A
 Briefing Paper
  by the  
Geospatial
 Engineering Panel 
  
A joint panel of
 the Institution of Civil Engineers and the
Chartered
 Institution of Civil Engineering Surveyors

1 Introduction

The problems associated with the accurate location and identification of buried services and how to integrate, share, reuse and effectively communicate and exchange that knowledge have been with us for some time. Many attempts have been made to address these problems and this briefing paper is intended to document the major historical initiatives that have taken place and define the current state of activity.

For a number of years, there have been problems with the location, extent, quality and consistency of buried and above ground asset records and the associated problems of data exchange.  Many attempts have been made to address these problems, including those by NJUG, DfT HAUC (Records Code), Amtec, ICE/ICES, UKWIR, etc.  Out of these attempts came many voices saying 'something must be done'.

The purpose of this exercise is to harness the knowledge and expertise that there is in this area and to coordinate and direct the enthusiasm and current endeavours in a common direction for the benefit of the industry as a whole.,/

2 National Underground Asset Group  (NUAG)

2.1 Historical Background

NUAG came into being in 2005 as a direct result of the joint ICE/ICES Geospatial Engineering Board’s (predecessor of the GEP) Buried Services Report authored by Martin Cullen. This report recommended that there needed to be a body set-up to take forward the issues with the standards of underground asset information. NUAG was therefore set up as a group of all relevant stakeholders, including utilities and local authorities, pulling together a number of initiatives and attempts to become 'one voice'.  It was established to support the Department for Transport (DfT) in delivering the Traffic Management Act objectives, to act as the point of focus and single voice for everyone involved with underground and associated above ground assets. NUAG also complemented the existing arrangements between DfT and the Highway Authorities and Utilities Committee (HAUC) which has the major responsibility for streetworks records codes of practice. At the same time it worked closely with other initiatives and research projects such as VISTA  and MTU  to ensure that there was collaboration and little overlap.

This “Voice” represented a broad spectrum of stakeholders including:

• Association for Geographical Information (AGI)
• Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning and Transport (ADEPT)
• Department for Transport (DfT)
• Highway and Utility Contractors
• Highway Authorities and Utilities Committee (HAUC(UK))
• Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE)
• Institution of Civil Engineering Surveyors  (ICES)
• Joint Authorities Group (JAG)
• National Joint Utilities Group   (NJUG)
• Ordnance Survey   (OS)
• Pipeline Industries Guild (PIG)
• Roads Authorities and Utilities Committee (RAUC ) - Scotland
• Scottish Government
• UK Water Industry Research (UKWIR)

In addition, through the working groups, other stakeholders were involved such as the Contractors and TSA.

NUAG spent significant time and effort in the first few years working across this broad spectrum of stakeholders and industry players to clearly define the problems and the associated effects; identified underlying causes of the problems relating to capturing, managing and exchanging records; and at the same time defining potential solutions to these problems. All this was achieved through the continuing engagement of key utility and highways stakeholders, including Government (DfT). 

NUAG therefore created a cross industry common understanding of the issues, how to solve those issues and also a method of implementation against a much needed and agreed national specification. 

In September 2006, NUAG published the first of its three reports entitled “Capturing, recording, storing and sharing underground asset information. A review of current practice and future requirements”, (http://www.nuag.co.uk/docs/publicNUAGreportfinal.pdf ). The report included a series of recommendations, all based on identified stakeholder requirements (some 70 organisations)  that, taken together, offered a road map towards achieving the vision and targets set out in the Traffic Management Act.  These recommendations were shared and agreed with high level stakeholder groups, including DfT, NJUG, CSS, NSWHG and HAUC(UK).  The response was and still is, overwhelmingly positive and supportive.

NUAG went on to publish a second report in July 2007 through the efforts of its wide stakeholders: “Capturing, Recording, Storing and Sharing Underground Asset Information - A National Approach To Achieving Improved Minimum Standards” (http://www.nuag.co.uk/outputs/NUAG-Report-July-2007.pdf  ).  The NUAG recommended approach formed the basis of a national high-level framework to deliver the set of minimum performance standards, described in the 2006 NUAG Report, and also paved the way for co-development of the standards of asset information with HAUC(UK) (see later note on Standards). 

The third report produced by NUAG in August 2008, with significant input from the wider stakeholder Group, was the user requirements for a web-based service for the sharing of the information entitled “Defining the Technological Capability necessary for Sharing and Displaying Asset Information. User Requirements” (http://www.nuag.co.uk/docs/nuag-user-requirements-report.pdf  ). The needs identified that anyone requiring information about buried assets needed to be able to simply find out who owns assets in a particular area, be able to notify them of their particular need, and obtain the information by a number of means to ensure that all parts of the complex supply chain are addressed (this is not always simple with the deregulation and the huge number of assets owners, particular telecoms).  The methods adopted must apply to each organisation separately for the available data.

2.2 Recent Developments

In April 2011, NUAG NRS Limited was set up as a “not for profit entity” to take forward the work done by NUAG, implement the National Records Services across GB and be the “Centre of Excellence” for the exchange of asset records. This entity has been set-up with the full support of the DfT, Transport for London and the Mayor’s Office, the Utilities and Highways authorities and the contracting industry - in all some 70 organisations.

NUAG NRS Ltd has now launched the “London Project” as the first step towards a full national roll-out of a range of services as identified in the NUAG reports. The launch of phase 1 of the Service on 1st November 2011 at the Mayor’s Office in London was followed by a House of Commons reception with full support from the Transport Minister Norman Baker.  The London Project is sponsored by Thames Water (via UKWIR), National Grid Gas, UK Power Networks, Southern Gas Networks, Transport for London (TfL), BT Openreach as well as the City of London, the London Boroughs and the Corporation of London.

NUAG NRS Ltd will provide three tier web based services and the standards for the exchange of underground asset records inside the M25 as the precursor to full roll-out across the UK. This will deliver against the work done in the 2007 and 2008 reports created through Utility and Highways organisations’ feedback. It will also utilise the learning from the VISTA project. 

NUAG has been asked now to fulfil the role as a centre of excellence for the standards on information capture and exchange, building upon the earlier work of HAUC(UK) and NUAG as highlighted below.

2.3 Standards and Centre of Excellence

Until recently there have been no agreed or published standards for the exchange of utility asset data.  There is however the DfT Records Code of Practise (RCoP) for record data formats and accuracies produced in 2002. This now sits under the New Roads and Streetworks Act (NRSWA) and as a result of NUAG’s work on the Traffic Management Act (TMA), a review and redrafting of the NRSWA RCoP was undertaken by the DfT with HAUC(UK) to support the TMA and also to meet the emerging industry needs for better information.  This work was completed and waited for the right policy framework but the issuing of these codes as an amended RCoP unfortunately became delayed by the DfT. That was until now when the events around NUAG NRS Ltd have paved the way for the DfT to agree to and seek the adoption of them by industry through NUAG NRS Ltd.

NUAG is supported by DfT and the Utility industry as a common umbrella entity to ensure there is a consistent national approach to deliver the developed national standard, and to ensure clarity This now presents an opportunity as in reality NUAG,  VISTA , MTU  are all part of the overall approach to improve the industry’s understanding on buried services. Each initiative has interlinking elements of the same problem, which are designed to ensure no overlap or duplication of effort.

3 MTU

The Mapping the Underworld (MTU) initiative started in 2005 via a feasibility study comprising four complementary initial research projects, while the current multi-sensor device project (MTU2) began in November 2008. This project is made possible by a four-year ~£3.5M grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

Mapping the Underworld 2, has been funded by the EPSRC to build a multi sensor device, and to fuse the sensor data with the expectations from the integrated maps created using the technology researched and developed in VISTA and Mapping the underworld 1 projects.

Information on MTU can be found here.

With an end date of March 2013, the MTU2 project is now over half way through and held a dissemination seminar at the Ordnance Survey offices in Southampton in September 2011. This seminar was attended by around 100 people, a mix of academics, specialist contractors, civil engineering contractors, consultants and manufacturers. Trials of the various individual new technologies have been successful and initial efforts to combine them have also been successful. Leeds University are pursuing the issue with regard to data merging.

The project is now at the testing stage and the consortium tried hard to identify a suitable location that possessed a variety of services of differing materials in one location. This proved difficult, but JK Guest Group, who are building a new test/training centre, has offered MTU2 the use of this facility free of charge.

The MTU2 project consortium is preparing a further submission to extend the project to look at asset condition assessment as well as location. It has also been given some funding for dissemination activities and to date this has been used to fund the production of two videos; one an animated video explaining the problem of locating buried assets can be found here, the other a video “Pathways to Impact - MTU“, that describes the project can be found here. Both videos are highly recommended. In addition, a podcast interview given by Dr Nicole Metje from the University of Birmingham who works on the MTU2 project can be accessed here.

Click here to watch the MTU animated video
Click here to watch “Pathways to Impact – Mapping the Underworld” video

4 VISTA

The project title, VISTA, is derived from "Visualising integrated information on buried assets to reduce streetworks". Started in 2006 and completed in 2009, this project was funded through the Technology Programme by the Department of Trade and Industry (www.dti.gov.uk/technologyprogramme ). The total project costs were in the region of £2.2m of which the Technology Programme provided just under £900k, with £630k for work at the University of Leeds and £270k for the University of Nottingham. The remainder was contributed in kind by the active involvement of more than 20 companies that made up the direct stakeholder community.

The aim of the VISTA Project was to bring together existing paper and digital records with data from satellite and ground-based positioning systems to advance both the knowledge and data integration and accurate positioning initiatives of the MTU.  The idea was to specify a coordinated data system that could be used to create a three-dimensional map of pipes and cables buried underground.

The following links provide further information on the VISTA Project;

http://www.vistadtiproject.org/site/vista/public/home
http://www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/mtu/vista.htm

5 Utility Mapping Association

In November 2011 a meeting was held at the University of Birmingham, instigated by John Guest, to establish if there was sufficient industry interest to establish a Utility Mapping Association (UMA). The perceived view was that the contracting and survey elements of the industry involved in buried services was not properly represented and that more needed to be undertaken with regard to establishing a common set of standards that reflect best practice in utility mapping with clear measurable competence levels & training criteria.

A further meeting held in December 2012 at the University of Birmingham attracted 28 people. Most of those present were from contracting or survey companies although some clients were present as well as representatives from NUAG, ICES/ICE and TSA. It was agreed that a UMA committee should be formed to establish terms of reference and agree how this body should integrate with others working in this field to avoid duplication of effort.

5.1 Buried Asetts Centre of Knowledge (BACK)

In addition to the UMA committee it was agreed there are many initiatives throughout the UK that have been set up which involve methods, processes, technologies etc. to prevent unnecessary damage to underground apparatus, avoid injury, reduce risk, reduce wasted time, improve productivity and ease disruption. Many of these are making excellent progress as already detailed but there is some confusion to the industry as to who is doing what and whether they complement each other or whether they are in conflict with each other.

Under the banner of Centre of Excellence - Underground Assets a meeting was held at ICE on 12 February 2012 with the intention to catalogue and summarise each of the initiatives and try to steer them in a common direction for the benefit of the UK, without stifling innovation and taking away the responsibility of the groups. the name was soon changed to Buried Assetts Centre of Knowledge (BACK).

Essentially, they focussed on four areas:

• Before works commence
• During works
• Post works
• Governance

It is intended that the first output identifies as many initiatives as possible and summarise where they fit and display in a single grid/graphic. Meetings have taken place on 12 March, 16 May and 12 July 2012. The next meeting is taking place on 5 October 2012 at ICE and it is hoped will finalise the finished document. This and more information can be found on the NUAG website under Centre of Excellence

6 British Standards Institute (BSI) and ICE - PAS 128

Following an approach by Cardno TBE and other industry stakeholders, BSI were made aware of several standards that had been developed for collecting and depicting existing underground utility data in other countries and which supported an engineering practice in these countries called subsurface utility engineering (SUE).  As a result of these conversations and their own research they decided to hold a workshop to identify the need for a standard to support the SUE / utility mapping industry in the UK.

This workshop took place on the 4th January 2012 at the BSI’s group headquarters in Chiswick and attracted some 69 stakeholders. A BSI Workshop Report was published on the 18th January that recommended the development of a BSI Publicly Available Specification (PAS), which is a fast-track standard developed by key experts in the UK in a typical timeframe of 9-10 months. Following the development of the PAS, it is recommended that a committee technical panel be established to develop the PAS further as a British Standard and to potentially provide an on-going means of considering further standardisation requirements. (January 2012)

April 2012 - BSI select and contract with ICE as the Sponsor for the development of the PAS standard on Utility Mapping and Subsurface Utility Engineering (SUE). The main role of the sponsor will be to coordinate funding on behalf of the industry and provide an industry liaison throughout the project, including signing off progress at key stages.

29 June 2012 - Launch meeting. Agreed that PAS should be a specification document and not a guide or code of practise. To be titled PAS 128. Technical author and Drafting Panel agreed. ICE Chair Ian Bush to be overall Technical Author. Final design, print, marketing and distribution of the PAS is expected March/April 2013. We will keep you updated of progress through these web pages.

7 Conclusion

NUAG’s collaborative approach is providing the service to enable the adoption of common standards and thereby improve the industry overall performance and sharing of information. This work is one piece of a wider-ranging approach by Government to address the issues of our ailing Infrastructure focussing on the ‘buried assets jigsaw’. It aligns closely with the surveying industry’s drive to improve the need for common standards and their adoption. 

In combination, the initiatives of NUAG, MTU, VISTA, UMA and BSI will result in more effective means of identifying buried apparatus, and better use of technology as identified and better services and data standards.  More importantly, they bring together the knowledge, skills and experience of the industry as a whole to improve standards of work on buried assets, whether in the street or elsewhere making it safer and more effective.

The ICE and ICES support these initiatives and see their role as one of providing support and encouragement to ensure the appropriate communication and collaboration takes place among the various stakeholders to maintain a common direction of purpose, and to support and promote the development of appropriate standards, competencies, training and good practice for the betterment of the industry as a whole.

The diagram below gives an overview of the groups and their co-ordination and collaboration service.

Glossary of terms:

ADEPT - Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning and Transport (formerly County Surveyors’ Society)

AGI - Association for Geographical Information

CECA - Civil Engineering Contractors Association

CSS - County Surveyors’ Society

DfT - Department for Transport

GEP - Joint ICE/ICES Geospatial Engineering Panel

HAUC(UK) - Highway Authorities and Utilities Committee

ICE - Institution of Civil Engineers

ICES - Chartered Institution of Civil Engineering Surveyors

JAG - Joint Authorities Group

MTU2 - Mapping the Underworld (a 10-year research programme largely funded by the EPSRC)

NJUG - National Joint Utilities Group

NRSWA - New Roads and Streetworks Act

NSWHG - National Street Works Highways Group

NUAG - National Underground Asset Group

OS - Ordnance Survey

PIG - Pipeline Industries Guild

RAUC - Roads Authorities and Utilities Committee (Scotland)

TMA - Traffic Management Act

TSA - The Survey Association

UAF - Utilities Avoidance Forum

UMA - Utilities Mapping Association

UKWIR - UK Water Industry Research

VISTA - Visualising Integrated information on buried assets to reduce streetworks – a research project funded through the Technology Programme by the Department of Trade and Industry