Measuring the Economic, Social and Environmental Value of Public Sector Location Data
Summary
Location data is fundamentally embedded into our daily lives yet its true value is not well understood. It delivers significant benefits for people, organisations and wider society through the location-hungry services and products that underpin our digital society such as live traffic updates on our phones, tracking construction of new infrastructure, and providing key information for emergency resilience planning.
Location data is used by a diverse range of sectors across the UK economy including the public sector. It is increasingly central to policy development and delivery of key government priorities, such as Net Zero and Levelling Up, following its crucial role in supporting management of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite its clear importance as a strategic national asset, public sector projects to invest in the creation, improvement and sharing of location data have struggled to understand, assess and articulate the benefits of the investment – which is a necessity to unlock funding.
The guidance comprises a practical and proportional seven-step framework providing public sector organisations with the tools necessary to consistently and coherently understand and assess the value of location data such as best practice approaches and tangible case studies. Built on a foundation of existing research information and experiences, the framework aims to empower public sector organisations to more effectively drive the investment case for location data.