The latest study of the changing nature of the UK countryside will use digital mapping and business intelligence (BI) software to produce the most accurate record yet of our landscape.

The Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) carries out the Countryside Survey every six to eight years.

This year, a laptop-based geographic information system (GIS) from supplier ESRI will be used by CEH field survey teams to map changes and locate natural features using real-time GPS.

The resulting geodatabase will integrate with BI software from SAS, allowing detailed statistical analyses to be carried out, producing a picture of how the countryside has changed over the past 30 years.

The SAS tools will analyse more than two million items of information gathered from the survey.

John Watkins, CEH head of section, environmental informatics programme, says the improvements in data collection and analysis will ensure this year’s survey is the most accurate ever completed.

‘The technology will enable us to be far more confident about what we are reporting and the measures that could be put in place to better manage our natural habitat,’ he said.

‘For the first survey in 1978 we used paper and pencils. We started looking at mobile mapping in 1998 but the equipment was too bulky with a short battery life. Now mobile technology is rugged enough and we can streamline data entry.’

The GIS will improve the quality of information captured by preserving and enforcing data quality rules at the point of capture in the field.

‘Once all the data is in, we can rapidly analyse all the survey information, including geospatial data. We can put data into one database model, plug the analytical software into it, and generate reports with map services in them,’ said Watkins.

‘Reporting is quicker as there is a lot more automation and as we are capturing data in the field, quality assurance will improve.’

The survey results will be published in autumn 2008.