Different equipment selections –.
Ricketts feels the best and most informative starting point is building safety, highlighting MHCLG’s external wall system survey as a good example of data collection and collation..The MHCLG project asked local authorities to research and report back on the materials present in the external walls of all buildings above 18 metres within a particular borough.
Although it sounds like a straightforward task, in reality it presented some unexpectedly complex questions and issues to surmount.What is a building?Is it the postal address?
The single address with three blocks in it?.Next came the question of how best to approach obtaining the information.
Ricketts says local authorities were using a combination of approaches, from trawling through records (building control, planning and housing), to looking at GIS mapping, and even cycling the borough.
In the end, his team used 3D modelling to help them identify the buildings above 18 metres, but many of them turned out to be private buildings, making it necessary to link with Land Registry and Companies House in order to find and contact the owners to obtain the data.This is a powerful picture that allows all stakeholders to understand the problem and come up with creative ideas in a structured way that take into account what others know, while focusing on aspects that matter to achieve a successful solution.
Jointly they can then decide what to do next.Do we need better data or knowledge about a certain aspect?
Do we need to model some aspects in more detail?Does the solution need to be completely different?