New Landcover of Scotland

Contents

 

• New Image of Scotland Seminar, July 7th 1999
• About Land Cover of Scotland 1988
• LCS88 Questionnaire
• Outcomes of the LCS Workshop held at the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute 9/12/98:
  • Technical Issues
  • Managerial Issues
• Steering Group for the new air photo phase
• Contact

"New Image of Scotland" Seminar at the Scottish Office, Victoria Quay, Edinburgh at 2pm on 7th of July.

The purpose of the seminar is to introduce Scottish Office personnel to the project, outline some of the key technical innovations and their potential benefits, and to present a costed business case for taking the project forward in the year 2000.
The details of the seminar invitation can be viewed here, and we would encourage attendance by all interested parties.

Seminar Background

Over the past year a consortium comprising members of many Scottish Office departments and agencies have been exploring their common use of aerial photography to support a wide range of intelligence gathering and mapping projects via the Land Cover of Scotland Steering Group. This work has led to the view that aerial photography is a key shared resource and would benefit from improved management. Currently aerial photography is often difficult to obtain and is only available as photographic prints. The aim of the “New Image of Scotland” project is to remove these constraints using new digital technology. This will allow us to create an up-to-date high-resolution map-related image of the entire land area of Scotland. This will be easily accessed and available in digital form.

At the last Steering Group Meeting it was decided that in order to progress with the New Image of Scotland project (and thereby a new Land Cover of Scotland), support from within the Scottish Office was needed. The point had been reached where the technical specifications and potential business structures for an ortho-rectified image-base for the entire country had been determined. It was felt that without overt support for the project from within the Scottish Office the project cold not move forward. A briefing paper detailing a review of the technical options, the increased emphasis on the value of the aerial photography, the division of the path to a land cover map into 5 phases, the approximate costs and potential funding models was passed into the Scottish Office in April this year. This was positively received and enabled progression to a formal presentation of proposals through a seminar.

Further Information

• Seminar please contact Joyce Hunnam (Scottish Office) tel. 0131 244 1441,
  e-mail joyce.hunnam@scotland.gov.uk
• New Image of Scotland contact Dick Birnie (Macaulay Land Use Research Institute) tel. 01224 318611,
  e-mail r.birnie@macaulay.ac.uk
• Air Photography contact Diana Murray (RCAHMS) tel. 0131 662 1456,
  e-mail dianam@rcahms.gov.uk

Land Cover of Scotland 1988

LCS88 was the first national census of Scotland and provided baseline information on rural land cover at a scale of 1:25,000. The cover features were interpreted from aerial photographs and mapped onto the OS 1:25,000 pathfinder map series. The classification system was developed specifically to provide information on semi-natural cover features, so that the greatest detail (at the lowest level in the hierarchy) relates to natural and management features within these cover types. It was always intended that the 1988 LCS be used as a baseline for monitoring change and there are current projects at the MLURI investigating the best methods for this. Due to the advances in technology over the past decade, future LCS will be able to provide a series of other products along with an updated cover map.

Questionnaire

If you wish to download a Word 6 version of the LCS questionnaire to complete and return to us click here.

Workshop Outcomes

Technical Issues	Possible Solution	Preferred Solution	Workshop Endorsement	Notes
Source Data	Panchromatic photography Colour photography 1:25,000 scale 1:10,000 scale High resolution satellite imagery	Colour 1:25,000 aerial photographs	***
Classification	Repeat LCS88 classification Modify certain major classes and definitions Drastically modify the classification scheme	The critical issue was to make the classification scheme easier to summarise by the user.	**	Out of the full classification will come different layers and summary classes, so keep the full scheme. However certain user groups would be better served: forestry (20% cover cf. 50% cover; native woodlands), urban planners (urban/rural fringe detail - green/brown field sites).
Mosaics	Maintain mosaic classes Modify mosaic classes (component, number, extent of use) Cut mosaic classes completely Information about percentage cover Information about boundary type	Reduce the total number of mosaic classes. Incorporate metadata (%age, boundary type)	***	Metadata: percentage cover of component classes, lookup tables, boundary type between component classes.
Minimum Mapping Units	Maintain minimum mapping units Modify minimum mapping units	No preferred solution		This issue ties in with Mosaics which had in the most part to be used where discernible cover types fell below the MMU or were difficult to separate.
Temporal Coverage	Rolling programme Snapshot	Rolling programme	50-50 split	The major constraint is the cost of a repeat snapshot and therefore methodologies for a rolling programme are being investigated.
Update vrs Change	Updated dataset Change dataset	Change dataset	***	An updated dataset will be produced out of a change dataset.
Access to Data	User able to view AP data User not able to have access to data	User able to view AP data	***
Managerial Issues
Accuracy	Accuracy is not reported with the land cover map Accuracy is reported as an attribute of lines, points and polygons Within 5% Of classification Of area/polygon/boundary	Accuracy attribute reported for point line and polygon features, especially if error not within 5%	**	Issues of scale and resolution
Ancillary Products	Incorporate digital AP's, orthophotos, combined with maps Do not incorporate ancillary products	Digital, ortho-corrected AP's, that can be combined with maps	***
Market Research	Do nothing Re-survey user group Proactively seek new users	No clear view
AP Cost	Cost to be borne by AP consortium Cost to be shared with AP provider	Cost to be shared with AP provider	***
Ownership of Data	AP provider keeps copyright Participating bodies share copyright	To be confirmed

Steering Group

• The first Steering Group meeting covering the technical and managerial issues arising from the workshop was held on Monday 8 February 1999 at The Scottish Office, Pentland House, Edinburgh.
  • The agenda for the meeting can be viewed here
  • The minutes from the meeting can be viewed here
• The second Steering Group meeting was held on Monday 8 March 1999 at The Scottish Office, Pentland House, Edinburgh.
  • The agenda for the meeting can be viewed here
  • The minutes from the meeting can be viewed here
  • The slides presented at the meeting were (in Word 6.0/95 format):
    • The flow of products for the national AP archive (view in page layout mode)
    • Schedule of costs
  • The papers that were drafted for the meeting were (in Word 6.0/95 format):
    • Draft User Survey
    • Draft Call for Tenders
    • Potential European Union and Lottery Funding

Contact

If you have any comments about the New Land Cover of Scotland or would like further information please contact:
Dr R Birnie
Land Use Change,
Macaulay Land Use Research Institute,
Aberdeen, AB15 8QH.
Tel. +44 (0) 1224 395000
Fax +44 (0) 1224 311556
e-mail: r.birnie@macaulay.ac.uk