Corporate report

Geospatial Commission: Board of Commissioners meeting, 31 January 2023

Published 4 May 2023

Geospatial Commission: Board of Commissioners meeting 31 January 2023

Hybrid meeting - BGS, Keyworth & Google Meet, 13:00-15:15

Attendees

Commissioners:

Bernard Silverman (Chair)
Nigel Clifford (Deputy Chair)
Thalia Baldwin
Louise Heathwaite
Steve Unger
Alex Notay (online)

Nominated Commissioners:

Karen Hanghøj
Peter Sparkes (online)

Commission Unit:

Jamie Clark
Chris Chambers
Ros Goodfellow
Catherine McGrath (online)
Amelia Napier
Ruth Cookman
Abigail Page (online)
Ben Carson (online)
Neil Brammall

(Minutes by: Liz Conn)

Observers:

Alan Corbett (Scotland) (online)
Jim Lennon (Northern Ireland) (online)
David Roberts (for Glyn Jones) (Wales)
Fiona James (ONS) (online)
Lisa Pinney, (CEO, Coal Authority)
Mark Casey (UKHO)

Apologies:

Glyn Jones
Jim Lennon

External Speaker:

Simon McLellan, Met Office (online)

1. Minutes and Matters Arising

1.1. Bernard opened the meeting. The board welcomed Lisa Pinney, CEO Coal Authority, as a guest observer and thanked her for joining. Thanks were also given to Karen Hanghøj and BGS for hosting the board for the day. Dave Roberts (Welsh Government, for Glyn Jones) and Mark Casey (UKHO) were also welcomed and thanked for joining the meeting in person.

1.2. Apologies were given for Glyn Jones and Jim Lennon.

1.3. The November board meeting minutes were approved with no changes. No other matters were noted.

2. Report from the Nominated Commissioners

2.1. Karen Hanghøj and Peter Sparkes summarised the points raised by the Partner Bodies at the Nominated Commissioners’ meeting on 24 January:

• Karen confirmed that the Nominated Commissioners for the next 12 months will be Peter Sparkes and Stephen Lake.
• The Partner Bodies are continuing to see synergy opportunities and will be having ongoing discussions to help identify those and form a thematic approach.
• Peter highlighted the depth of the conversation held at the Nominated Commissioners’ meeting about Earth Observation.
• The Strategy Refresh update provided helpful insights which resonated with the Partner Bodies. Their shared view is that funding is not the major barrier to better use of geospatial and that the challenge lies more in the capability and education gap in user organisations. They would value a return to this conversation in future.

2.2. The board thanked the Nominated Commissioners for their input and engagement around the Commission’s Strategy Refresh.

3. Report from the Director of the Commission

3.1. Thalia provided an update on activities and highlights from across the Commission during December and January, which saw a significant amount of external facing engagement, as well as close engagement with the Independent Commissioners, and included:

• progress on the Earth Observation pilot, which is covered in more detail at Item 6;
• further progress towards the Geospatial Strategy refresh, the consultation on which concluded in December, which is covered in more detail at Item 8;
• publication of our policy paper Getting to the Point which highlights the vital role that location data has to play in informing Electric Vehicle chargepoint rollout across the UK. The publication was picked up and shared in national media and was positively received;
• advancements in the Commission’s Land Use Programme with the publication of a House of Lords report Making the most out of England’s land which included a recommendation to set up a new independent body on land use coordination. The Commission is working on a government response to the report, in collaboration with DEFRA;
• advice to Ministers on access and improvement to mobility data. The Commission is looking at current cross-government work and will provide an update at a future meeting.

3.2. Thalia added that the agenda for today’s board meeting had been structured to showcase innovation, with a demonstration of a marine digital twin by UKHO as well as a live demonstration of the National Underground Asset Register. The Commission is considering the theme of the April board meeting, which is likely to be around land and property.

4. UKHO Digital Twinning

4.1. Mark Casey, Head of Research, Design and Innovation at UK Hydrographic Office (UKHO) gave a demonstration of the UKHO/Unreal Engine digital twin. Peter Sparkes explained that the creation of the digital twin had been born out of a defence requirement where it has been used for mission rehearsals. However, by incorporating real time feeds, it has enormous potential with many possible applications and significant commercial opportunities. UKHO is looking at how the technology can be used more widely.

4.2. The board was given a demonstration of the proof of concept, which is now being developed based on feedback. UKHO plans to build an interface for users, with one potential application being the creation of third generation port navigation guides that include accurate real time weather and light conditions. The Coast Guard is also interested for a range of search and rescue applications.

4.3. Peter outlined that the creation of the digital twin has been a multi-organisational piece of work. The next step is to look to automate, scale up and increase its capability. The board discussed the potential role of the Commission in this, which Peter added is primarily to note the innovation at this stage. UKHO would welcome a conversation about additional data that could be included both from the Partner Bodies and beyond. They view it as an area for tremendous collaboration, with benefits to the UK ranging from national security to environmental.

4.5. The board thanked Mark and Peter for the very interesting demonstration.

5. External Speaker - Simon McClellan, Met Office

5.1. Simon McLellan, Head of Data at the Met Office, joined the meeting to present on how they work with data, their approach to the big data challenge they face, and ways in which the Met Office is increasing data accessibility to maximise the value of its data for users and collaborators.

5.2. International data exchange is essential to meteorological forecasting and uses a mix of licensing and standards. There are also new sources of data that offer new observations opportunities that come from devices that had not previously been intended for meteorological data. The Met Office is investing in its data infrastructure to enable its big-data to be more effectively used, which presents huge opportunities, including predicting the weather and climate change.

5.3. The board thanked Simon for the presentation and agreed to keep in touch and think about potential future areas for collaboration to take the conversation forwards.

6. Geospatial Market & Public Sector Data Access Update and Discussion

6.1. Abigail and Amelia joined the meeting, providing a brief overview of the Commission’s emerging approach to a broader view on geospatial markets. The board were invited to provide early thoughts on:

a) the Commission’s plans to enhance their understanding of the geospatial market and their strategic approach to improving public sector access; and

b) the Commission’s public sector data access initiatives for Earth Observation (EO) and mobility data.

6.2. Opportunities offered by EO are widely recognised, but uptake in the public sector is limited. The board discussed the challenge of encouraging collaboration in areas in which interested parties have not previously had to pay but now might, and also why there are disconnected EO initiatives in government and what the role of the Commission could be in this.

6.3. Amelia highlighted the alignment between the NCEO Earth Observation work and the purpose of the Commission’s pilot, which builds on the previous work that the government has done in this space.

6.4. The team has planned scoping activities to develop a deeper collective understanding of benefits with a focus on evidencing demand, as well as considering regulatory mechanisms.

6.5. The board confirmed their support for the initiatives and the outlined approach and thanked the team for the work done to date.

7. Technology - NUAR Live Demonstration

7.1. Neil Brammall joined the meeting and provided a demonstration of the current status of the National Underground Asset Register minimum viable product (MVP). There are a number of further enhancements that will be implemented before the MVP is due to be launched.

7.2. The board discussed the robust security required to protect the data held within NUAR, with Chris Chambers confirming that security is at the heart of NUAR and we have worked closely with the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI) since the start of the Programme. Both CPNI and NCSC see NUAR as exemplary in approaching protection of critical national infrastructure whilst increasing accessibility of data.

7.3. The board thanked Neil for the fascinating demonstration and look forward to the exciting next milestone.

8. Update on Call for Evidence & Strategy Refresh

8.1. Ben Carson joined the meeting. Ros Goodfellow gave a progress report on the Strategy Refresh. The update paper includes a summary of responses to the Call for Evidence. The Commission was pleased with the range of responses which came from many parts of the diverse geospatial ecosystem. The team has also run a number of round table discussions, including with underrepresented voices and undergraduates.

8.2. Next steps will be to continue to engage with the Devolved Administrations and Partner Bodies as the document evolves ahead of publication. The board was asked for their view on key areas of focus for the strategy refresh, the role the Commission can play in developing the ecosystem and where it can have the most impact.

8.3. The board discussed the analysis of barriers to adoption and asked if a further breakdown across respondents could be provided. The Nominated Commissioners’ shared view is that lack of visibility is the main issue, rather than funding. An increase in awareness would support uptake and address other barriers.

8.4. The board thanked Ros and her team and will continue to feed back their views as work on the strategy refresh progresses.

9. Any Other Business

9.1. The board wished to formally record its thanks to Karen and BGS for the morning’s tour and presentations and for hosting the Commission for the day. Bernard also thanked Lisa, Mark and Dave for attending in person. He encouraged feedback on the new format of the quarterly two day board meetings, the next one of which will be held in April in London.