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Digital transformation should be central to infrastructure plans under UK industrial strategy, says ICE


The UK government must ensure that digital transformation is central to its plans to improve infrastructure, a new report by the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) has said.

In its 'State of the Nation 2017: Digital Transformation' report (28-page / 310KB PDF), ICE said the government's plans to improve energy, transport, water, flood defence and digital infrastructure, outlined in its industrial strategy earlier this year, should have digital transformation "at its heart".

ICE also recommended that money from the UK's National Productivity Investment Fund should be targeted towards digital transformation in construction and infrastructure, and that UK regulations across all infrastructure sectors "incentivise whole life investment decisions based on outcomes for the end user". Major infrastructure projects should also be used as "incubators for skills and innovation", it said.

The report identified the importance of digital technology and data to making the most out of infrastructure assets.

"Bodies of data on built assets are becoming increasingly important, and need to be managed as significant assets in themselves," professor Tim Boyd, president of ICE, said in the report. "Putting the end-user first should prompt us to embrace the full value of new technologies and data estates. The infrastructure and construction industries need to collaborate and coordinate not just with each other, but also with the technology and manufacturing industries if we are to keep pace with these advances, and seize the moment."

In its report, ICE identified a growing and ageing population and increasing demands for connectivity as "putting increased pressure on our infrastructure networks and assets". It said, though, that the UK "cannot build our way out of these new challenges" and must "do more with what we already have".

"We must adopt new integrated digital approaches to managing and operating existing assets and building future infrastructure," ICE said. "We often think of infrastructure as fixed networks and assets, but the reality of this is changing. We must think about not only the physical asset, but also its digital twin – all the associated data and the information that this can reveal."

However, ICE said that the infrastructure sector had "been slow to engage with the uptake of new digital technologies compared with other industries".

Among its plans to encourage digital transformation, ICE urged government and industry to take steps to improve digital skills in the sector.

"Clients, contractors and government should use major infrastructure projects as incubators for skills and innovation," the report said. "To apply this at a smaller scale, groups of projects should be turned into programmes so that innovation and skills can be embedded through the whole asset lifecycle."

ICE also said that organisations overseeing infrastructure projects should ensure that contractors apply and conform to "data interoperability standards" so as to "make data appropriately accessible and usable across all platforms".

The report also advocated mainstreaming "security-mindedness" to ensure "evolving security threats and vulnerabilities" can be addressed, while ICE also called on the National Infrastructure Commission to outline a strategy to ensure energy and digital infrastructure policies are integrated, it said.

Technology contracts expert Simon Colvin of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, who sat on the State of the Nation Steering Board and provided advice on technology and legal issues with the convergence between infrastructure and technology, said that the focus being given to technology by ICE, and the personal focus being given to technology by the president Tim Broyd, was welcomed.

"Technology is a disruptor and unless the UK infrastructure embraces it and embeds it in its DNA, the UK infrastructure sector will lose its foothold, either to other global players or to disruptors in the tech space or with tech at their heart," Colvin said. "There is so much to be gained by recognising the value of the digital twin, and a renewed focus on the value of assets to the user. Seeking to contract the skills gap will be key – digitalisation has its benefits but also its risks, so ensuring a balance in focus is given to both will enable a step change to be implemented by the industry."

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