A #1.1m project, which puts Scotland at the forefront of technology
for land use management in Europe, has been completed at the Macaulay
Land Use Research Institute in Aberdeen.
The bank of information has taken four years to compile.
Scientists at the institute, which will now market the database, say
it will make planners in Scotland the best informed in Europe to deal
with changes in environmental protection, agriculture, leisure
activities, industrial development, and housing.
The Scottish Office provided the bulk of the funding for the project
but the Forestry Commission and Scottish National Heritage contributed
towards the #378,000 cost of the interpretation of almost 12,000
photographs taken in an aerial survey, which itself cost #380,000.
''In the past, when we tried to have a debate on land use in Scotland,
we did not have the information to do it,'' said Mr Harold Mills,
permanent secretary of the Scottish Office Environment Department.
''The debate tended to get sterile, with everyone putting forward
their own views, which could not be backed up. This database will change
that.''
The technology has been used already to provide an input to the
studies of the two working parties considering the Cairngorms and Loch
Lomond and the Trossachs.
''We know this goes a long way to providing the information we need
about Scotland's countryside,'' said Mr Mills. Professor Jeff Maxwell,
director of MLURI, said the need to use each land resource as
effectively as possible, while also protecting the environment, had
never been greater than it was today.
''From now on, decisions on how much land to use for forestry or
leisure developments can be supported by the database.''
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