National Underground Asset Register Programme
Dr Neil Brammall CEng MIGEM FRGS FCInstCES, NUAR Technical Product Owner, Geospatial Commission
The Geospatial Commission, part of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), is delivering a digital service, the National Underground Asset Register (NUAR), that will grow the economy, transform public services and improve people’s lives. NUAR is a digital map of underground pipes and cables in England, Wales and Northern Ireland that brings together data from over 700 organisations, both public and private, to give a comprehensive view of what lies beneath our feet.
The National Underground Asset Register is a digital map of underground pipes and cables in England, Wales and Northern Ireland that brings together data from over 700 organisations, both public and private, to give a comprehensive view of what lies beneath our feet.This is clearly of great interest to many members of CICES, many of whom play an important role in the detection and verification of buried assets in support of efficient planning and safe working.
It will provide users with access to all the records data they need, when they need it, in a matter of seconds, rather than the on average six-plus days that this data gathering exercise can take currently.
The National Underground Asset Register (NUAR) is a governmentled programme which is creating a combined, standardised repository of buried asset data in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and presenting it in a secure and interactive manner which is available instantly to users of the platform1.
It allows the locations of assets to be quickly and easily viewed on demand in a standard form, and detailed, consistent information about them to be queried in the office and in the field.
The NUAR service is at the minimum viable product (MVP) stage, with features delivering the functionality and data for the safe excavation use case being developed and refined in line with direct user feedback.
While the combined asset map is a central feature of the service, this may be seen as a jumping off point to other views and features, including:
- The ability to list all organisations who may have assets in an area.
- An ‘isolated view’ of data from a specific organisation, potentially styled according to existing sector norms for symbology and with detailed annotations and even custom backdrop mapping if required.
- The ability to see contact details and specialised guidance for assets and sites deemed too sensitive to be displayed on the map.
- The ability to provide feedback on the data, or more detail about conditions and findings at a location by means of an ‘observation’ visible to other members of your organisation, or more widely as required.
The platform is currently available to users in onboarded asset owner organisations (of which there are now over 200) and their supply chain organisations, with data from all major gas, electricity, water and sewer operators, plus many others in England and Wales.
From the very early days of the NUAR programme, the importance of the utility survey sector in the safe excavation ecosystem has been recognised and acknowledged.
We are onboarding asset owners in Northern Ireland as we speak and will say more about the rollout of NUAR there soon. Ahead of this launch, we have enhanced the platform further to ensure that different coordinate system and basemap data can be seamlessly integrated.
Progress to date
Great progress has been made since our last update on bringing data from asset owners through the onboarding, data transformation and ingestion processes and publishing their data, such that it is available, through the platform.
We recently passed the milestone of publishing data from over 200 organisations – providing access to an unprecedented range and volume of coverage in a single platform.
Data from all major gas, electricity, water and sewer operators in England and Wales is
available, along with many others, including major telecommunications networks, local authority datasets, independent networks and more.
We are working with the data from a further 70-plus organisations and engaging directly with over 120 others to bring them on the journey to publishing data in NUAR.
Working with the utility survey sector
One of the key security controls in NUAR is the ability to know precisely who is accessing the data and for what purpose.
From the very early days of the NUAR programme, the importance of the utility survey sector in the safe excavation ecosystem has been recognised and acknowledged. Certainly to the extent that ‘accredited utility surveyors’ are explicitly referenced as legitimate users in the legal agreements used to underpin the controlled sharing of data via NUAR.
It cannot be repeated often enough that NUAR, or any other system or process dealing with statutory records, sits within a broader landscape of good practice for safe excavation as outlined in Health and Safety Executive guidance HSG472.
Regardless of what data is collated and viewed prior to breaking ground, the requirements
for thorough site investigation and survey, and for safe excavation methods, remain in place unaltered, and the utility survey sector is critical to that process.
One of the key security controls in NUAR is the ability to know precisely who is accessing the data and for what purpose. This approach promotes trust and security, and currently NUAR is only available to asset owner organisations who have published data and their supply chain organisations involved in safe excavation activities.
Utility surveyors may already have access on that supply chain basis, but as outlined above, there has always been a desire to provide independent access to utility surveyors given their critical role in the safe excavation process.
The reference to ‘accredited’ utility surveyors is critical to maintaining that trust and security which is core to the programme and the absence of a formal accreditation scheme has slightly hampered efforts to move forward in this area of engagement.
We are therefore very encouraged to see progress being made by the industry on the development and implementation of the PUMA scheme3. This is a scheme created by The Survey Association (TSA) in collaboration with other industry bodies, including CICES, and delivered by Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance (LRQA).
This development, along with previous work on security awareness led by the CICES Utilities & Subsurface Mapping Panel (USMP) in conjunction with security authorities, provides a way forward for the NUAR programme to engage with the sector4. It enables the scope of independent utility surveyor access to NUAR on the basis of a recognised accreditation scheme which allows us to maintain that high level of trust and control around legitimate access to data.
In light of this, we have recently instituted a NUAR Utility Surveyors Working Group, which includes members of the utility survey sector, as well as technical, security and discovery members of the NUAR programme and this allows us to continue and strengthen the dialogue with this critical sector.
Data quality, standardisation and the NUAR harmonised data model
While NUAR aims to improve the efficiency of the data sharing process in support of the planning and execution of excavation works, we also see some real opportunities to help improve data quality incrementally. I have already briefly described the ability to submit feedback on data via the ‘observations’ feature. Over time, one could envisage this forming a virtuous circle of feedback and incremental improvement.
I have also mentioned the standardised approach to the representation of data in NUAR. This presents real and tangible opportunities for data quality improvement which may not be immediately obvious.
/CES - (90b378c6-7cd0-41e8-ad20-f8936d61b90e)/article/c771c3bf-8a16-412a-9a5c-082102d626ee.jpg)
The standardisation of data in NUAR is enabled by the implementation of the NUAR harmonised data model – a model providing a standardised representation of data related to utility networks and associated elements. This is based upon an emerging international standard developed by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) called MUDDI – the Model for Underground Data Definition and Integration5,6
The NUAR programme has made a significant contribution to this international collaboration, and the NUAR data model is the first implementation in the world of this groundbreaking standard.
While NUAR aims to improve the efficiency of the data sharing process in support of the planning and execution of excavation works, we also see some real opportunities to help incrementally improve data quality.In line with the OGC’s dedication to the benefits of open standards, the MUDDI conceptual model is expected to be published as a full and open international standard in the coming months. The standard will continue to be refined, extended and developed, with ongoing input from the NUAR programme.
To promote wider understanding and innovation, the Geospatial Commission also plans to make the NUAR harmonised data model – effectively a ‘UK: Excavation’ profile of the MUDDI standard – publicly available for practitioners to use, adapt and provide feedback on. We have been running a series of webinars on this recently, so watch out for further news on this publication.
All data ingested into the NUAR service is transformed to comply with this standard and this allows all data in the service to be presented and interrogated in a consistent manner across organisations, sectors and geographies.
As well as driving consistency and standardisation, there is an opportunity for this approach
to promote, support and enable data quality improvement at source. The very act of transforming all data into a standard, consistent target provides us with a means of objectively measuring data quality in terms of compliance with that target.
This does not mean that the NUAR data model is the only way to structure data – but it does give us a framework for assessing data quality across all organisations and sectors in the same way, as they have all been through the same process. In other words, for the very first time we will have a single, consistent means of measuring actual data quality.
This not only allows us to refine and improve the data model but allows us to carry out broad assessments of areas across the board where compliance is low, and also allows us to feedback to organisations one-to-one on their data using a standard framework and terminology.
We all know that there is no silver bullet to improving data quality. Real progress depends on multiple complementary strands and approaches progressing side by side.
Another aspect of the NUAR harmonised data model is the ability to record metadata about data quality, accuracy and confidence.
This includes representation of the quality levels defined in the PAS128:2022 standard which can be recorded against assets, segments or points where a survey has taken place. As NUAR represents statutory record data, all data in the service is by default at PAS128 quality level D, but this can be enhanced and enriched by higher quality levels captured at a point in time when a PAS128 reconnaissance, detection or verification survey has been conducted.
We are currently working on extensions to the data model to enhance the representation of PAS128 data alongside the statutory records data and will be looking for input on this from the industry.
We all know that there is no silver bullet to improving data quality. Real progress depends on multiple complementary strands and approaches progressing side by side. There are still challenges to overcome, but if we can harness the opportunities arising from measuring and reporting compliance against an objective standard, and supercharging feedback with high quality data measured and captured by expert practitioners in the field, we can all be part of a real step change in improving data quality.
This is a very busy and exciting time for the programme on many fronts as we approach the conclusion of the current phase later in the year.
Use cases
The NUAR programme is very much focused on the safe excavation use case – the planning and execution of excavations on the buried asset networks to maximise safety and efficiency and to minimise damage and disruption, and of course to avoid harm to those carrying out the work.
We can all think of many more potential uses and audiences for such a comprehensive, combined, standardised dataset, and this was reflected in the responses to the Geospatial Commission’s public consultation in 2022.
Great care needs to be taken before diversifying into other areas of course. As well as matters of technical feasibility and constraints around national security, ownership of, and responsibility for, the data that is supplied for use in NUAR always remains with the asset owners who supply it. Any discussion of further use cases needs to be assessed with this in mind, alongside any commercial sensitivities before any action is taken.
Since our last update, a NUAR discovery project has been initiated alongside the core programme, which is focused on gathering, evaluating, testing, and reporting on potential future use cases, audiences and channels for the NUAR data repository7.
There have been a number of in-person workshops run as part of this project, with hundreds of individuals engaging from hundreds of organisations across many different sectors.
All the information, feedback and evidence from these workshops is now being synthesised and evaluated, and the project will report back later in the year.
Next steps
I hope this piece has given you some useful information about what we have been working on in the NUAR programme with a particular focus on the interests of CICES members. This is a very busy and exciting time for the programme on many fronts as we approach the conclusion of the current phase later in the year.
The Geospatial Commission will be providing a further update on the broader programme later this year so please keep an eye out for that. In the meantime, you can always get in touch via nuar.support@atkinsrealis.com with any questions on the NUAR programme.
Dr Neil Brammall CEng MIGEM FRGS FCInstCES, NUAR Technical Product Owner, Geospatial Commission
www.gov.uk/government/organisations/geospatial-commission
Dr Neil Brammall is a member of the CICES Utilities and Subsurface Mapping Panel
1 Scotland already benefits from a similar system called VAULT which is operated by the Scottish Roadworks Commission. The NUAR programme has worked closely with colleagues in Scottish government to ensure alignment.
2 See https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/books/hsg47.htm
3 See https://www.lrqa.com/en-gb/utilities/tsa-puma-scheme/
5 See https://www.ogc.org/
6 See https://docs.ogc.org/per/17-090r1.html and https://www.ogc.org/requests/ogc-seeks-public-comment-on-muddi-conceptual-model-for-underground-objects/
The GC has recently run a series of webinars on MUDDI and the NUAR Harmonised Data Model which will be made published in due course.