In the UK the Ordnance Survey (OS), the national cartographic authority, is involved in a project to increase the visualisation of underground assets via 3D mapping.
VISTA is a project to integrate information on buried assets to reduce street works. It is a collaboration of 21 bodies to facilitate data sharing for all buried assets across the UK of which the OS’s geographic data and satellite navigation technology is a core part.
Researchers are using the OS MasterMap Topography Layer as the reference base to integrate disparate records of buried pipes, cables, ducts and wires. VISTA will combine this information with survey observations using OS Net, OS’s global positioning system correction network and Leica Geosystems’ SmartNet. The information will be referenced to visible assets to give a likely 3D indication of buried utilities for display on a portable device.
OS said that UK-wide, utilities dig four million holes in the streets each year at an estimated cost of US$1.9bn, with indirect costs running at four times that figure. Clearly a huge potential saving could be possible with the system if a proportion of that money can be saved with the more accurate establishment of infrastructure before digging exploratory holes.
