The United Kingdom’s Geospatial Commission, an expert committee that sets the UK’s geospatial strategy and promotes the best use of geospatial data, held a virtual event titled Location data opportunities for better UK transport on August 19 to discuss the immense value geospatial data, products, and services can add to the transport sector.
The speakers at the event were David Henderson, Chief Geospatial Officer, Ordnance Survey; Dr. Hannah Budnitz, Research Associate, Transport Studies Unit, University of Oxford; Minesh Naran, Head of Transportation and Infrastructure, 1Spatial; and Paul Campion, CEO, TRL.
The Geospatial Commission also announced the winners of phase 2 of its £5m ($6.8m) Transport Location Data Competition, which was launched in May. Following success in the development of feasibility studies in phase 1, the next phase of the competition announced support to seven companies to work closely with the public sector to realize their innovative ideas through pilots over the next eight months. The winners were:
Maritime ANalyTics Intelligence System (MANTIS), Emu Analytics Ltd for AI and visualization tool to identify evolving ship patterns of movement to inform the planning of future offshore wind farms.
Digital Active Travel Augmentation (DATA), Ngenius Ltd for developing a software using anonymized location data from CCTV cameras to help local authorities manage active travel routes.
Optimising Geofencing, Ricardo UK Ltd for geofencing optimization to increase the usage and effectiveness of low emissions zones for air quality improvements.
National Freight Model, City Science Corporation Ltd for advanced modeling to improve the understanding of freight movements within the UK.
ZERO, Dynamon Ltd for developing an AI tool to help commercial fleets adopt the optimum zero-emission vehicles and charging infrastructure.
Digital twin of the rail network, Hack Partners Ltd for using track circuit sensor and location to increase capacity and efficiency of the rail network without compromising safety.
Automated Rail Geospatial Observation System (ARGOS), Thales Ground Transportation Systems UK Ltd for utilizing train location and sensor data to understand track geometry characteristics and detecting underlying track faults.
Alongside, a report was released which was titled Positioning the UK in the fast lane – Location data opportunities for better UK transport. The report illustrated the huge potential for location data to support a greener, faster, better transport sector from planning electric vehicle charging points to solving complex last mile routing challenges. The report identified cross-cutting challenges, requiring a system-wide approach and action from a range of stakeholders to truly unlock the potential of location data in the transport ecosystem. The six key transport areas where there is a significant opportunity for increased location data use are: roads, road & rail haulage, route optimization, electric vehicles, connected and autonomous vehicles, and drones and Unmanned Aircraft Systems.
