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by Andrew Pennington, South West Water - Asset Data Development Team Manager
Hi, are any of you aware of Network Rail’s ORBIS project and how much “data sharing” is taking place with it in the water or other utility industries? ie, how successful they have been at obtaining regular supplies of GIS data from stakeholders?
Given the lack of progress by NUAG to create a national pool of GIS utility data with all the issues of data security and cost to supply etc...I was wondering if ORBIS will be the tip of the iceberg for each and everyone to go it alone on obtaining 3rd Party GIS data.
Hello, I have done a little digging. I suspect this is as a result of an incident in Bromsgrove in 2011. This wasn't as a result of a water company asset but raises some concerns. https://assets.digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk/media/547c8fe2ed915d4c10000155/120322_R052012_Bromsgrove.pdf The regulator report identifies Water Company assets explicitly. http://orr.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0014/1508/raib-bromsgrove-2013-02-22.pdf "With reference to the second paragraph, NR does not currently have a full inventory of the locations of third party assets belonging to water utilities where they pass under the railway. In order to manage the risks associated with these assets, Network rail intend to identify their locations as part of the position marking to be carried out under recommendation 1. Water utility assets will be identified by December 2013 and the end date for location marking will be Dec 2015" So they are a little behind schedule. Shall I invite someone from NR to present at the next GIUG? Ian
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by Ian Dawes, WRc Plc - Business Analyst
We have also received the request from NR - we approached it as a one off data request, for which we require a Data Licence to be signed. NR then decided they wanted various terms of said licence changed. It is a fairly generic licence. They were wanting to change it's tone into more of a contractual obligation for us to supply data. We are exploring the development of Web Feature Services to meet this sort of requirement. We currently get an ever increasing (echoing Tim's concern) number of requests for this type of data. We provide a Web Mapping Service to allow 'search agents/councils/public to 'view' our (albeit redacted) asset information. I know of a couple of initiatives other tha NUAG that attempted a consolidated service (with various styles of approach) the latest, for London only by Arup, sponsored by TFL, has I believe, like all the others been shelved. We approached an external contractor to undertake a consolidated model for us, the cost was prohibitive in the extreme. One of the main blockers seems to be the evolutionalty path that a lot of the other utilities are on with regard to digital representation (if any) of their assets & we have spent a considerable amount of time/effort to try to consolidate the 'top five' to provide colour digital data in a GIS compatible format - we are still not there yet 18 months down the line! Is there an entrepreneurial opportunity here ? Lawrence
Tim I think you are right on increased servicing costs. Network Rails request is not too onerous to supply in itself, the data footprint is restricted and repeated (its the same linear corridor) An automated GIS process can be put in place to meet their need. But this sets a precedent and it won't be long before others start demanding copies of the GIS and managing multiple streams can become costly and problematic. Andy
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by Andrew Pennington, South West Water - Asset Data Development Team Manager
Hi Andrew, we have received the same and are considering the implications also. In the last few months we have received similar requests from local authorities so it does seem like there is a move away from a coordinated approach. I am a little concerned that we will move to a situation where the effort in servicing these requests and maintaining the data is increased. Tim
Andrew, we have received a request from Network Rail for our asset data. We are currently considering their request to share so will keep you posted. Paddy