Geospatial engineering involves the application of spatial and temporal information to the earth, its subsurface, its bodies of water, and its atmosphere.
Geospatial engineering is used in many sectors and serves as a vital and informative tool for asset managers such as utilities and local authorities. The following tools have been developed and trialled to assist effective and accurate asset management.
Atlantis is a public-sector initiative to understand the underlying issues and agree the standards to collectively provide interoperable base geographic and environmental datasets to better support water management in flooding and water quality for the 21st century. Atlantis will enable a consistent approach to information underpinning all aspects of the flooding life cycle. The initiative also covers identifying all features of critical infrastructure that could be considered at risk from flooding on a national scale, and implementing protective measures.
The Digital National Framework enables and promotes the integration and sharing of location-based information from multiple sources. The ability to combine or use different information based upon a common location, and to do this reliably and easily, is critical in solving regular business tasks. The Digital National Framework provides technical methods and guidance to support these operations and is aligned with national strategies and international standards.
The aim of the VISTA Project is to bring together existing paper and digital records with data from satellite and ground-based positioning systems. The 3-D map that will be created will aid coordination of the collection of utilities' data. The project will help reduce the numbers of holes dug, ensure they are dug in the right place and that unexpected pipes and cables aren’t damaged in the process.
The project title, VISTA, is derived from "Visualising integrated information on buried assets to reduce streetworks". It is funded through the Technology Programme by the Department of Trade and Industry.