Harnessing location intelligence for global resilience and sustainable investments

What do you think is going to be new in 2025?

In 2025, we’re likely to see a growing focus in how location intelligence supports global resilience in the face of climate and biodiversity challenges. As global events such as Cop29 highlight the urgency, and challenge of climate action, governments and businesses will increasingly recognise the need for detailed location data. Such as identifying vulnerabilities, tracking biodiversity and delivering sustainable investments.

As the world seeks to build a resilient infrastructure, location-based insights will be central to guiding effective decision-making, especially in sectors at risk from climate change, such as agriculture and food production. But to do this, there needs to be collaborative leadership from businesses and government, and cross-collaboration with SMEs, policymakers and industry partners, for example with global supply chains, to improve data coverage and consistency.

As global events such as Cop29 highlight the urgency, and challenge of climate action, governments and businesses will increasingly recognise the need for detailed location data

There will also be a real issue if we become solely reliable on artificial intelligence (AI) as the outputs won’t necessarily deliver what we need or expect them to do. This is why there will still be a need for “boots on the ground” and Ordnance Survey (OS) surveyors to validate AI-generated data. This blend of advanced AI with trusted on-the-ground intelligence will ensure that geospatial solutions deliver real-world impact and a trusted view of reality.

Alongside all of this, there will be heightened interest in nature-based investments and biodiversity preservation, with stakeholders asking: how do we measure impact? We will therefore see more commitment from the financial services sector which hopefully will spearhead a lot of transformation. Government and corporate frameworks will need to be developed to ensure that investments in nature-based solutions are anchored to authoritative, location-based insights.

What’s going to stay the same in 2025?

The importance of authoritative, high-quality geospatial data will remain relevant in 2025, as will the need for skilled surveyors and partnerships to deliver reliable mapping and analysis. OS’s relationships with partners and the innovative work of start-ups from hubs like Geovation will continue to drive impact across the proptech and geotech sectors with data-based solutions.

We need more forward-thinking applied as there is so much data out there, it can lead to confusion and leaves users with questions such as how can I use the data and what data is appropriate for my use case? This is why there is a real need for improved standardisation to enable consistency and reliability in data interpretation.

Space data will remain a vital area of focus, providing critical insights for national resilience and decision-making on environmental, economic, and social issues. Efforts to align these space-based insights with authoritative mapping and geospatial data will be essential to maintain a consistent understanding of the world’s landscape and resources. Sensible use of space-based insights, geospatial data and AI could lead to mass efficiency savings across government and business.

What would you like to change in 2025?

In 2025, it will be essential to bridge the gap between earth observation (EO) and geospatial data, aligning satellite and ground-level insights to unlock the full potential of location-based intelligence. This would allow for more effective monitoring of earth’s resources and improve the accuracy and relevance of sustainability efforts. Better integration would also enable governments, investors, and industries to assess environmental risks accurately and support transformative action.

What is equally important is a cultural shift in how we understand maps. Mapping is based on a simple view of a very complex world, but people don’t understand its value and how integral a map can be to their day whether at work or play. The value location data and mapping can bring is critical. It creates connections and visualises how things are linked spatially on the planet, supporting everything from business-as-usual operations to national resilience, ensuring the right interventions can be put in place.

2025 could see an increased focus on biodiversity, with new frameworks to measure its value as a tangible asset reinforcing it as a critical element of sustainable investment

Energy transition is another key area for development for climate action with the growing understanding of renewables and electric cars displacing fossil fuels, and decreasing deforestation emissions in the past decades confirmed for the first time. The importance of geospatial data in planning, monitoring, and optimising renewable energy sources will need to be more widely recognised and embedded in strategic planning moving forward.

Lastly, 2025 could see an increased focus on biodiversity, with new frameworks to measure its value as a tangible asset reinforcing it as a critical element of sustainable investment. We just need to make sure that information about nature, the planet, our societies and our systems are linked to enable appropriate decisions – we can no longer operate in silos.

Donna Lyndsay is strategic market lead for environment and sustainability at OS. She supports OS’s mission to be a world leader in geospatial services, delivering location insight for positive impact with colleagues, partners and customers. Lyndsay is also vice chair of the Space4Climate group which aims to put the UK at the forefront of global efforts to create and use trusted satellite data for climate action.