Geospatial Data for Telecom Projects in Civil Engineering

Telecommunications projects in civil engineering

Telecommunications and utility infrastructure bring vital services to communities. Whether providing a broadband internet connection, 5G network access, electricity, or a similar service, this infrastructure is critical to community wellbeing and must be strategically planned and maintained.

Sometimes located underground and other times above ground, telecommunications and utility infrastructure is usually managed by a mixture of public and private sector organizations. These organizations also often engage with civil engineering firms to plan, improve, and maintain infrastructure to best suit community needs. 

At Ecopia AI, we collaborate closely with civil engineers specializing in these types of projects by providing accurate geospatial data for telecom and utility work. Our data is commonly sought after by civil engineering firms working with municipalities, telecommunications companies, and utility providers for a wide variety of projects, including network planning/expansion, permitting, and more. 

Broadband expansion

While it may seem like the internet is everywhere, there are still some areas of the United States and elsewhere around the world that lack a broadband internet connection. Governments and nonprofit organizations alike actively work on reducing these broadband inequities, identifying underserved populations, and expanding network infrastructure to increase internet access. Civil engineering firms are often contracted to advise on and oversee these types of projects.

Every project is different, but broadband network expansion usually involves civil engineers analyzing which areas lack internet connectivity and what infrastructure already exists to facilitate expansion. This entails identifying broadband serviceable locations (BSLs), their proximity to broadband infrastructure, and their potential for being connected to internet access. In some cases, civil engineers advise on how to expand access to buildings that are not currently BSLs, or lack nearby broadband infrastructure. Civil engineering firm involvement in these types of projects can range from initial analysis and research to the network expansion work itself and everything in between.

5G network planning

Similarly, civil engineers are often hired by local authorities or telecom providers to consult on the rollout of high-speed 5G networks. This involves understanding existing infrastructure and its impact on a community’s suitability for 5G, as well as its effect on network performance. It’s also important to factor in the 5G needs of a community, as that will determine what type of infrastructure is needed to support the network.

For 5G network planning projects, civil engineers typically look at current mobile data usage to determine how much network capacity is needed for the given area. This includes residential, commercial, and recreational network usage, and many civil engineers will also look at socioeconomic projection data to ensure the new 5G network will support the community in years to come. Additionally, civil engineers will analyze how the natural and built environments may both facilitate and hinder network connectivity. For example, areas with very tall buildings, trees, or bridges may result in an “urban canyon” effect where signals drop due to structural interference. Civil engineers are integral throughout the 5G network expansion process, providing valuable consulting and project management services to ensure project goals are met.

Project permitting

Once any analysis has been completed, most telecom and utility projects require a permit from a local authority in order to begin work. The permitting process can be extensive, involving a highly detailed report of what the project will achieve and how infrastructure will be impacted while the work is being completed. Civil engineers are usually part of the project permitting process, which many times takes valuable billable hours away from strategic consulting on the rest of the initiative.

To apply for a permit, civil engineers often must provide a thorough breakdown of a project area and how it will be affected. This can involve detailed maps and other graphics outlining the proposed work, as well as any metrics gathered about the need for the project and its foreseen benefits. If the telecommunications or utility work is being conducted above ground, these reports typically show how land cover or structures will be impacted; if performed underground, civil engineers must also note how existing infrastructure will be both disturbed and repaired upon project completion. For instance, if a project requires a road segment to be excavated for underground utility work, civil engineers must include information in their permit application about how they will repaint any markings afterward.

Geospatial data for telecom projects in civil engineering

Data and analytics play a pivotal role in all three of these telecommunications and utility applications. When civil engineers collaborate with their clients on these types of projects, they need a thorough, precise, and current understanding of both the natural and human-made environments, and how they may impact project goals. This knowledge is crucial for analyzing infrastructure conditions, providing recommendations for enhancements, and overseeing project management effectively.

Geospatial data, specifically, is critical in this process. By utilizing high-precision maps that accurately depict real-world conditions, civil engineers can conduct advanced analytics that guide telecom and utility infrastructure strategies for their client projects. This eliminates the need for resource-intensive surveying and manual digitization. While various types of geospatial data can aid in telecommunications or utility projects, the four most commonly used are building footprints, 3D buildings, road markings, and land cover.

Building footprints

One of the most often used geospatial datasets for telecommunications projects in civil engineering is building footprint data. Building footprints are key for identifying BSLs, especially when combined with a rooftop-level geocode. This is because the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) does not consider structures such as dog houses, sheds, or barns as individual BSLs, even though they may be located on a larger property that can be serviced with broadband. In that case, the entire property is classified as a BSL with multiple serviceable structures. 

While the FCC does maintain a nationwide fabric of BSLs for the US, many civil engineers choose to work with third-party data to ensure they are working with the most up-to-date dataset available. To give you an idea of how quickly building footprint maps can become out-of-date due to rapid land use change, Dewberry recently found that only 5% of buildings in the entire state of Alaska were represented in the BSL fabric. Thanks to Ecopia data, Alaska was able to map every building and identify BSLs, information used to apply for and receive around $1B in federal funding to expand broadband access to underserved areas.

3D buildings

Many telecommunications use cases also require height attribution for building data. 3D buildings provide an added level of detail for network planning as they enable civil engineers to model how signal strength will be impacted by structure height. Although 3D buildings are the most commonly used type of height-attributed geospatial data for telecom projects, civil engineers sometimes also use 3D bridges and trees to augment their signal performance analytics. 

In addition to modeling signal strength across different environments, 3D building data can be used to identify the optimal site for network infrastructure. For example, buildings of a certain height located throughout the project area may be ideal places for antennas or signal amplifiers, helping to increase network performance based on a community’s specific needs. 

Road markings

Typically used for permitting, road marking or paint striping data is a geographic representation of symbols painted on roads. This includes double yellow lines, dotted lines, shoulders, turn lanes, and other visual infrastructure symbols, and can be highly detailed.

Paint striping data is most often used to expedite permitting workflows for civil engineers working on underground utility projects. For many years, civil engineers needed to manually digitize existing road markings on a map so as to adequately report how underground work would disrupt the local community and note what would need to be repainted after the project was finished. The highly detailed nature of road marking data and the time required to accurately digitize has traditionally resulted in drawn-out permitting processes, eating into billable hours and project time without achieving strategic objectives. However, recent advancements in automated mapping have greatly accelerated the paint striping mapping process to alleviate this challenge.

Land cover

As land use continues to change dynamically across the world, civil engineers are increasingly turning to land cover data to add more context to their telecommunications and utility project analyses. From impervious surfaces to water bodies and other natural features, land cover data is an important layer for civil engineers to analyze as they strategically advise their clients on network planning and utility infrastructure projects. 

For instance, understanding the land cover surrounding telecom infrastructure can indicate its risk of being impacted by a flood or other weather event. A similar workflow can be used to identify the optimal location to place new utility infrastructure, especially if natural hazards could threaten its performance. As mentioned above, tree and bridge height can also be used to model 5G network strength, as can other 3D land cover features.

Scaling civil engineering telecom projects with AI

Geospatial data is indispensable for civil engineers working with public and private sector organizations on telecom and utilities projects. However, traditional methods of data creation have demanded civil engineers to allocate billable project hours to manual digitization tasks instead of focusing on strategic analysis and consultation - the expertise for which they were initially hired. To illustrate, Ecopia generated a full 3D land cover dataset of the entire City of Perth, Western Australia for Woolpert in just 12 days; traditional data creation methods would have taken an estimated 50 weeks, severely delaying the entire project.

Fortunately, advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) now enable civil engineers to swiftly map any necessary features in a project area within a few weeks while still achieving the precision of a trained GIS professional. This accelerated process allows civil engineers to expand client projects by accessing fresh, precise data without the need for manual digitization, empowering them to expedite project goals and dedicate billable hours to critical analysis and strategic guidance. 

Ecopia AI collaborates extensively with civil engineers to streamline data creation while maintaining quality standards. Our AI-driven mapping systems, developed by geomatics experts, swiftly extract vector data from geospatial imagery with human-level precision. Ecopia's data undergoes thorough human-led quality control to ensure it meets client specifications before being delivered to civil engineers. This efficient process enables civil engineers to acquire the necessary data for strategic consulting projects within weeks, enabling them to handle more projects without investing resources in manual digitization.

To learn more about how Ecopia can scale geospatial data creation for telecommunications and utility projects in civil engineering, get in touch with our team.