Improving access to geotechnical data
Ground investigations (GI) are routinely carried out prior to the construction of new buildings and infrastructure projects to assess ground conditions and identify ground hazards. It is estimated that GI data is worth £1.2 billion per year to the UK economy.
BGS received funding from the Government Office for Technology Transfer to explore ways in which the GI data held by BGS could be delivered more usefully to users and unlock its value, for example improving data accessibility and useability.
Would you like trial access to our pilot ground investigation data tools?
Based on the market research led by Difference Engine, we have developed a series of pilot GI data tools and services for user testing. These include:
- enhanced cookie-cutter functionality within our AGS map viewer, to allow for streamlined AGS data downloads
- curated geotechnical data with geological stratigraphy (in AGS data format)
- curated geotechnical data with geological stratigraphy (in Excel format)
- geo-hex grids of summary SPT data at discrete depth intervals – coming soon, see preview map below
- summary statistics and graphical visualisation of a suite of geotechnical parameters for a range of geological units, to aid benchmarking of site-specific datasets
The pilot GI data tools are currently on trial release for the Glasgow City region only. National-scale release of the GI data tools and services is dependent on the outcomes of the pilot phase.
The data is being made available under a non-commercial government licence for a 3-month trial period (trial ends on 30 November 2025).
Your feedback matters
To take part in a focus group and provide direct feedback on the new GI data-tools please email common ground (commonground@bgs.ac.uk), alternatively please provide your feedback via our online survey.
Data used in the pilot GI data tools is derived from the BGS National Geotechnical Properties Database. The following acknowledgement should accompany any output derived from the BGS materials: ‘Based upon materials/data provided by the British Geological Survey © UKRI. All rights reserved’. Please refer to the licence for full terms and conditions.
Glasgow SPT Geo-hex Grids
The Geo-hex Grid Dataset provides statistical summaries (mean, mode, median, standard deviation, and range) for SPT N-values within a hexagonal area at discrete depth intervals (0-2.5m, 2.5-5m, 5-10m, 10-20m, and 20+m). Information about the depth to the top and base of the geological unit, within the hexagonal area, is also shown. The dataset uses three layers of Uber’s Hexagonal Hierarchical Spatial Index, making the dataset scalable with the edge lengths of the polygons ranging from approximately 1.4 km to 200 metres. The dataset shown here is the intermediate scale dataset with a 530-metre edge length (R8).