Unlocking the power of location: The UK’s geospatial strategy
“Location data is already pervasive and its benefits will continue to increase throughout the economy and across all regions supporting economic recovery, attracting investment, creating jobs and boosting UK exports in an environmentally sustainable way. Initial research carried out in 2018 suggested that location data has a potential economic benefit to the UK of up to £11 billion per year.” Source
Page 13 onwards of the policy paper Unlocking the power of location: The UK’s geospatial strategy shows nine location data opportunities.
Infrastructure: Building data for the future. Case study showing creation of an underground map of pipes and cables that will save lives and prevent disruption.
Transport: Putting ourselves in the fast lane. Case study of the development of self driving cars and the locational data needed (road markings, street furniture etc, as well as real-time updating of maps after accidents and traffic jams).
Housing and local planning: Laying solid foundations for growth. Case study of how satellite data can be used to evaluate planning potential and monitor building progress.
The environment: Protecting the world around us. Case study showing how the production of high-resolution data about greenhouse gas emissions could be used to generate estimates of the carbon footprints of specific buildings or facilities.
Public health: Tracking and preventing disease. Cast study showing how locational data was used to track the spread of covid-19, monitor social distancing and movement and also the location of medical resources.
Emergency response: Harnessing data to save lives. Case study of how mobile phone location data can help 999 services pinpoint people to incredible accuracy, including firefighters within a smoke filled building.
Ocean economy: Discovering uncharted seas. Case study showing how locational data can be used to identify and protect mangrove forests.
Retail: Locating customer demand. Case study showing how locational data can be linked to ONS data to spatially identify highstreets.
Finance: Mapping risk to protect and grow markets. Case study highlighting the use of data by the insurance industry to identify risk.
Teachers can use the case studies in this report as short snippets of information about the use of GIS in the 'real world'. Talking about flood risk in the UK? Why not highlight to students that GIS analysts use geospatial data to assess levels of risk across areas which in turn can lead to insurance companies deciding how high premiums will be in different areas. Get students thinking about how the use of this data and the analysis of it may have an impact on their own lives - do any of the students live near a river? Can they find out if their house insurance premiums are higher because of that?