WHAT LIES BENEATH

The Geospatial Commission is working to create a complete map of London’s underground world

affecting public safety. Every construction project in the UK runs the risk of boring through pipes and cables. Accidental damages cost the UK economy an estimated £1.2 billion per year.

Utility companies often need to dig simply to establish what is lurking underground. ‘There’s the concept of a trial hole, where ground is excavated to see whether underground assets can be found. If not, excavation is widened and this can create a lot of disruption to transportation,’ says Carsten Roensdorf, strategic proposition manager at Ordnance Survey.

The problem lies in the incremental additions to the UK’s underground space over the decades. As a result, available data as to where everything is and who owns what is limited. Construction projects must source information from multiple organisations, which often deliver patchy data of differing quality. The consequences can be severe: ‘New construction and development projects often need to avoid or to reroute existing utility assets. Not knowing what’s underground can have a significant impact on the risk profile of the project,’ says Roensdorf, who is passionate about the economic value of subsurface location data.

Ordnance Survey believe that improved subsurface knowledge could hasten the development of infrastructure projects such as HS2. The Geospatial Commission is hoping for a national roll-out in 2021. ‘The NUAR will be a central resource for data exchange on subsurface space,’ says Roensdorf. By streamlining everyday utility maintenance, and hastening large infrastructural projects NUAR is set to be a boon for the UK economy.