many people can’t afford the time commitments that volunteering or standing for council require. This site will provide a
Coloured Post-Its, the key to strategy
new way for members to get involved with the chance to generate content (who doesn't like showing of their work?), and online community for our geographically disparate membership. Also we’re going to have some maps on there so you’ll get to laugh at my forays into cartography. At least until I give up and get one of my colleagues to do it...

The other big piece of news is the events programme. Although here I have to be careful not to go into too much detail as names of events aren't settled yet and I’ll get myself in trouble. However the sneak preview is that 2014 is going to have a stronger events offering than ever and unlike previous years there will be a joined up theme running throughout the year and culminating in the annual conference. The details will be announced at the AGI Awards Ceremony on 5th December so there isn't too long to wait.
Refuelling on the Friday Night

Anyway after much heated debate (always good to see that people care) a consensus was reached that 2014 was the time to invest and ensure we are tackling the big issues around GI. The goal is to be the model of a modern membership organisation and in a position to drive the community forwards. Suggestions are welcome and we will be reaching out to you all to participate in our new website.



Don’t forget we’ve got the AGI Showcase: North and Cymru still to come this year as well as Geodrinks next Wednesday so plenty of opportunity to have your thoughts included in AGI 2014 (as I am now calling our plan).


Oh and on the way back from the weekend myself and Angharad (one of our council members if you don’t know her) made a stop in Wimborne Minster where Angharad’s unfailing nose for map paraphernalia detected a collection of map mugs. Within five minutes of getting out of the car...
Map Cups!

Spitfire in Wimborne

Finally.. the next blog may be delayed until Friday as I actually want to see some of the presentations at the event. Come and say hello if you are there!

Thursday 7 November 2013

Big Data and GI similar evolution, similar challenge and similar benefits?

Over the weekend the Sunday Telegraph published an article called ‘Big Data – Not just for geeks’ discussing how big data is moving from being the preserve of companies IT departments to something of interest to the wider organisation. I was struck with the similarities seen with the expansion of GI from the core practitioners to the rapidly widening sphere of users, especially since the introduction of BIM.

Of course this is not entirely surprising as GIS and BIM systems are based on Big Data and Big Data being collected by other industries will often have a spatial component.

There are many different claims for what represents the birth of ‘big data’ with the term first being coined in 1997. Originally it was discussed as a challenge to systems and networks, having too much data to store and transfer in an economical fashion. However with improvements in technology big data became increasingly seen as an opportunity. In the UK one of the first (and now famous) mainstream applications of big data was the inception of supermarket club cards in the mid 1990’s. Under the auspices of rewarding customer loyalty Tesco with Clubcard and Sainsbury with Nectar (I can’t remember what it used to be called, they kept changing it) suddenly had unparalleled access to customer insight.

Initially (in fact until very recently) for most companies Big Data was there preserve of their IT or software engineering departments overseen by a CIO or equivalent. The ownership belonged to this technical ‘elite’ (for want of a less pejorative word) with a focus on the technical challenges of collecting and analysing this data. This is comparable to the GI industry which consisted largely of products produced by GI professionals for GI professionals, a paradigm that has shifted rapidly with the proliferation of web based applications. This is not to say that these traditional roles do not exist and are not still crucial, just that the technology and usage has spread much further.

In the Sunday Times article AGI Chair Anne Kemp (among others) suggest that Big Data is undergoing a similar shift which will present a similar skills and knowledge challenge. Coincidentally one of my old clients was a company that specialised in some very clever real time analytics and I remember their Vice President (US company) saying something very similar about the proliferation of big data to new users and taking a more holistic approach.

At the end of the day Big Data and GI are both just tools for enabling better informed decision making. It stands to reason therefore that the greater number of people who are able to access relevant information the greater the positive impact on decision making. In both Big Data and GI this presents a twofold challenge for producers and users of the data.

The first challenge is at the suppliers’ end whether this be a companies IT department or a GI software and data supplier. The challenge here is to provide the data in a way that is accessible to a wide range of users with differing skill sets that may not be particularly technical. The second challenge is for the organisations themselves in ensuring they have the right skills amongst their staff to interpret the data. This doesn’t mean everybody needs to be able to code just that people have an appreciation as to how to handle data and how it impacts and supports their role.

Meeting these challenges and a general cultural appreciation of data (and GI) as a tool that can enable organisations to make better decisions is a key change that will allow these organisation to save time and money and deploy limited resources in a more effective fashion.


In short Big Data is going through the same maturation process as GI forcing a cultural shift in attitudes to how data is used and who it is used by. Both sectors (if they can truly be called that given their interconnectivity with all other sectors) can learn from each other in how to espouse their benefits and encourage an ever greater uptake.