Changing relationships: Accessing Subsurface Knowledge (ASK) project UK

The need for cities to make more effective use of the subsurface on which they stand, is increasingly being recognised in the UK and further afield to be essential for future cities to be sustainable and more resilient. However, city planning worldwide remains largely 2D, with very few cities having any substantial subsurface planning – the cities of Helsinki, Montreal, Singapore being rare exceptions. The consequences of inadequate consideration and planning of the subsurface, and limited re‐use of available data, are much more far‐reaching, in economic, environmental and social terms. There are clear spatial correspondences between proximity to vacant and derelict land and areas poorest health and greatest deprivation in UK cities; and, poor understanding of ground conditions is widely recognised as the largest single cause of construction project delay and overspends across Europe

Potential impact of climate change on improved and unimproved water supplies in Africa

With significant climate change predicted in Africa over the next century, this chapter explores a key question: how will rural water supplies in Africa be affected? Approximately 550 million people in Africa live in rural communities and are reliant on water resources within walking distance of their community for drinking water. Less than half have access to improved sources (generally large diameter wells, springs, or boreholes equipped with handpumps); the majority rely on unimproved sources, such as open water and shallow wells. Major climate modelling uncertainties, combined with rapid socio-economic change, make predicting the future state of African water resources difficult; an appropriate response to climate change is to assume much greater uncertainty in climate and intensification of past climate variability. Based on this assumption the following should be considered: 1. Those relying on unimproved water sources (300 million in rural Africa) are likely to be most affected by climate change because unimproved sources often use highly vulnerable water resources. 2. Improved rural water supplies in Africa are overwhelmingly dependent on groundwater, due to the unreliability of other sources. 3. Climate change is unlikely to lead to continent-wide failure of improved rural water sources that access deeper groundwater (generally over 20 metres below ground surface) through boreholes or deep wells. This is because groundwater-based domestic supply requires little recharge, and the groundwater resources at depth will generally be of sufficient storage capacity to remain a secure water resource. However, a significant minority of people could be affected if the frequency and length of drought increases – particularly those in areas with limited groundwater storage. 4. In most areas, the key determinants of water security will continue to be driven by access to water rather than absolute water availability. Extending access, and ensuring that targeting and technology decisions are informed by an understanding of groundwater conditions, will become increasingly important. 5. Accelerating groundwater development for irrigation could increase food production, raise farm incomes and reduce overall vulnerability. However, ad hoc development could threaten domestic supplies and, in some areas, lead to groundwater depletion. Although climate change will undoubtedly be important in determining future water security, other drivers (such as population growth and rising food demands) are likely to provide greater pressure on rural water supplies

The need for a standard approach to assessing the functionality of rural community water supplies

The Sustainable Development Goals set a vision for universal access to safely managed household water-supply. However, in rural Africa and south Asia basic access achieved through communal boreholes will remain the main source of improved water supply for decades. Understanding the relative drivers of the functionality these supplies is critical to future service provision. There is currently no sector-wide definition of borehole functionality, and establishing a clear definition, and how to measure it, is a critical first step

Mapping underground assets in the UK: Project Iceberg. Work Package 1, market research into current state of play and global case studies

Project Iceberg is an exploratory project undertaken by Future Cities Catapult, British Geological Survey (BGS) and Ordnance Survey (OS). The project aims to address the serious issue of the lack of information about the ground beneath our cities and the un-coordinated way in which the subsurface space is managed. Difficulties relating to data capture and sharing of information about subsurface features are well understood by some sectors and have been explored in previous research and industry reports, many of which are highlighted in this report. This study does not replicate past work, but rather reviews outcomes and explores the barriers to wider uptake of subsurface management systems within integrated city management. The long-term goal is to help increase the viability of land for development and de-risk future investment through better management of subsurface data. To help achieve this, our study aims to enable a means to discover and access relevant data about the ground’s physical condition and assets housed within it, in a way that is suitable for modern, data driven decision-making processes. The project considers both physical infrastructure i.e. underground utilities and natural ground conditions i.e. geological data and is divided into three different work packages: Work Package 1: Market research and analysis Work Package 2: Data operation systems and interoperability for a subsurface data platform Work Package 3: Identification of use cases for a subsurface data platform This report summarises the findings of work package 1 and identifies the following key findings and recommendations. There is substantial potential for commercialisation of data tools and data services using an integrated surface-subsurface data platform, which would support, for example, urban planning, redevelopment, infrastructure assessments and street works. Realising the full benefit of these opportunities relies on the sharing of data beyond statutory undertakers, albeit with suitable controls in place. Statutory undertakers do not necessarily have the national overview, capability or remit to develop an integrated platform. Stakeholders acknowledge that incomplete subsurface information means that land value is not being protected or worse, is being diminished and that organisations are incurring 6 indirect costs due to project delays and requirements for additional surveys. However, the direct costs of obtaining subsurface data and the indirect costs incurred because of incomplete access to subsurface data is largely unknown. Amendments to existing and introduction of new data standards (PAS 128 and PAS 256) make provision for more consistent and accurate data capture of buried utilities. Sharing of more accurate utility data will be facilitated and links to building information models and smart city standards will be more explicit. However, currently, storage of data and the integrity of data stores is not being addressed consistently at national level. There is a currently a lack of national standard that addresses commercial sensitivities and security risks concerning subsurface data sharing that can potentially guide “the right people getting access to the right and comprehensive set of data, at the right time without fear that parts of it have been redacted or manipulated” Investment in research and innovation to support the development of tools to identify the location of buried infrastructure has been successful and new systems are being brought to the market that will enable more accurate mapping of underground infrastructure. Precedents have been set for the sharing of underground utility data of national importance – exemplar projects, such as the VAULT and Greater Manchester Open Data Infrastructure Map (GMODIN), demonstrate successful collaboration across the utility sector to generate an integrated utility infrastructure map. Meanwhile adoption of AGS data formats by the ground investigation community has led to large-scale sharing of geotechnical data. National scale sharing of buried utility data has only been demonstrated in Scotland, largely driven by nationalised utilities. Upscaling of exemplar projects across the UK needs prioritising. The National Infrastructure Commission, Infrastructure Projects Authority and Digital Built Britain should take leadership of the development of an integrated data framework that combines surface and subsurface data. Future legislation and standards may be required to ensure the accurate and standardised capture and supply of buried infrastructure data. The benefits and business opportunities that may be delivered through an integrated data framework that embeds subsurface data are not sufficiently highlighted to stakeholders. Thus, the incentives and business drivers to collaborate on a subsurface data platform need to be better illustrated. Project Iceberg WP3 goes some way to addressing this but further work is needed

Improving understanding of shallow urban groundwater: the Quaternary groundwater system in Glasgow, UK

Although many European cities use urban aquifers for water supply, groundwater from shallow urban aquifers is not widely exploited. Nevertheless, shallow urban groundwater is a key environmental resource – for example, in maintaining healthy urban river flows and attenuating some pollutants – and it can also be a threat, such as through groundwater flooding. However, shallow urban groundwater is frequently overlooked or ineffectively managed, in large part because it is often poorly understood. This paper demonstrates the need to improve understanding of the shallow groundwater system in a city where shallow groundwater is not widely abstracted and, consequently, relatively little groundwater data exist. Like many UK cities, Glasgow is underlain by complex unconsolidated Quaternary deposits, which form a heterogeneous shallow aquifer system that has been extensively impacted by urban activities, typical of a former industrial city. Balancing the potential benefits and risks of shallow groundwater in Glasgow requires a better understanding of Quaternary hydrogeology in order to support the transition to a more sustainable city. This paper presents an improved conceptual model of Glasgow's shallow groundwater system within a sequence of Quaternary deposits in the Clyde valley, drawing heavily on data collected during major site investigations for land development in the city. Postglacial Quaternary sediments in Glasgow form an elongate, variably thick (up to 30m) and variably permeable aquifer system. Aquifer units with high permeability and high storage capacity are partially separated by lower permeability, but still hydrogeologically active, units. Groundwater in the system is hydraulically connected with the River Clyde. Groundwater flow occurs both longitudinally down-valley and convergent from the edge of the valley aquifer towards the river. There has been extensive anthropogenic alteration to the urban surface and shallow subsurface, which has modified the natural physical and chemical groundwater system. Pollution associated with historical industry has also extensively impacted the quality of Quaternary groundwater

Limitations on the role of the hyporheic zone in chromium natural attenuation in a contaminated urban stream

The urban hyporheic zone may offer natural attenuation potential for contaminants. This potential is contaminant-specific and may be spatially and temporally variable. The aim of this study was the assessment of the natural attenuation potential of the hyporheic zone of an urban stream receiving hexavalent chromium (Cr)-rich effluents from the historical land disposal of chromite ore processing residue (COPR) in Glasgow, Scotland. The evidence based approach involved the use of a network of multilevel piezometers for best capturing potential anoxic field conditions and fine-scale spatial gradients in solute concentrations of surface water and porewater. In-situ porewater sampling was integrated with sediment sampling and reach-scale monitoring of stream water quality. The results show a sharp decrease of total dissolved (filtered <0.45 μm) Cr concentrations at the surface water – sediment boundary in all profiles, from Cr mean values of 1100 μg l−1 in surface water to 5 μg l−1 in porewater. Chromium speciation analysis indicates that no Cr(VI) was detectable in the neutral pH, moderately reducing porewater, while it was the dominant species in surface water. Evidence of historical COPR detrital grains contributed to the total Cr concentrations (size fraction <150 μm) up to 8800 mg kg−1 in the streambed sediment. The abundance in the porewater of Fe (mean value = 1700 μg l−1), mainly as Fe(II), a natural electron donor for Cr(VI) reduction to Cr(III), indicates a high natural attenuation potential of the hyporheic zone for downwelling dissolved Cr, through Cr(VI) reduction to Cr(III) and the formation of Cr(III) solids of low solubility. Authigenic Cr-rich rims on particles also documented active Cr precipitation from solution in the fine sediments. Large short-term changes of stream stage and stream water composition were not reflected in the hyporheic conservative (chloride) and reactive solute composition. This result indicates only limited surface water infiltration and suggests that small advective exchange might limit the effectiveness of the hyporheic zone for enhancing Cr surface water quality at the reach-scale. This is supported by further evidence from preliminary surface water quality synoptic sampling which shows only moderate to low downstream decrease in surface water Cr concentrations. The surface water investigation needs to be supported by combined water quality-flow monitoring and to be extended to a wider range of temporal and spatial scales to corroborate the reach-scale findings

Development of a national geophysical log data archive: legacy data as a national asset

Whenever questions around the UK deep subsurface are posed, geophysical log data form the cornerstone of understanding the issues and providing answers. The UK National Hydrocarbon data archive has been created incrementally and piecemeal over an extended period; originally derived from data collected on a project by project basis, this is now a significant archive from data deposits increasing in both volume and complexity. Critical datasets include: 1. Radioactive waste data: geographically limited but high quality data which form an excellent test data for complex analytical techniques. 2. UK Coal data archives: lower quality and highly diverse. 3. DECC UK onshore oil database: Widespread across the UK and of ever-increasing quality. Future requirements cannot be predicted, UK shale gas was not on the government’s radar a decade ago. Repurposing legacy geophysical log data provides UK PLC the capacity to understand the subsurface, influence decision and policy making, and highlight opportunities that may arise. Continuity of data collections can be damaged in an environment where records can disappear when companies failures. Crucial to preventing this are enforced standards and national data archival policies. These ensure that BGS are positioned to deliver synthesis studies as UK national needs develop