The Rural Areas Database: A Geographical Information and Mapping System for the Management and Integration of Data on Rural Britain

Abstract

The problems of rural areas have started to receive greater attention in academic research, the media and policy-making in recent years. Rural topics such as agricultural overproduction, farm diversification, rural deprivation and afforestation, have had an increased profile. The Rural Areas Database (RAD) unit has been established in the ESRC Data Archive in order to gather together and integrate data from a multitude of sources so that more informed research, planning and policies can be undertaken about these and other rural issues. The RAD is drawing together data on environmental, economic and social subjects pertaining to the rural parts of Great Britain. A broad definition of 'rural areas' has been adopted encompassing the shire counties and Scottish regions; this strategy enables a narrower definition to be employed according to users' demands. The management and integration of the separate data files, the majority of which have a spatial component, is being undertaken within the developing field of Geographical Information Systems. The paper examines some of the problems involved with the handling of computerised geographical data with reference to datasets held in the RAD.