Land Information Systems

For a number of interlinked reasons, map-based Land information systems can deliver real benefits to a range of organisations – from land owners - including estate managers, agri business cooperatives, and government authorities; to natural resource use companies - including forestry, extraction and wind energy companies; to local and wider government requiring accurate land and building use inventories.

Such benefits and reasons include –

Reduction of risk

By converting and holding data on land parcels, ownership, production, costs, uses etc. in digital form, this data is safeguarded to a greater extent from loss or damage.

Enhanced efficiency of resource use

Having collated data to hand and integrating that data with other data topics and layers helps to deliver information to support decision making and tracking that supports efficiency is use of any land resource. For example forestry production, land and building leasing and rental, agribusiness planning.

Ability to analyse and report

Building on the integration of relevant data, and use of key land map layers such as topography, transport, it is possible to model and analyse scenarios of land usage – including wind turbine location, forestry windthrow hazard, nutrient run-off, forestry and agricultural planning and harvesting, building usage and valuation.

Ready access and sharing of information

By moving towards integrated data holdings and use of mapping information systems, the possibilities for sharing of data and the results of analyses greatly increases. Using for example web or mobile platforms, information can be widely shared and accessed while in the office or in the field or on-site. With the combined use of mapping and associated report creation, the data within systems can be delivered in accessible and interpretable forms.

Building an LIS

Land information systems can be designed at a range of scales – at farm or building level to national level.- supporting a single or group of quarries to national inventories of land ownership, forestry, or bioenergy.

Stages in development of a Land Information Systems typically include the following –

• Discussion, discovery and specification of requirements
• Data collation, conversion, and integration within a single database or linked databases
• Delivery of tools to allow automation of day-to-day common tasks within the land information system
• Delivery of map and tabular reports that can be printed, brought into spreadsheet, or other corporate systems
• On-going support and training to ensure optimal usage of land information systems

  Sample projects developed by Compass include a large land ownership and production system for peat production; a forestry information system streamlining parcel management and grant applications; transport, road assets, and other urban inventories for local and transport authorities, and a bioenergy GIS.