Getting Fresh With Location Data   

Everyone knows this is true: the landscape doesn't move very much. Or does it? Here in the UK, we're rarely affected by momentous tectonic movements. It's climate change and political momentum that's literally, if slowly, moving the goalposts.  

Climate change is never out of the news these days, nor are the decisions being made in the corridors of power that affect our everyday lives, and our civil and industrial infrastructure. You don't need us to provide a long list of stakeholders – housing developers, consumer-focused organisations, utility firms – we're all living and working on the same list, we're all experiencing the same weather, and we're all aware money is tight but those extreme weather events are having an impact. 

Weather is getting more unpredictable. Floods, storms — these aren’t isolated events anymore, they’re part of the new normal. In short, it's never been more important to have high quality, verified location data at your fingertips, whenever you're making decisions that include an element of 'where?'  Regularly updated datasets are crucial to ensure whatever you're working on will be compliant, safe, resilient, and future-proofed. 

Why Keeping Your Location Data Up to Date is Critical 

This isn't a lesson in 'location data is useful': you're all experts in your own field. But think about the recent flooding and the weather patterns we've seen just this year and then consider the plans or reports you produced in November or even December. Are they still accurate?  

If you're working anywhere in the renewables, energy or infrastructure environment for example, you know that one of the largest stress-points for your industry is disruption to the network. If a fibre exchange cabinet gets flooded, that could mean thousands of homes suffer an outage. The knock-on effects for maintenance schedules and overtime are terrifying. Everyone needs access to the most up to date, accurate information – what’s being built, where new permissions have been granted, and what the flood risks are to those properties and their associated network infrastructure. 

If you're in any way connected to newbuilds, construction, or housing of any kind, then you know efficiency has always been a watchword: knowing who's working where, when, and how, is the key to keeping productivity up and overtime and disruption down. An unexpected flood or an unpredicted area of subsidence can upset even the best laid plans. But it's not just the housing industry that needs fresh data – homeowners are getting in on the act, too. Purchasers, in particular, expect to be better-informed about the risk of flooding and subsidence-risk for properties they're considering, and they want that detail early on during the conveyancing process. Spurred on by government, the planning ecosystem and the legal industry are trying to conduct major reform to speed up those transactions, saving time and money for all concerned. That means more data. Better data, better-connected, and fresher data throughout the property lifecycle. 

And of course, if you're working in any part of the insurance industry, you know the impact of climate change is not new-news. Multiple data sources are the way forward, and the risk profiles aligning with that information about what's happening where, can only improve with granular detail.  

If you're relying on older flood maps in particular, then you might have missed recently-recorded evidence of flooding. Similarly, not factoring in temperature shifts could mean overlooking new heat risks or failing to optimize energy efficiency for designs. To ensure projects stay on track, your team needs location data that reflects current conditions, not what was true a few years - or months - ago.