Newsline from EDINA
October 2004: Volume 9, Issue 3
by Stuart Macdonald
The new EDINA agcensus subscription service was launched on 1 October to provide online access to data derived from UK Agricultural Censuses.
EDINA agcensus offers distribution maps at 2km, 5km and 10km levels of aggregation, dating from 1969 to the present. Maps and data cover England, Scotland and Wales. Data can be downloaded as ASCII files suitable for analysis and integration with other data in a GIS. Census data for the most recent year is available free of charge and can be visualised at 10km at http://agcensus.edina.ac.uk/demo/index.html. Access to the time-series data is free to members of subscribing academic institutions via the Athens authentication system. The service is also available to subscribing non-academic institutions (commercial, research, policy) and to individuals on a per-project basis.
The Agricultural Census is conducted in June each year in England, Scotland and Wales by the government departments for agriculture and rural affairs. The collated data provide information on distribution and extent of crop and horticultural production and the rearing of livestock. The Census is also a useful indicator of regional change in agricultural activity over time.
Edinburgh University Data Library has developed algorithms which define each geography (e.g. parish, in the case of Scotland) in terms of 1km squares. This framework is used in conjunction with the Land Use Framework, a sevenfold classification of the use of the same 1km grid squares. Census items are then distributed over those 1km grid squares with the land use category suitable for the census item in question.
For further information including information on cost and site licences, contact EDINA at edina@ed.ac.uk.