TellusHowtoHack Event by The British Geological Survey

TellusHow2Hack Event

Host: The British Geological Survey
When: Monday, 18 September 2017 at 09:00 – Tuesday, 19 September 2017 at 17:00 (BST)
Location: Campus Penryn, United King

The Tellus South West project was a collaborative, environmental survey and research project funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and carried out by a partnership of the British Geological Survey (BGS), the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH), the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and the University of Exeter, Camborne School of Mines (CSM).

The project has gathered a large amount of scientific data that may benefit the economy, businesses and the environment in southwest England (http://www.tellusgb.ac.uk/).

What data have we collected?

  • a high resolution airborne geophysical survey (carried out by BGS)
  • an airborne LiDAR survey (carried out by BAS)
  • geochemical sampling of soils and stream sediments (carried out by the BGS G-BASE project)
  • a soil and habitat survey (carried out by CEH)
  • a stakeholder liaison programme to connect with local government, businesses and research centres (carried out by the University of Exeter Camborne School of Mines)

We hope that this Hack will identify many new opportunities, for example for sustainable use of natural resources, mapping heritage and environmental assets, and assist with improving the quality of water and soil. It could also help us make the right decisions about our environment for the benefit of future generations.

In order to maximise the impact of data collected, we are holding a “hackathon” (TellusHow2Hack), in collaboration with the BGS, to support start-ups and SMEs develop potential commercial applications in which this data can be further applied. It will be a 2 day event where groups come together to prototype business ideas using the TellusSW data with help from the BGS data experts. Participants typically form groups of about 2-5 individuals but you can opt to come on your own and join a group, who then work with data analysts and experts from BGS in order to try out there new idea.  What can you use the data for? Well here are some ideas the Tellus SW data could be used for:

  • Integration of Tellus data with other datasets to speed up planning applications
  • Linking geographic information system (GIS) layers with world heritage sites, Cornwall Wildlife Trust (CWT) data layers to develop apps for leisure/ tourist use such as walking or cycling routes.
  • Improve conservation of archaeological sites
  • Improve infrastructure and asset management through a better understanding of where the ground may be more corrosive or subsidence more likely
  • Better flood management using green infrastructure more effectively
  • Assessment of resources and opportunities for mineral development in the South West of England
  • To investigate  low carbon energy opportunities such as deep geothermal energy
  • Derived datasets that can be used to support government policy decisions in economic and sustainable development, social infrastructure, environment and human health
  • Understand where villages and transport routes are confined to deep valleys that are prone to flooding in order to improve the resilience of local communities
  • Understand where bridges critical to local community resilience may be at risk from natural hazards

Food and drink will be provided throughout the two days, funded by the Environmental Growth for Business (EG4B) project which has received funding from the England European Regional Development Fund as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020. For more information visit https://www.gov.uk/european-growth-funding

Do you have questions about TellusHow2Hack? Contact The British Geological Survey