Location data has clear importance as a strategic national asset, delivering significant value for people, organisations and wider society. Public sector investments have struggled to understand, assess and articulate the economic, social and environmental value of location data - which is a necessity to unlock funding.

Assessing the value of location data is hard because:

Value is often realised only when location data is combined with other datasets
Value varies depending on the intended use
Value can be difficult to foresee

The Geospatial Commission worked with Frontier Economics to develop practical guidance for public sector organisations to more effectively drive the investment case for location data, based on best-practice methods, existing research and experiences of stakeholders, in-line with a commitment made in the UK’s Geospatial Strategy.

Developed following engagement across the geospatial landscape, the guidance sets out a proportionate 7-step framework to support organisations to assess investments in location data in a more structured and logical way. It is accompanied by a set of four case studies that demonstrate how the framework can be practically applied.

Many of the principles set out in this guidance are also relevant for data investments more generally and support commitments to improve the use of digital and data, as set out in the National Data Strategy and the Roadmap to Digital and Data 2022-2025. This structured approach may also be beneficial for private sector investment decisions relating to the geospatial ecosystem.

Published 4 August 2022
Last updated 22 August 2022 + show all updates

22 August 2022
HTML versions of report, case studies and one page summary added
4 August 2022
First published.

Measuring the Economic, Social and Environmental value of public sector location data

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