About the National Land Data Programme

Land faces increasing demands from a wide range of economic and environmental objectives, including housing, transport, energy, food production, flood protection, water security and  decarbonisation. To ensure the UK can meet challenging net zero and biodiversity targets while also delivering infrastructure and economic growth, measures to manage tradeoffs and increase the sustainable productivity of land are required.

The Geospatial Commission’s National Land Data Programme will make the case for how the UK can enhance land use data and spatial modelling to enable more joined-up decisions on land use. 

Through Land Use Dialogues, regional pilots and in dialogue with land use stakeholders, the programme will explore selected use cases and develop a blueprint of capability improvements to support land use decision making.

About the Regional Pilots

We are working with regional partners to develop an understanding of how spatial data can inform local and regional land use strategy.

In Devon and Cambridgeshire, we are working with the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission and the British Geological Survey to support the design and development of a local land use framework. We are investing in the design and prototyping of a spatial modelling decision support tool to help articulate the impacts of different land use change scenarios to local stakeholders. By improving how spatial data can be made accessible and visualised, local decision makers can more confidently appraise their land use choices.

In Northern Ireland, we are working with Ordnance Survey Northern Ireland to produce an authoritative land cover and land use map of Derry and Strabane District Council, which uses earth observation data to infill classification gaps. By improving our understanding of existing land use, we can make more informed decisions on how to better optimise land.