Dr. ThomasTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what use is made by his Department in developing land use planning policy of geographic information systems and digital terrain models.
§ Mr. YeoThe Department of the Environment is involved in several applications of geographic information systems—GIS—and digital terrain models, mainly through its research programme. The inclusion of GIS along with other technologies is also being considered in the Department's information technology strategy.
The following GIS applications are of most relevance to the development of land use planning policy:
In 1990 the Department undertook a survey of the stock of vacant land in urban areas of England. A GIS was used to select the sample for the survey.A research project is being undertaken to explore the potential uses of GIS in the analysis of countryside data.A further research project using the Department's land use change statistics applied GIS technology to analyse the data and to report on ways in which the data can be used to monitor planning policies.In the Countryside 1990 survey GIS is being used to link together broad-brush census information from satellite remote sensing and data from ground surveys to provide valuable ecological information about plant species and habitats.Further information about some of these projects can be found in the article "Government in Action", written by my officials for inclusion in the 1991 yearbook of the Association for Geographic Information. A copy of the article has been placed in the Library.