The document discusses two pilot projects in London and the North East of England that are investigating mapping underground utility assets more accurately. The pilots are being led by the Greater London Authority and Ordnance Survey, and are focusing on uses like avoiding utility strikes and improving project efficiency. Findings from the pilots will help inform whether to proceed with a national underground asset register. Key barriers to data sharing that the pilots are examining include issues around data discoverability, access, quality, interoperability, and security.

1. Mapping underground utility assets
Heath Pritchard
Head of Major Projects

2. Geospatial Commission
The Geospatial Commission was
created in April 2018 in the centre
of government, as an independent,
expert committee.
We aim to unlock the economic
opportunities offered by geospatial
data and to reinforce the UK’s
geospatial expertise on the global
stage.
About Us
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Geospatial data and technologies empowers:
a smart government and a smart nation

3. Geospatial Commission
This is how we currently map it
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4. Geospatial Commission
….and what the future might look like
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5. Geospatial Commission
● We are investing £3.9m in two pilot projects building on
existing initiatives in Sunderland and London.
● The pilots are led by the Greater London Authority (GLA) in
London and the Ordnance Survey in the North East of
England.
● We have identified three sources of value:
○ utility strike avoidance
○ project efficiency
○ data exchange efficiency
● The pilots will focus on safe digging & efficiency use cases
● They will help us test our assumptions, develop data
models and provide open documentation of key findings.
● Findings will be used to inform whether and how to proceed
with the tender for a regional build and national rollout of a
National Underground Asset Register.
National Underground Asset Register (NUAR) Pilots
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Future Cities Catapult

6. Geospatial Commission 6
NEUAR Partners
Infrastructure Providers
Northumbrian Water Group
Northern Power Grid
Northern Gas Network
Openreach
Network Rail
Highways England
Local Authorities
Newcastle
Durham
Redcar and Cleveland
Darlington
Gateshead
Hartlepool
Sunderland
Stockton on Tees
Middlesbrough
North Yorkshire
Northumberland
South Tyneside
North Tyneside
British Geological Survey
NEUAR - North-East Underground Asset Register Pilot

7. Geospatial Commission
LUAR - London’s Underground Asset Register Pilot
LUAR Partners
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Infrastructure Providers
Cadent
Community Fibre
Environment Agency
Historic England
HS2
National Grid
Network Rail
SES Water
SGN
TfL
Thames Water
UKPN
Virgin Media
Local Authorities
Camden
City of London
Croydon
Newham
Southwark
Tower Hamlets

8. Geospatial Commission
Common barriers to data sharing
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Discoverability
In order to do anything, individuals and organisations need to know what data
exists and who owns it.
Access
Individuals and organisations require sufficient access to the data to do their jobs
well or to innovate.
Quality
Individuals and organisations need to have at least some metadata about the
dataset (for example, currency, confidence level, etc)
Interoperability
Individuals and organisations often need to be able to use data with other data
sets and systems
… there are also Security, Commercial and liability implications to work
through.

9. Geospatial Commission
NUAR pilot - the emerging data model
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in partnership with