Creating a More Sustainable Future by Embracing Our Past
According to Historic England, there are near 5,000 entries on the Heritage at Risk 2021 Registers in England. These identify a wide range of vulnerable properties that are at risk of being lost due to neglect, decay, inappropriate development, or some other equally worrying factor.
Worryingly, the Heritage at Risk 2021 Registers continues to expand year-on-year!
As well as reflecting our history, these structures are an intrinsic part of our economy. Alone, they are responsible for directly generating c. £14.7bn per year and providing c. 206,000 jobs. Indirectly, it is estimated that this irreplaceable resource supports over c. 500,000 jobs and adds over c. £30bn to the economy of England alone.
Heritage structures represent a vast, and considerable part of our everyday lives, which might not be to the fore of our minds as new projects consume our thoughts about what is important to us. Through the years civilisations have required potable water as a resource, roads, ports, and bridges for transport, and so many of the things that we take for granted as we go about our daily lives.
Think for a moment about where we would be without our historic asset portfolio!
With the overall economy going through unchartered waters and no clear sign of when it will recover funding for repair and maintenance understandably isn’t a primary consideration. We must ask why? It has been shown time, and time again that it is far more expensive to repair or even replace failed structures rather than to engage in a programme of preventative maintenance to protect their condition and their present state.
So, if society cannot afford to lose or replace our heritage a combination of passive observation and proactive preventative maintenance should be implemented.
Here at Murphy Geospatial, we believe that the bringing together of visual inspections, non-destructive testing, discreet monitoring, and other survey services is of immense benefit to all of the various stakeholders who have an interest in managing our historic environment be it a stately home, or any historic home, a viaduct or a rail line we don’t mind! Where spatial data is captured, collated, and verified for presentation in a BIM or digital twin software, a clearer picture is possible, and it is of immense benefit to all when required.
In a disaster scenario where, physical parameters are likely to exceed structural limits then vital trustworthy spatial data may make all the difference in response times as it can be called up in real time.
Our longstanding, and proven experience coupled with our vast technical knowledge permits us to work in and across multiple disciplines, and sectors to support real-world informed assessment and enable others to make informed determinations about our irreplaceable assets.
It is foreseeable that shortly, our society will have to think twice before building new developments, for many reasons.
We need to create a sustainable future, for us all, and here at Murphy Geospatial, we believe that includes using our past and bringing it into the age of robust digitalisation.
Come have a look at how Matthias Gropp and his team have used the above philosophies to bring forward some great work. If you have any questions contact the team at info@murphygs.com or visit our monitoring page.
