Inspire

For Businesses interested in partnering, sharing and developing new synergies that maximise societal impact. For Anybody that is on a journey of discovery. Navigate through these inspired industry applications!

Archaeology

Smallhythe Place, National Trust

Introduction

Run since 2021, with a previous Time Team dig in 1998, the investigations near Smallhythe, Kent, (former home of Victorian actress Ellen Terry), cover several fields near the river Rother.

Once a tidal stream area, navigable from and to the English Channel there is evidence of Roman activity and has incredible significance for 1200’s-1600’s royal shipbuilding:

  • Strategically: hidden behind an isle and further from the coast it was less susceptible to French raids during the Hundred Years War.

  • Technologically: a named ship was built here of two-masts, one of the advancements that revolutionised navigation.

  • Historically: the evidence for the transition between two distinct construction techniques may be the only one of its kind in the UK and contribute significantly to our understanding of shipbuilding and its social and political impact.

Application

The project has used remote sensing technologies such as geophysics, LiDAR and GPS alongside traditional archaeological methods.

Geophysical surveys were undertaken including Ground Penetrating Radar and Electrical Resistivity that showed sub-surface features confirming previous evidence of brick kilns (suggested use for medieval ship galley ovens) and helped targeted placement of the trenches.

This season suggests this as a place of ship building, repairing and breaking. It confirmed it as an industrial site through material findings and the application of remote sensed technologies.

GNSS tagged the auger holes and southern trenches, both of which indicated a change in geomorphology. Combined with the LiDAR 3D model allowed a refined interpretation and delineation of the medieval shoreline.

Value

From a project perspective, the use of remote sensing technologies was crucial to uncover key evidence that supports the hypothesis both carvel and clinker vessels were constructed here.

Currently, no other site provides documentary evidence for the building of both types. Therefore, this site could be the key to understand the transition between the two technologies. From an industry perspective, this is a great example of how remote sensing supports nuanced interpretations of our past.

The 2023 season was funded by the National Trust, the Royal Archaeological Institute and the William and Edith Oldham charitable trust.

Sources Consulted: 2022, Elliot Wragg, Excavation Report; 2023, National Trust, Archaeology at Smallhythe Place; 2016, Gustav Milne, Archaeological Evaluation of the Medieval Shipyard Facilities at Small Hythe

Infrastructure

The Lower Thames Crossing, National Highways

Introduction

The Lower Thames Crossing aims to link North and South banks of the Thames River with a tunnel, the largest in Europe. The first crossing since 1991 and potentially the most important infrastructure since the M25, it is one of the top 40 projects of the National Infrastructure Plan. It aims to transform connectivity across the South-East by relieving Dartford Crossing congestion.

At an estimated £9bn, collaboration, robust data for decisions and the transparent sharing of information was key to efficiently deliver. It has involved a huge amount of surveys, assessments, modelling, analysis, planning and design across a wide variety of stakeholders for the required Development Consent Order (DCO).

Application

Advanced technologies were built in from the start and enabled the sharing of information across the numerous stakeholders. Forefront were GIS (Geographic Information Systems) and BIM (Building Information Management) technologies, integrated in a central platform to enable cross-team collaborations and aid design. GIS and BIM seamlessly integrated with other technologies, including CRM for stakeholder management during the consultation.

Multiple remote sensing technologies, from satellite (Colour Infrared, InSAR and Multispectral), to geophysics (Passive Seismic, River, Borehole), to field data capture (GIS on mobile devices) and geomatics (GPS remote surveys; terrestrial laser scanners) were leveraged using advanced technologies such as automated and deep learning models.

The satellite, geophysics and mobile data capture allowed a better informed approach for assessing ground, environment and archaeology conditions. Importantly, it was down to the full encompassing scaled solution (from space, to sky, to ground) that the programme achieved a 360 degrees view of risks and impacts on design.

An example of the added value of using this methodology to avoid costly delays is the terrestrial laser scanning and acoustic borehole camera to map the chalk below and above ground. This comprehensive mapping accurately located potential obstructions (e.g. flints) that pose a risk to tunnel construction.

A second example were the GPS remote surveys using a robot to sample the water quality. This allowed high resolution, widespread coverage of geochemical sampling, more than traditional methods, and allowed a better understanding for environmental design and mitigation.

Value

For the industry, this project is a unique example that demonstrates the value of combining advanced and remote sensing technologies across space, sky and ground. More importantly, it was not only key to increase speed and accuracy of data capture, but also fundamental to enable cross-collaboration, thus delivering the programme effectively.

The project is managed by National Highways an executive non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Department for Transport.

Energy

Solar Power Strategy

Introduction

Climate Change is as we know a hot topic and one of the key challenges of recent years has been: how do industry lower their carbon footprint?

A company recently sought to understand how, across their asset portfolio, they could implement solar technology as part of their Net Zero ambitions. The full assessment of their achievable solar rooftop potential leveraged LiDAR.

Application

The first challenge of LiDAR was related to the varying degrees of coverage, quality and accessibility across multiple countries, that increased analysis times. Automation was therefore key to mitigate for efficiency loss.

LiDAR and GIS were then combined to create a solar potential model across the target assets. The main advantage of LiDAR was related to accuracy and standardisation. The main advantage of GIS was related to automatically extracting rooftop data and ingesting and running model parameters. These enabled the team to emancipate from manual drawing and greatly improve resolution at a single building level.

This approach provided a clear plan going forward for the company’s sustainability strategy. The data pipelines fed into financial modelling shared in a visual dashboard and the 100% digital approach supports direct integration with BIM and Asset Management/Solar databases for increased efficiency in design, construction and maintenance phases. Added advantages included replicability to accelerate future projects and quality to foster confidence in the results.

Value

We know that solar can be tricky: there are limitations such as infrastructure, space and roof angles; potential barriers such as cost and availability - so finding quicker and alternative ways to undertake these assessments can speed up adoption to achieve Net Zero.

Interestingly, two further projects could support this objectives by leveraging remote sensing.

  1. Google’s Project Sunroof (https://sunroof.withgoogle.com) provides speedy estimations of solar potential to public and private customers. Google’s model means no data download for use, so it would be interesting to see if industry partnerships could accelerate the change.

  2. Even more exciting, is space-based solar power (SBSP). An initiative of the Space Energy Initiative, (https://spaceenergyinitiative.org.uk) the idea behind this is to harvest free solar energy in space, beam it to Earth as microwaves and convert to electricity for use. The aim is to be operational by 2040’s, deliver power and replace a substantial proportion of UK fossil fuel. Both NASA and ESA have followed suit with their OTPS and SOLARIS programmes respectively, promising an exciting future.

In summary, remote sensing technologies to achieve NetZero? Yes, please! Beyond helping a shift in the energy sector and a cleaner environment it could mean easier and cheaper access to energy for a more just society.

Photo Credits: Archaeology, Jacqueline Martinez / Infrastructure, Chris Biggs / Energy, Jay Heike. Courtesy of Unsplash