How Arup Mapped Economic Activity in the City of London
Discover how Arup uses The Data City to build a detailed understanding of economic activity across the City of London, helping deliver place-based analysis with business-level intelligence and custom geographic insights.
Overview
Arup is a global built environment consultancy working across engineering, infrastructure, cities and economic development. For a commission with the City of London Corporation, Arup’s Economics and Casemaking team needed to build a detailed understanding of business activity and sectoral strengths within the City of London. The client required insight at a much finer spatial level than traditional datasets could provide.
To support this work, the team used The Data City to access business-level intelligence and develop a more detailed picture of economic activity than traditional datasets could provide.
- Economic Consultancy
- Business intelligence
- Economic analysis
- Spatial analysis
- Business-level insights
- Custom geography analysis
- Better client evidence
The Challenge
The City of London operates within a small but highly complex geography. Arup needed to understand economic activity at a much finer spatial level than traditional datasets could offer.
Existing sources introduced challenges around accuracy and noise, particularly because many organisations hold a City of London postcode despite economic activity taking place elsewhere. The team needed a dataset that could provide greater granularity while allowing analysis across custom geographies rather than standard administrative boundaries.
“ The level of flexibility and granularity was priceless for this project. We probably wouldn’t have been able to deliver it to the same standard without it.
The Solution
Arup selected The Data City because of its ability to provide detailed business-level data and flexible analytical tools.
Using the Explore and Analyse functionality, the team was able to investigate sectoral trends, identify concentrations of activity and generate early insights for the client. The ability to create custom boundaries was particularly valuable, allowing comparisons between locations that did not align with local authority or statistical boundaries.
The team also combined insights from the Industry Engine platform with their own analytical methods by exporting data for further spatial and economic analysis.
“ The support was really great. The team were always available to walk us through any questions or queries we had.
The Results
The Data City enabled Arup to develop a more detailed understanding of economic activity across the City of London and deliver evidence that would have been difficult to produce using traditional sources alone.
The combination of business-level granularity, custom geography analysis and flexible data exports allowed the team to build a robust evidence base tailored to the client’s needs. The platform also helped Arup quickly generate and share insights throughout the project, supporting decision-making from the early stages of the commission.
The success of the project demonstrated how detailed business intelligence can help consultants better understand complex urban economies and provide clients with more accurate, place-based insights.
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