The development of an underground asset management tool in BGS

This report describes the work carried out to scope the potential for BGS to develop an Underground Asset Management tool. This work was funded through both a NERC innovation grant and Science budget funding from the Information Products Theme. The objective of asset management is ‘to ensure that assets deliver the required function and level of performance in terms of service, in a sustainable manner, at optimum whole life cost without compromising health, safety, environmental performance or the organisation’s reputation’. It is in this context that this report discusses the data available within BGS that could be provided to external organisations and how to communicate this information to potential clients. STRUCTURE OF REPORT The introduction explains the background to the project and looks into why an asset management tool may be required. The second chapter discusses customer need and likely uptake if such a tool were developed. This leads into the third chapter where current tools already on the market in the UK and their limitations are discussed. In the forth and fifth chapters an outline is given of the availability of data critical to the creation of an asset management system and how this could be developed into a tool. Finally we describe a pilot system developed for the Humber–Trent region. The final chapter attempts to summarise the key findings.