Not what next, but where next? The trajectory of geospatial analytics

Applications of geospatial analytics can be extremely beneficial in helping businesses make well-informed decisions, but it is still underutilised in some industries and not leveraged in the right ways.

In this article, our geospatial analytics community at Capgemini Invent explore the opportunities we see to unlock insights from geospatial data across sectors, discuss the current barriers to implementation, and outline what we’re doing to lead the charge and support organisations in this space.

Key Sector Opportunities

Geospatial analytics is about understanding the relationships between people, places, and events occurring continuously, and there are few sectors that would fail to benefit from a greater understanding of these interactions. We’ve highlighted opportunities across key sectors below.

Infrastructure

In the era of climate change and the rise of extreme weather events, ensuring our infrastructure is resilient and future-proof is becoming both a priority and challenge. There are opportunities to utilise geospatial technologies such as thermal imaging, vehicle sensors, LiDAR data and drones to optimise the construction of new infrastructure, monitor and detect asset defects ahead of major failures, and facilitate remote inspections to make working conditions safer for humans.

Retail

In a competitive retail environment, it is crucial for businesses to understand the spatial distribution of customers, competitors, and market trends to make data-driven decisions regarding store locations, market segmentation, and targeted marketing campaigns. Furthermore, with the recent announcement from Google that third-party cookies will be removed from Chrome in 2024, there will be a knowledge gap in browser demographics that can only be truly addressed with geo-data to understand customer mission and intent.

Transport and Logistics

Geospatial analytics has traditionally been used for efficient route planning, fleet management, and supply chain optimisation within the logistics sector. However, there are opportunities to integrate geospatial data with real-time information to enable faster responses to respond to unforeseen events and more timely-decision-making. More broadly within the transport sector, the pressing need to decarbonise will rely on geospatial analytics to plan the strategic and operational transition to lower-carbon modes.

Sustainability

From monitoring and managing natural resources to analysing climate change impacts, and from supporting sustainable urban planning to identifying suitable locations for renewable energy installations, the opportunities to apply geospatial analytics to support sustainability initiatives are incredibly widespread.

Deployment challenges in geospatial analytics

Whilst the opportunities are vast, there are challenges preventing geospatial uptake within businesses. We’ve summarised the biggest challenges below.

Data integration & interoperability

Realising the full potential of geospatial analytics requires the integration of open and commercial third-party datasets combined with internal business data. Diverse data formats, standards, and inconsistent models make seamless integration challenging. Establishing interoperability between different systems and datasets is crucial for effective analytics.

Scalability

Organisations traditionally utilise desktop tools for their geospatial workflows. With the increased demands driven by increased data availability and web applications, geospatial operations need to be efficient in terms of computational power, storage, and processing capabilities. Only then can these transformations add value in an automated workflow.

Technical expertise

Building and maintaining a team with the required expertise can be a challenge, particularly for smaller organisations or those new to geospatial analytics. Acquiring the necessary hardware, software, and infrastructure resources can also be costly. It is necessary to be selective with the application of geospatial in order to drive the greatest value for your business.

Data privacy and confidentiality

Whilst the ability to derive spatial insights at a granular level can be incredibly powerful, the wider industry needs to be cognisant of GDPR laws and prioritise the privacy rights of individuals or research subjects.

Driving change at Capgemini Invent UK

As Capgemini Invent UK, we combine our deep sector knowledge with best-in-class development, platforms, and data science expertise to unlock geospatial for organisations. Our approach seeks to unlock geospatial operations to drive value from open data and keep pace with the consumer-driven and regulatory changes impacting everything from supply chains to point of sale.

A selection of products developed by our geospatial analytics community are described below.

Infrastructure: Dig Route Navigator

The Dig Route Navigator is an asset built to address the challenge of capital project planning for utilities; enabling individuals to collaboratively explore potential dig routes for cable or pipe. In under a second, the tool reports on the land ownership, proportion of hard dig, topological factors, and proximity to important sites along a dig route. Uniquely, this solution utilises new database technologies which enable joint working between utility companies and contractors to iterate and audit potential routes and puts data and insight directly into the hands of decision makers.

Retail: The Physical Retail Markets Database (PRMDB)

The Physical Retail Markets Database is one of our assets built from open data with the aim of clustering amenities into retail centres. The database enables us to identify the scope and characteristics of retail centres to support contextual and interest-based advertising. We’ve been able to uncover the international differences in how the world shops – for example, how the bulging retail centres of the UK have created an entirely different landscape to France’s independent-led scene, and it is understanding these international differences that will enable business to successfully operate in the global market.

Transport and Logistics: EV Route Optimisation Tool

Following the UK government announcement to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2035, it is critical that businesses start planning for a shift to lower carbon fuels. We have developed an EV Route Optimisation Tool to support the strategic transition of fleets to electric, considering a multitude of factors such as the charging requirements, infrastructure availability and current/future delivery targets of the fleet.

Now and beyond. The future of geospatial analytics

At Capgemini Invent we lead the charge on unlocking advancements in geospatial technology to deliver increased value for our clients and partners. This includes supporting geospatial integration with technologies such as artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning and Internet of Things (IoT), streamlining data collection and processing while broadening data sources for richer insights. Contact us to unlock your geospatial capabilities today!