Finding common ground: Integrating data, science and innovation for better use of land
Report from the Geospatial Commission explores land use challenges and demonstrates where innovative data analysis and evidence can support better land use decisions.
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The UK’s ambitions to deliver economic growth, fairly distribute opportunity across different geographic communities and meet the demands of a growing population, while protecting the environment, adapting to climate change and achieving net zero emissions will require significant land use change in the coming decades.
Recognising land use pressure as a cross-cutting national challenge, the Geospatial Commission initiated the National Land Data Programme (NLDP) which has explored key land use challenges and demonstrated where innovative data analysis and evidence can support better land use decisions. The new report sets out recommendations for how the UK’s data capabilities can be enhanced to support land use decision making, with a more integrated understanding of urban and rural needs.
The report has four recommendations:
- Establish a Land Use Analysis Taskforce to bring together cutting edge data and scientific expertise to assess competing land use pressures, ensuring national priorities are delivered within the land available in the UK
- Champion the market for decision support and visualisation tools to enable better land use decisions which create multifunctional benefits
- Strengthen the links between land use policy design, academic research and industry practice
- Develop a standard taxonomy for key land use data to support improvements to the interoperability of land use data and analysis
The report highlights that land use is fundamentally a spatial challenge. Some land uses do not sit well alongside each other, however there are significant opportunities for multifunctional land use - using the same piece of land for more than one purpose (such as rooftop solar energy). The report considers these opportunities across six sectors: energy, housing, biodiversity, food, water and transport.
The recommendations are based on evidence from academic and industry experts and findings from NLDP’s regional pilots in Devon, Cambridgeshire, Newcastle and Northern Ireland, which can be explored in more detail in the Pilots and projects overview.
The following pilot and project outputs have also been published:
- Review of Land Use Modelling: A landscape review of geospatial modelling for land use planning across academia, industry and government. This review explores how it is currently being used, and how it could be used more effectively and intensively.
- Land Use Dialogues: This engagement programme included a series of events involving civil servants and external experts, which explored the land use implications of different policy priorities across government and outlined priorities for land and modelling tools to support better decision making
- Specification for a land cover and land use map: This specification sets out how disparate land cover and land use datasets can be combined into a single map, produced and piloted in the Derry City and Strabane District Council areas of Northern Ireland.
- Land Data Specification: Designed to improve the interoperability of UK land datasets at a variety of spatial scales, this specification contains a conceptual model for land, building on the concepts for modelling land developed as part of the INSPIRE Regulations 2009, aggregating them to give a packaged, holistic view of land that could support a wide range of decision making.