Towards a Geographic Information
Strategy for Scotland
Linking Places & Spaces to connect
the Faces of Scotland
July 2003
Towards a Geographic
Information Strategy
For Scotland
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Contents
Section
Title
Page
1
Introduction
2
2
Background to the Scottish Geographic Information
Strategy Initiative
3
3
How a Geographic Information Strategy will benefit
Scottish Society
7
4
The problems that currently arise in the absence of a
Scottish Geographic Information Strategy
10
5
What GI issues does a national Strategy need to
address?
13
6
Recommendations for action – the ‘Road Map’ to a
Geographic Information Strategy for Scotland
18
Annex A
Examples of GI Infrastructure initiatives
20
Annex B
Executive summary of AGI Scotland GI Strategy
seminar
22
Annex C
Step-by-step process of implementing a national GI
Strategy
26
Annex D
Glossary
31
Annex E
Contributors & Contact Details for AGI Scotland
32
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1.
Introduction
This document has been prepared by AGI Scotland, the Scottish branch of
the Association for Geographic Information. AGI is the industry
organisation representing individuals and organisations with an interest in
geographic information (GI) in the United Kingdom.
The purpose of this document is to :
Provide the background to the Scottish GI Strategy initiative.

Outline the vision for a Scottish GI Strategy and its benefits to
Scottish Society.

Outline the problems that currently arise in the absence of a
Scottish GI Strategy.

Outline the solutions required to overcome the problems.

Give recommendations for action and invite the Scottish
Executive and others to champion a GI Strategy for Scotland.
The proposals for a GI Strategy outlined in this document have already
benefited from extensive participation from the geographic information
community in Scotland.
The document is being used as a basis for consultation with the Scottish
Executive, and simultaneously as a basis for further consultation with the
information industry. It is anticipated that the proposals will receive positive
consideration by the Scottish Executive and lead to them adopting the lead
role in advancing matters.
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2.
Background to the Scottish Geographic
Information Strategy Initiative
2.1
What is 'Geographic Information' and why is it
important?
'GI' is any information that has a geographic component i.e. that can be
linked to a particular location on the Earth. This includes all textual
information that utilises addresses and postcodes, numeric grid references,
settlement names, administrative areas (political, governmental, statistical
reporting etc.), as well as the geographic objects themselves (represented as
points, lines and polygons) that are plotted on maps. Thus GI is
fundamentally important to the daily lives of every person and organisation
in Scotland, and underpins most of the daily transactions of Scottish society.
A much quoted statistic is that 80% of all information has a geographic
component to it.
GI, once confined to paper maps, is increasingly migrating to digital
Geographic Information Systems (GIS). GIS allow governments,
businesses, and communities to integrate, analyse, and manage information
about locations in ways never before possible. Advances in GIS and
associated technologies such as satellite navigation, the internet and mobile
telecommunications, increases in hardware performance and decreases in
costs, mean that it is now possible for GI to be delivered on demand to
whoever needs to have access to it, wherever they are, whenever they want.
Thus GIS has to play a critical role in delivering services for the citizen,
business and governance.
Collectively all the things necessary for collection, management and
distribution of GI (i.e. the combination of framework data, tools, standards,
trained professionals and procedures) is known as a GI infrastructure. In the
absence of a national strategy to provide a coordinating framework for the
different components of the infrastructure, then :-
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 Some important information may not be collected at all
 Information may be collected in a very inconsistent way, both in terms of
national coverage and quality of content
 Some information may be collected again and again by different
organisations and individuals without reference to each other
 Some information may be collected but not shared with others
 Metadata, the data that describes and catalogues a dataset, may not be
collected and shared
Many of the necessary physical components of a national GI infrastructure
already exist at varying local, organisational and sector levels. The lack of
the common aims, policies, standards and procedures provided by a national
GI Strategy however severely limits the ability to join together these
components in a cohesive way that sustainably delivers in the long term. In
consequence the benefits of the technology are severely undermined and not
fully realised for the nation.
2.2
Why now? The Global, European and UK context on
Geographic Information Strategies
AGI Scotland's drive for the creation and implementation of a national GI
Strategy for Scotland is not something that is happening in isolation. As
well as a Scottish initiative, it should be viewed in a UK, European and
global context:  The Global Spatial Data Infrastructure (GSDI) Association provides a
coordinating role for those working at the global or regional scale. GSDI
also provides guidance to ensure that activities at the national level are
compatible within the wider framework.
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 Since the early 1990’s many countries have developed GI Strategies
underpinning national Spatial Data infrastructures. These provide many
useful lessons in the development of a GI Strategy for Scotland. Many
examples are documented in Annex A of this document.
 Various European Union Geographic Information projects are underway
that will have an impact at national level in the near future, most notably
the INSPIRE (Infrastructure for Spatial information in Europe) and
GINIE (Geographic Information Network In Europe) projects. Other
Directives require the provision of Geographic Information, for example
the Environmental Information and Water Framework Directives.
 Increasingly UK Government policy mandates greater access to public
information, for example the Freedom of Information Acts and likely
Public Sector Information regulations.
 As yet there is no UK Geographic Information Strategy, however draft
GI strategies have been successfully created for Northern Ireland and
Wales.
 A new Service Level Agreement with Ordnance Survey now gives the
whole of Central Government in Great Britain access to Ordnance
Survey digital map products, thus removing one of the main pricing
barriers to cross government utilisation of GIS technology. Separate
SLAs already exist for Local Government and Utilities (power, telecoms
etc.).
 Addresses are a fundamental component of a Scottish Geographic
Information Strategy. Their importance has been recognised by the
funding of the Definitive National Address for Scotland (DNA-S)
database through the Modernising Government Fund.
 No framework presently exists to manage the huge range of cross cutting
e- government activities in Scotland, most of which have a geographical
component.
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2.3
AGI Scotland Seminar : Towards a Scottish Geographic
Information Strategy
In recognition of the need for a more strategic approach, AGI Scotland held
a seminar in November 2002 to consider how to create and implement a
national strategy for GI for Scotland.
The key messages from the seminar were : The GI community have identified broad ranging requirements for a GI
strategy, which needs to fundamentally address issues concerning policy,
data and the roles of different organisations involved in the collection
and utilisation of GI.
 The Scottish Executive is one of the key stakeholders in the creation and
implementation of a Scottish GI Strategy.
 Other stakeholders include data providers from central and local
government, citizens, technology providers and the education
community.
 Some of the components of a strategy are already in place, or are
currently being developed at a local, organisational and sectoral level.
For example definitive street, land and property gazetteers within local
authorities, as well as other substantial data assets, and technology tools.
 Some of the key gaps to be addressed by a strategy are the creation of
leadership and vision, co-ordination of existing initiatives (many of
which are fragmented along traditional i.e. vested interest lines),
institutional barriers, and clear identification of current shortcomings.
The detailed outputs from the event form the basis for the recommendations
outlined in Section 6 of this document. The Executive Summary of the event
is given in Annex B.
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3.
How a Geographic Information Strategy will
benefit Scottish Society
3.1
Vision Statement
A Scottish Geographic Information Strategy will ensure the effective and
consistent provision, management and utilisation of geographic
information to support and sustain the needs of the citizen, business and
governance in 21st century Scotland.
3.2
Benefits to the citizen
The Citizens of Scotland will benefit from a national GI Strategy in ways
such as : Public Services such as transport, housing, health care, social services,
and education can be planned, targeted and delivered as efficiently,
effectively and seamlessly as possible. This is particularly apparent in :o Emergency situations, where time lost due to the inability of
response crews on the ground to locate emergency sites may mean
the difference between life and death.
o Rural areas where the dispersed nature of the population makes the
whole service provision process more difficult and more expensive.
o Social Inclusion situations where issues cut across many traditional
areas of service delivery to the citizen.
 Different information sources can be made available to the citizen in a
consistent and 'joined-up' (ie. seamless) way, even when held by
different organisations. This will facilitate more informed decisionmaking by the citizen, both on a daily basis, such as whether to
undertake a particular journey by public transport, to life changing
decisions, such as moving house.
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 Also decisions made by service delivery agencies that affect the
individual citizen and are based on locational criteria (such as where they
live), can be carried out in a consistent fashion.
 The provision of a framework will maximise the benefit of emerging
location based services. (These are services where the service providers
are linked with their potential customers via their location, as provided
by a GPS enabled device like their mobile phone or in-car navigation
system (eg. ‘Where’s my nearest….?)).
3.3
Benefits to business
Scotland plc will benefit from a national GI Strategy in ways such as : National and local government will have access to the GI necessary to
provide strategic support for existing business and to actively encourage
and target new business investment.
 Individual companies and managers will have access to definitive and
accurate geographic information upon which to base investment
decisions. For example the location of grant aided areas, communication
links, availability of skilled staff.
 Operational staff will have access to definitive and accurate information
to support logistical decisions,:o accurate locations of customers and organisation resources for better
deployment
o Accurate employee locations for travel to work schemes (car sharing
etc.)
o the shortest/quickest transport routes between points taking into
account current traffic restrictions, road works etc.
 The process of undertakinging Environmental Impact Assessments for
development proposals, such as alternative energy schemes like
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windfarms, will be become quicker and easier. Thus the cost to
developers will be reduced whilst the regulator will have better
information on which to assess the environmental impact of the proposal.
 Considerable scope for growing new business opportunities through
exploitation of GI.
3.4 Benefits to governance
The governance of Scotland will benefit from a national GI Strategy in way
such as : National and local government will have a clearer, more accurate and
more up-to-date picture of what is happening on the ground at all
geographic levels. This will allow the strategic planning, targeting and
delivery of public services in the most consistent, efficient, 'joined up'
and responsive way possible.
 Elected officials will have access to the same information as their
executives. They should also be able to view this information in terms of
their own geographic areas of representation.
 Policy making will become more reliably informed for areas that depend
on the integration and understanding of a lot of GI datasets at both a
local and national level, for example tourism, economic development,
cultural diversity and social inclusion.
 Government agencies will be able to rapidly respond rapidly in
emergencies where there is a requirement to access, review and analyse a
large variety of different geographic datasets about a specific locality in
a very short timeframe.
 There will be an improved framework to support the supply of public
sector information in accordance with policy.
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4.
The problems that currently arise in the
absence of a Scottish Geographic Information
Strategy
Despite the capabilities of GIS technology and the many millions of pounds
of public money invested in Information & Communication Technology
(ICT) projects, the lack of an overarching GI Strategy for Scotland means
that there is no cohesive Scottish GI infrastructure. This means that
individual and organisations : Are not always aware of the capabilities and benefits of GI and
associated GIS technologies.
 Cannot always access all the GI they need, when they need it, even when
they are aware.
 Spend too much time, money and effort getting hold of what information
they can currently access.
 Initiate individual GI infrastructure projects, often involving substantial
amounts of public investment, which are doomed to isolation and failure
in the longer term.
 Cannot align with other complementary initiatives to avoid duplication
and save the public purse.
The following are real recent examples of everyday problems that arise in
the absence of a cohesive, national GI infrastructure : Ambulances drivers still need to resort to using paper A-Z's to try and
locate properties on the ground from time to time. They have been
known to ask directions from passers by when similarly spelt street /
buildings in close proximity to each other cause confusion, or when there
is no name at all because the development is more recent than the paper
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map.
 A homeless person was refused entry onto an employment training
course on the grounds that their hostel accommodation was wrongly
listed in the Postal Address File (PAF) as having a business postcode,
hence making them ineligible.
 There is no 'one stop shop' for local information for prospective house
buyers (local plans, education, health and social welfare provision and
performance etc.), even though it is all held by public sector bodies, can
be linked together by its location element and delivered seamlessly to the
interested party remotely via the internet.
 Similarly there is no 'one stop shop' for information on the availability of
commercial property. Currently this is only available at a local level and
so the onus is on the business management to know where they would
like to locate to before they know that there is a suitable property there.
Also the information that is available is not linked to other important
location dependant business information, like the availability of grants
for relocation costs and the availability of skilled staff in the local area
etc.
 Those delivering goods or services, whether public or private sector,
whether by car, van or on foot, are often left to locate customers using
paper A-Z maps and work out their own routes in their head. This leads
to blocked roads and unnecessary increases in traffic congestion, fuel use
and associated pollution, delays and costs. This is equally true for
deliveries to industrial as well as domestic addresses.
 The difficulty in exchanging data between central and local government
during the Foot and Mouth outbreak
 The lack of immediate access to key national datasets compromising
rapid response to specific emergencies such as the firemen’s strike, and
fuel blockade.
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 The absence of a definitive maintained address list and a means of
authenticating addresses are inhibiting the creation of an electronic
electoral roll.
 The absence of the full utilisation of GI in the planning and provision of
healthcare at all levels.
 The amount of time required by developers to source and gather the
information necessary to undertake an Environmental Impact Assessment
for a development proposal, such as for wind farms (both on and off
shore). Currently this can take up to 30% of the total time taken to carry
out an EIA.
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5.
What GI issues does a national Strategy need
to address?
5.1
Existing components of a GI Infrastructure
Many of the building blocks of a successful GI infrastructure are in place : The Modernising Government agenda is acting as a driver for change.
Recent successful modernising government fund bids will see the
creation of national land and property gazetteer for Scotland that will
provide a crucial link between people and places.
 Examples of successful projects exist at local, organisational and sectoral
level :o DEAL web service, coordinated by British Geological Survey in
Edinburgh and providing geographic information for the offshore
industry.
o MAGIC is a Department for Rural Affairs sponsored initiative to
coordinate environmental information. A similar initiative is
underway in Scotland (NREIS - Networks for Rural Environment
Information for Scotland).
o Digimap and other services, based at EDINA at Edinburgh
University, provide a major component of the UK academic sector
spatial data infrastructure.
o The Dumfries and Galloway Police IMAGE project is delivering
measurable increases in performance and decreases in costs for the
organisation.
o GIgateway metadata service, funded by government, allows all
holders of geographic information to describe and publicise their
datasets.
o The Scottish Census Results On-Line (SCROL) project set up by
General Register Office for Scotland (GROS) for delivering 2001
Census data to anyone. For the first time data is available for free and
therefore census data is being used much more widely.
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o The Scottish Neighbourhood Statistics (SNS) project co-ordinated by
the Scottish Executive has brought together a great range of data
suppliers across Scotland's public sector to make local area
information easily accessible to anyone for the first time.
 Detailed, digital topographic, address and land ownership data is
collected by various government agencies in a form that could be
integrated and shared.
 British and international standards exist that handle spatial referencing,
metadata and the digital exchange of data.
 A range of organisations exists which represent individuals and
organisations with an interest in GI.
 The Scottish Executive has recognised the importance of a more
integrated approach to the use of GI, and has implemented its own GI
Strategy.
5.2 Issues to be addressed
Despite local and sectoral success, the initiatives outlined above have
limited national focus due to the absence of an overarching framework. As a
result they cannot address the problems identified in section 4. In order to
achieve a cohesive and integrated GI infrastructure in Scotland, the
following types of issue must be addressed : Leadership and vision
 Process
 Technical
5.2.1 Leadership and vision issues
Leadership and action is required to :-
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 Provide a clear vision of the way forward to the whole GI community.
 Address the general lack of awareness of the fundamental importance of
GI to Scottish society.
 Champion a properly coordinated and maintained national GI
infrastructure.
 Support the introduction, co-ordination and integration of the many
components of a national GI infrastructure.
 Promote and adopt a philosophy of :o collect once
o describe and document thoroughly
o maintain and archive properly
o retrieve and disseminate easily
o use as many times as possible.
 Promote best practice.
 Identify necessary changes to overcome legal, organisational culture,
policy, and other barriers.
5.2.2 Process issues
There is a need for a fundamental review of how organisations handle
geographic data and information, both individually and in collaboration.
Some examples of the Information Process issues that need to be addressed
are : Rationalisation of procedures for capture, maintenance and
dissemination of core data.
 Encouragement of wider dissemination and exploitation of information
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within the context of privacy and confidentiality.
 Encouragement of more effective partnerships between public bodies.
 Identifying and addressing any constraints that may arise from
Government Trading Funds and cost recovery through data charging.
 Encouragement and facilitation of the universal adoption of standards.
5.2.3 Technical issues
The core technical issues that need to be fully understood, critically
examined and effectively resolved are : Core Data. Certain data elements are used across many sectors, and
therefore need to be managed collaboratively, rationalised and shared,
thereby allowing it to be collected once but used many times. Examples
of core data are :o national grid referencing system
o addresses
o road network
o administrative and political boundaries
o environmental
o census outputs and local area statistics
Despite some success in sharing certain core data, current maintenance
regimes and delivery channels do not optimise the wider use of this data.
For example :o lack of agreement on the core datasets and corresponding custodians,
maintenance needs and delivery channels.
o related data, collected separately, may not be cross-referenced,
therefore limiting wider use.
o the availability and applicability of core datasets is not made widely
known.
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 Georeferencing. There are a variety of ways of referencing locations,
such as a grid reference or an address. However in order to support
useful and reliable integration and aggregation of data held by disparate
organisations it is essential that common standards are adopted.
 Gazetteers. These are lists of all the geographic objects in a particular
dataset along with their location. To ensure these sources retain their
value to users and can be trusted it is critical that they are actively and
universally maintained to reflect physical changes. The DNA-S project
already referred to is aiming to tackle this problem for addresses.
 Metadata. This is data that describes the actual type, coverage, currency,
quality, etc., of the dataset. Unless adequate metadata is recorded to
common standard, the data cannot be easily found, retrieved, and safely
employed.
 Interoperability. The ability to deliver truly joined-up solutions requires
that common interface standards for geographical data and technologies
are defined and implemented. To date, many organisations continue to
develop solutions with little regard to interoperability for a variety of
political, organisational, economic and technical reasons although the
eGovernment Interoperability Framework (eGIF) is trying to encourage
change.
Many of the foregoing issues are fundamentally inter-related and cut across
all sectors of Scottish society. While DNA-S will consider the maintenance
of addresses, the remaining issues need to be dealt with in a similar crosscutting approach.
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6.
Recommendations for action - the 'Road
Map' to a Geographic Information Strategy
for Scotland
Development of, and agreement to, a national GI Strategy needs a wider
involvement and endorsement than can be provided by the AGI Scotland
Executive alone. Experience from Northern Ireland and Wales shows that
the development of a Strategy will take considerable dedicated time and
resources. The next step is to gain direct ownership by major stakeholders
and, such is the importance of this, we believe that it can only be happen
with the direct involvement of the Scottish Executive.
The purpose of this document therefore is to formally invite the Scottish
Executive to assume ownership of the process for creating and
championing a Scottish Geographic Information Strategy.
When that involvement is secured, the following steps need to be
undertaken to take the Strategy forward and implement a cohesive national
GI infrastructure :1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Identify and appoint a project champion
Identify and secure funding
Define project timescale
Identify stakeholders and their roles
Establish mechanisms to build consensus
Build consensus among stakeholders
Create a Draft Strategy document
Consult on Draft Strategy document
Produce the Final Strategy document
Create Governing mechanisms
Implement the Strategy
Monitor progress and indicators of success
The steps are outlined in more detail in Annex C.
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While this is an overview document, which identifies the need for
further work to prepare a GI Strategy, it should be made clear that
much preparatory work has already been done. It reflects the views of
a wide range of individuals and organisations and is based on several
years of discussion. Therefore, the preparation of the Strategy will
build on sound foundations, and can continue to draw on the extensive
experience of the GI community in Scotland.
We firmly believe that the preparation of a national Geographic
Information Strategy will provide essential support to the ongoing
development of economic activity within Scotland, as has been the case
in many other countries.
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Annex A
Examples of GI Infrastructure
Initiatives
Type of Initiative Description
National
Australian Spatial
Data Infrastructure
Initiative
Canadian Spatial
Data Infrastructure
Initiative
Portuguese Spatial
Data Infrastructure
Initiative
Swedish Spatial
Data Infrastructure
Initiative
American Spatial
Data Infrastructure
Initiative
European
Geographic
Information
Network In Europe
(GINIE) Project
INfrastructure for
SPatial
InfoRmation in
Europe (INSPIRE)
Project
Global
Global Spatial Data
Infrastructure
Initiative
UK
Northern Ireland
Draft GI Strategy
Website
www.auslig.gov.au/asdi/
www.geoconnexions.org
http://snig.igeo.pt/English/ind
ex_e.html (Website in English)
www.lantmateriet.se/index_en
g.htm (Website in English)
www.fgdc.gov
www.ec-gis.org/ginie
www.ec-gis.org/inspire
www.gsdi.org
www.osni.gov.uk/technical/gi
strategy.html
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Wales Draft GI
Strategy
Multi-Agency
Geographic
Information for the
Countryside
(MAGIC) Project
Digital Energy
Atlas and Library
(DEAL) Initiative
GIgateway
Metadata
Catalogue
www.agi.org.uk/wales
www.magic.gov.uk
www.ukdeal.co.uk
www.gigateway.org.uk
A CD containing reports and other documents for these and other
Geographic Information Infrastructure initiatives is available from AGI
Scotland.
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Annex B
Executive Summary of AGI Scotland
GI Strategy seminar
Association for Geographic Information (Scotland)
Towards a Geographic Information Strategy for Scotland
On 27 November 2002, AGI Scotland held a seminar in Edinburgh to
consider how to move towards a strategy for geographic information (GI)
for Scotland. In the morning, there were two keynote speakers: Mick Cory,
Chief Executive of Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland who spoke about
Northern Ireland’s progress in preparing such a strategy, and Alan Fraser of
the Scottish Executive who spoke about the role of geographic information
in the Modernising Government programme. In the afternoon, participants
divided into 10 sector based, facilitated discussion groups to assess a GI
Strategy in their sector of interest :No Sector
1 Customer Relation
Management
2
3
4
5
6
7
Developing Markets
Education and Academia
Energy and Utilities
Environment
Emergency Services
Health
8 Land and Property
9 Planning
10 Transport
Facilitator
Alexis Easton, Clackmannanshire Council
John Rowland, Scottish Enterprise
David Medyckyj-Scott, EDINA
Bart Hulshof, Shell UK
David Miller, MacAulay Institute
Angus McDonald, CALMap
David Walsh, Public Health Institute for
Scotland
Gavin Keith, Compass Geographics
Ben Train, Scottish Executive Planning Unit
Stuart Miller, Inovas
Each group considered 4 questions :Q1 What issues does a Scottish GI strategy need to address in this sector?
Q2 Who are the sector stakeholders in a Scottish GI strategy in this sector?
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Q3 Which components of a Scottish GI strategy are already in place in this
sector?
Q4 Which components still need to be put in place?
The responses were recorded by the facilitator, with the ‘top 3’ reported
back from each group to the whole meeting in the final session.
The attached page gives a full summary of the outcomes of those
discussions, but the key messages are : A GI strategy must be put in a context that makes GI’s relevance and
usefulness to Scottish society clear
 The community have identified broad ranging requirements for a GI
strategy, which needs to address issues concerning policy, data, the roles
of different organisations
 Scottish Executive is one of the key stakeholders in enabling action
arising from the Strategy
 Other stakeholders include data providers from central and local
government, citizens, technology providers and the education community
 Some of the components of a strategy are already in place or currently
being developed, such as definitive gazetteers within local authorities,
AGI which acts as a cross-industry forum, substantial data assets, and
technology tools
 Some of the key gaps to be addressed by a strategy are the creation of
leadership and vision, fragmentation of current initiatives, institutional
barriers, and clearer identification of current shortcomings
How AGI intend to proceed
AGI (Scotland) intend to develop the findings from the workshop in order to
set out a Strategy. This work will take account of progress in Northern
Ireland (where the draft Strategy has been led by Ordnance Survey Northern
Ireland) and Wales (where the National Assembly for Wales has taken the
lead). It is also timely to note the development of the European
Commission’s INfrastructure for SPatial InfoRmation in Europe (INSPIRE)
initiative which aims to produce a draft directive late in 2003.
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Funding will be required to provide professional time to support this work,
but has not yet been secured. The Scottish Executive’s involvement in the
development of such a Strategy would be welcomed, given the central role
of the Executive in Scottish society.
Working group discussion summaries
What issues does a Geographic Information Strategy need to address?
A GI Strategy for Scotland needs to present a Scottish perspective, and
needs to present GI in a context where its relevance to society at large in
Scotland is clear. It must draw together any relevant policy, initiatives,
standards and legislation, ensure they are fit for purpose and place them in a
common framework to provide a clear vision to those involved in the arena
of GI. It must address institutional issues as well as raising awareness both
within the GI community and outwith. Core datasets must be identified,
usable, maintained, integrated and accessible to assist with day-to-day
requirements and emergency responses. There is a role for the AGI in
producing and promoting a GI Strategy for Scotland, to provide
coordination and act as a broker between all interested parties.
Who are the stakeholders in a Geographic Information Strategy?
Among the key data providers for GI are central and local government
administrations and agencies. Without the data that is collected and
maintained by these bodies, it will be impossible to move a GI strategy
forward. The Scottish Executive have a key role, even though they do not
themselves hold large quantities of data, since they set the framework within
which many of the other bodies operate. Among the key beneficiaries of a
functioning GI strategy are citizens who have “accounts” with central
government (including Scottish Executive and its agencies), local
government and other service providers (such as health boards, banks and
utilities), which are reliant on our identity and location. Technology
providers and the education sector are key stakeholders in delivering a GI
strategy, and developing necessary skills for its exploitation.
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Are there any components of a Geographic Information Strategy
already in place?
There are many elements of a GI Strategy already in place. The
modernising government agenda is acting as a driver for change. Recent
successful modernising government fund bids will see the creation of
national land and property gazetteer for Scotland and will provide the link
between people and places vital for customer relation management systems.
Detailed topographic, address and land ownership data is available.
Standards exist that handle spatial referencing and metadata. The AGI is a
professional organisation representing individuals and organisations with an
interest in GI. There are GI courses, training opportunities, web sites,
magazines and conferences. Software and technology exist that allow the
creation, manipulation and dissemination of geographic information.
What components of a Geographic Information Strategy are still
needed?
Although there are many components already in place they are fragmented
(even within a single organisation) and are often sector based. It is the
responsibility of a GI Strategy for Scotland to represent the best interests of
the citizen as well as the GI community, to integrate existing best practice
and learn from the experiences of other GI strategies worldwide. There
needs to be clarity on what is actually required, a “vision” and clear,
demonstrable leadership. An audit of existing data, standards, software and
GI education should assess their suitability for current and future needs.
The aims and objectives set down in our strategy must be promoted and
championed at all levels to try and breakdown institutional barriers. Further
legislation and funding may also be necessary to implement a GI Strategy
for Scotland. It is important that any strategy has measures for success and
is monitored and reviewed within predefined timescales.
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Annex C
Step-by-step process of implementing
a national GI Strategy
1. Identify and appoint a project champion
Hopefully this document makes a convincing case for action to develop,
instigate and implement a GI Strategy for Scotland. However AGI does not
have the resources, or indeed the authority, to complete such a programme
of work. We believe that, as with Wales and Northern Ireland, it should
logically fall to the devolved Scottish Executive to champion and facilitate a
Scottish GI Strategy.
2. Identify and Secure funding
Whilst much thought and action has already been undertaken, and many of
the infrastructure components already exist, the process for creating and
implementing a national GI Strategy will still require dedicated resources. In
the short term resources are required to fund the creation of a Final GI
Strategy document by a process of consultation and consensus building with
the key stakeholders and the wider information industry. In the longer term
funding will be required to implement the Strategy and maintain the
effectiveness of the national GI infrastructure.
3. Define the project timescale
Since AGI Scotland’s event last November, the Scottish GI Strategy
initiative has been gaining momentum, albeit largely within the GI
community. It should nevertheless be borne in mind that similar initiatives
are also happening elsewhere at a UK, European and Global level. In short it
is a clear requirement that cannot be ignored. In Northern Ireland it has
taken about 9 months to publish a Draft GIS Strategy document from the
initial consensus building exercise.
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4. Identify stakeholders and their roles in a Geographic
Information infrastructure
These have been broadly identified during the AGI Scotland seminar in
November 2002:  Among the key data providers for geographic information are central and
local government agencies.
 The Scottish Executive has a key role, on account of the valuable data
held and the direct involvement in agreeing the framework within which
many public bodies operate.
 Citizens who can benefit greatly from location centric "accounts" with
central government, local government and other service providers (such
as health boards, education, banks, utilities, etc
 Technology providers will play a crucial part in advancing necessary
system changes and corresponding skill sets.
 AGI can provide extensive technical and practical input.
5. Establish the mechanisms needed to build consensus
Experience has shown that successful development of a GI Strategy needs to
involve wide representation from all areas of the public and private sector.
Effective facilitation and a corresponding framework to support this need to
be embraced from the outset.
6. Build consensus among the stakeholders
This is the process whereby the content of the Strategy is agreed, and the
way forward established, again by agreement and compromise. Building on
previous exercises this essentially involves the plans to deliver and
implement the strategy. In Northern Ireland, this was achieved through a
process of consensus building over a three-day residential retreat.
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7. Create a Draft Strategy Document
This is the process where the Strategy is documented. Incorporating the
ideas generated by the consensus building process and physically preparing
a draft Strategy needs to be acknowledged as a dedicated task. In Northern
Ireland and Wales, a full time GI co-ordinator wrote the draft Strategy,
organised the formal consultation, collated the responses and will prepare
the final Strategy document.
8. Revise and agree the Draft Strategy by consensus
A continuum in the iterative processes which needs to be expertly
facilitated.
9. Produce the Final Strategy Document
Compilation of all comments through consensus building and should ideally
be done by the same individual that produced the Draft Strategy.
10. Create the Governing Mechanisms necessary to drive the
strategy in the longer term
An effective, enabling structure needs to be established to advance and
implement the Strategy without being viewed as unnecessarily bureaucratic.
In Northern Ireland, a key recommendation of the Strategy will be the
process of "Governance" to oversee/co-ordinate Strategy implementation,
and ensure wholesale adoption.
11. Implement the Strategy
This is the process of ensuring that action to take forward the
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recommendations actually happens : Cross-Cutting Actions - These are the actions to improve the common
data and other underpinning infrastructure issues that will deliver
benefits and improve efficiency/effectiveness across all the stakeholder
organisations/sectors/services. In essence this will be the mechanism to
deliver the GI infrastructure for Scotland promised in the vision
statement. The NI Strategy has defined these as "Key Datasets and Data
Management" and "Technical Standards/Quality Standards" and
proposed the development of Technical Groups to co-ordinate the
delivery of recommendations in these areas.
 Sector-Specific Actions - In principle, sectoral groups should have little
to do if cross-cutting issues are dealt with, given that many GI technical
and process issues are common across many sectors. However there will
be some sector specific issues to be dealt with, and the process of
organising a sectoral approach to GI issues will be of benefit in itself.
The NI Strategy identified a number of sector-specific issues. Thus one
of the outcomes of the consensus approach in NI has been the
development of sectoral working groups to begin to take the issues
forward. New sectoral groups will be developed as they invent
themselves.
It is likely that a GI strategy will have to tackle these sensitive points in
order to deliver benefit.
12. Continual Monitoring of Progress and Indicators of
Success
Obviously one of the roles of the Governing Mechanism will be to monitor
the progress of the Strategy and ensure that the actions/recommendations
are actually being delivered. In other words having produced it, how do we
know it is working?
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One indicator will be the sustainability of the facilitation/governance
mechanism that is put in place. Another will be the adoption of specific
recommendations. However, perhaps the most significant measure of
success will be that the Strategy provides a framework against which new
GI initiatives can be assessed.
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Annex D
AGI
DEAL
DNA-S
eGIF
GI
GINIE
GIS
GROS
ICT
INSPIRE
MAGIC
OGC
OS
PAF
SCROL
SLA
SNS
Glossary
Association of Geographic Information
Digital Energy Atlas and Library
Definitive National Address for Scotland
eGovernment Interoperability Framework
Geographic Information
Geographic Information Network in Europe
Geographic Information Systems
General Regsiters Office Scotland
Information and Telecommunication Technology
Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe
Multi-Agency Geographic Information for the Countryside
Open GIS Consortium
Ordnance Survey
Postal Address File
Scottish Census Results On-Line
Service Level Agreement
Scottish Neighbourhood Statistics
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Annex E
Contributors & Contact Details for
AGI Scotland
This document has been created by the Executive Committee of AGI
Scotland, who are drawn from a wide cross section of the geographic
information community in Scotland. The 2003 committee members are :Name
Hugh Barron
Hugh Buchanan
Helen Cunningham
Gary Donaldson
Cameron Easton
Bruce Gittings
Chris Higgins
Mark Linehan
Angus McDonald
Neil Mackinnon
John Maslen
William Muir
Nondas Pitticus
Chris Sayers
Dave Stewart
Mike Traynor (Chair)
Organisation
British Geological Survey
Ordnance Survey
Highland Council
Innovas
Scottish Executive
Edinburgh University
Edinburgh University
Association of Geographic Information
CALMap
Communities Scotland
Geowise
ESRI
Paisley University
Syntegra
Forth Valley GIS
Registers of Scotland
Observer
Peter Morrison
Ordnance Survey
AGI Scotland can be contacted at the following :Email : [email protected]
Web : www.agi.org.uk/scotland/
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