Are We Being Smart Enough About Smart?

With location the common denominator, there are great opportunities ahead for surveyors, argues Ordnance Survey’s Simon Navin (above), if we realise the benefits for communities through interoperable data from Smart technologies like BIM, Big Data and the Internet of Things.

In man’s universal search for simplicity, sometimes we do make life hard for ourselves. The term ‘Smart’ – according to British Standards Institute (BSI) Smart Cities – may mean ‘visionary; citizen-centric; digital; open and collaborative’. Or (if we look at ISO 37101), it may mean ‘... to contribute to sustainable development and resilience, through soundly based decision making and the adoption of a long and short term perspective’.

There are other, even more complex interpretations. Some are even less helpful. And all too often, they infer that Smart – and Smart Cities in particular – is all about technology, nothing more.

Sustainable Efficiency

We believe there is infinitely more to Smart than deploying tech to the right places: it’s about using what we have already (from basic resources, through to ‘Big Data’ and beyond), to be more efficient and to improve people’s lives in a sustainable way. When you think about it, that could be something as simple as getting water to a remote community deprived of natural resources.

From health and resilience, through to mobility in communities; from simple air-pollen sensors, right through to driverless cars – the Internet of Things (IoT) and connections to BIM, environments will ensure that Smart continues apace... so there’s a need to focus carefully on where our efforts lie.

That’s why Ordnance Survey is championing the need to focus on end users’ needs, first: by using connected, integrated systems, operations and processes to be more efficient and more sustainable. And if we’re doing that effectively, then we’ll see better outcomes for the people who visit, live or work in a place – and for the governments or businesses operating there.

So, where does geomatics fit in? And will technology, data availability and growing initiatives such as crowd-sourcing impact on the role of the geospatial specialist or surveyor?

Deeper, Richer Data

Opportunities for the geospatial professional lie in the interpretation of deeper, richer data. The geospatial professional can provide authority on data, how it was captured or derived and crucially, why we should and shouldn’t rely on it.

It’s here that we see the interface between BIM and Smart. Both rely on well-defined interoperable data; both need an understanding of location, objects and connections; both need multi-disciplinary skills allied with data and technology capabilities – and both require collaboration and a requirement to share data in ways that facilitate better outputs and enable effective decision making.

Innovative Sharing Models

So, if geospatial requirements for Smart/BIM are essential, then where will data come from, for these intelligence-led projects and initiatives? Clearly there are privacy and commercial considerations, but long-term benefits should see more innovative sharing models that overcome those concerns. Those models should reduce costs too, which will enable greater economies of scale and access to more open data or premium data: fit for purpose, easy to use, simple to integrate.

However, things get even more complex when we start factoring in a new wave of data from mobile devices and the Internet of Things. Our attitudes and approaches to privacy must move away from granting or asking for blanket permissions on usage – technology can assist here like never before.

Location - The Common Denominator

Data will underpin the quality and reliability of all outputs for smart places in the areas of mobility, health, resilience, sustainability, demographics for example and for connecting land, property and construction. All sorts of places are wrestling with these issues and no one has the monopoly on the good ideas. The use of data to both analyse the problem and the impact of any interventions has to be a first step. However, not all of these datasets or feeds are recognisable to the geospatial community as they are often abstract, lacking authority or a traditional geometric structure. However, everything happens somewhere. Location – something that is familiar – can be the unique common denominator by which we connect all of these data and content packages.

Unique location references, such as the UPRN (Unique Property Reference Number) and the USRN (Unique Street Reference Number), can enable data to connect with multiple sources when it forms part of the metadata that’s associated to digital information. These unique identifiers can also be applied to real-world objects at a more granular level, much as you’d expect to see in BIM environments. The connections between these objects and environments that touch the BIM-defined assets can definitely contribute to the success of Smart.

User-centric Solutions

We know technology isn’t the only, or primary answer for Smart to be a success. A bottom-up approach that’s focused throughout on putting users at the heart of the solution is what’s needed. The data that underpins the improvement of services and solutions needs to be accessible and collaborative; places need to encourage users to consume it in ways that work for them, right down to the individual level. In fact, there may be a danger in prescribing overt ‘big data!’ solutions, when success is more likely by enabling data to work in the background for individual citizens.

The geospatial community has a great opportunity to bring their data management expertise to the centre of Smart projects and urban development. As population increases, and technology becomes less prohibitive, the need to capture, manage and share more and better quality geospatial data will grow. Surveyors will benefit enormously if they can incorporate some less familiar disciplines, and as a result, put the geospatial professional right at the heart of urbanisation.

This article was published in Geomatics World September/October 2016