How can geospatial data help utilities predict risks to their networks?

Utility networks face risks from many directions: flooding, subsidence, extreme weather, vegetation, new development and changes in the built environment can all affect infrastructure. Geospatial data helps utilities understand where those risks overlap with the assets they need to protect.

The principle is straightforward: start with the location of the network, then add data describing the conditions around it.

• Flood mapping can identify assets exposed to current or future flood risk.

• Terrain and LiDAR data reveals elevation, slopes and drainage patterns.

• Information about rivers and watercourses can support hydrological analysis, while land, buildings, vegetation and property data can provide further evidence about what is changing around the network.

The OS National Geographic Database (OS NGD) strengthens this type of analysis by providing detailed, regularly updated information about real-world features. Utilities can combine NGD data with their own asset records and other risk datasets to investigate relationships that wouldn’t be visible from the network map alone.

This allows risk analysis to become more targeted. Instead of treating every asset equally, a utility could identify infrastructure that sits close to a watercourse, assets in areas susceptible to flooding or subsidence, or parts of a network where development is changing the surrounding environment.

The same approach can support predictive modelling. Historical incidents, asset condition and maintenance records can be analysed alongside geographic risk factors to help identify where failures or disruption may be more likely. That evidence can then inform inspection programmes, maintenance priorities, resilience planning and investment.

That said, geospatial data can’t predict every network failure. What it can do is reveal patterns of exposure and vulnerability, and that helps utilities to concentrate their attention where the evidence suggests risk is greatest.

Idox Geospatial can help utilities combine their own network and asset information with OS NGD, flood, terrain and other risk data to build that evidence. The objective is to move from simply mapping infrastructure to understanding the conditions around it – and use that insight to make maintenance and resilience decisions before disruption occurs.

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