Challenge
Crown Estate Scotland found managing these dispersed assets challenging due to limited visibility of their location, distribution, and condition. Their GIS team were therefore tasked with creating a complete, accurate asset map, and a way for field staff to systematically record their findings.
The team used the OS National Geographic Database (NGD) to build a comprehensive, reliable base layer that could then be enriched with internal knowledge and used to support smarter maintenance planning and targeted investment.
"The OS NGD was fundamental in building this data set — it wouldn’t have been feasible otherwise."
Solution
Working with rural estates staff, the GIS team identified the priority asset categories such as buildings, structures, and roads.
Using the OS NGD and OS Select+Build, the team quickly accessed themed datasets (e.g., buildings, structures, transport) in formats that were easy to process and integrate into their GIS.
Result
The project has delivered substantial time and resource savings, allowing Crown Estate Scotland to manage its estates more efficiently, cost effectively, and reliably.
The online secure webmap means managing compliance activities is now more integrated, as well as easier to audit.
Further benefits include:
- Total Cost of Management (TCM) modelling: using the asset data to plan surveys, understand asset distribution, and forecast 25-year repair and maintenance needs.
- Improved field operations: webmaps and Esri Field Maps now allow staff to inspect assets, record works required, and update information in real time.
- Portfolio-wide insight: visualising all assets across each estate enables a strategic shift from managing individual buildings to optimising the entirety of managed land.
The new asset data will become the backbone of rural estate management, supporting Crown Estate Scotland’s mission to invest in land, resources and places for long-term public value.