Series details: CRDA/46

The Countryside Information System (CIS) provided the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and its predecessors with habitat and landscape information allowing for the interrogation of stratified field survey data and satellite landcover data. It was ''designed to give policy advisers easy access to information about the countryside, and in particular, the results of the Countryside Survey 1990 (CS1990)". 1

The Countryside Survey was a major audit of the British Countryside involving the collection of data such as habitat types, hedgerows, plant species and freshwater invertebrates. As well as repeating previous measurements, it established new techniques in the integration of field-based and satellite observation of the earth's surface. Many of the sample sites were first visited in 1978 and subsequently in 1984 and 1990 providing a time series of changes in the countryside.

The CIS has also used data from the Countryside Survey 2000 (CS2000), which repeated and extended previous surveys undertaken at intervals over 20 years. CS2000 was a partnership between several government departments, agencies and the Natural Environment Research Council, in the form of a jointly funded research programme. 2

Thus the objectives of CIS were principally to enable policy advisors to have, in a standard format, a wide range of information about the countryside and in particular the results of the Countryside Survey. It also allowed the exchange of this information; the display and manipulation of the data to support a variety of tasks, such as policy development and appraisal, as well as support monitoring and audit tasks. Due to its availability on-line at http://www.cis-web.org.uk/home/, it also enabled other organisations and individuals to access and view the information. Another purpose envisaged for CIS was the creation of a standard electronic format for the interchange and viewing of a wide range of strategic environmental and countryside data.

The CIS underwent a review of its development in 1999-2000. The aim of this review was to assess the role of CIS in the context of other information strategies and systems in use by the Department and its partners, including the National Biodiversity Network, Departmental and agency IT and GIS strategies and off-the-shelf GIS and mapping packages. The project was to be an independent and fundamental review of CIS making recommendations for further development of CIS, and/or suggesting alternative approaches.3

The Countryside Information System (CIS) has been developed in stages since 1989. Its development was contracted to Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). It was one of several projects within the Department's Wildlife and Countryside Directorate's Research Programme. The software was supported by ADAS.4

The Countryside Information System (CIS), is a Windows based system which contains habitat and landscape information and a wide range of environmental data, including landscape features, vegetation habitats and topography for each one kilometre square of the United Kingdom.

It organises and presents information about the United Kingdom which can be linked to kilometre resolution grid references and stored, manipulated and presented in graphical and tabular format. The Ordnance Survey and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland grid reference systems means that CIS runs in two modes, one to describe Great Britain , the other Northern Ireland (NI). Both modes are components of the standard system.

CIS handles three types of data: census, sample and region.

"A census dataset stores one value for every land square that has data. The values stored for each square may be either numerical values (such as area of deciduous woodland or mean summer temperature) or attributes (such as name of predominant county). When the dataset is loaded the map is coloured to show groups of similar values or attributes, and the mouse cursor shows the actual value stored for the square beneath it at any given moment.

A sample dataset also supplies a value for every land square that has data, but the values are calculated from sampled data. A special census file called a landclass file is created that allocates one of up to 80 landclasses to every land square and also optionally indicates the applicable area on every land square. The sampled data then consists only of one value for each of the landclasses - a maximum of 80 different values, depending on the exact classification used. CIS calculates the value applicable for each square as it is needed. Up to 600 datasets can be stored in a single file, but all the datasets in a file must share the same linked landclass file.

Finally, a CIS region is merely a set of land squares. For example, a region may consist of all the squares containing Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), all the squares with more than 90% urban cover, all the squares with a mean altitude over 500m and so on. A region file holds a single region.

Each of these three types of files may be created, opened, viewed and edited within CIS. CIS also allows the user to view one type of data file in conjunction with another."

One of the important features of the CIS is its ability to handle sample information using a stratification. The system is supplied with data collected using the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology (ITE) Land Classification and the Northern Ireland (NI) Land Classification, but it can be used with any classification that divides the kilometre cells into different strata. The stratifications need not be complete, but only cover the region of interest, so for example a classification for Wales can be derived and used in the system.5

Further accruals are expected

The CIS and related dataset documentation are public records under the Public Records Acts 1958 and 1967. The National Archives (TNA) has assigned this dataset and dataset documentation the class reference AT 73.

The CIS datasets are open, however access to the dataset documentation is restricted. See the dataset documentation catalogue for further information.

The CIS and related dataset documentation are subject to Crown Copyright. Copies may be made for private study and research purposes only.

The CIS is not subject to registration under the Data Protection Act.

The language of the materials is English.

Further information about the CIS in general and current versions of the system can be obtained from the CIS web site. Documentation relating to the CIS and its development can also be seen in the Dataset Documentation Catalogue.

Publications include: Stark G; Barr C; Watkins J (1997) Using the Countryside Information System to Inform Woodland Policy in Arboricultural Journal. 21, 127 - 136.

PC with 32MB RAM.

Windows NT4

CIS is written in Microsoft Visual C++ version 6 using Microsoft Foundation Classes 6.0. It has been migrated from earlier versions of Visual C++ so some of the files do not have all the Visual Studio integration features available with version 6.

The program fully utilises the MFC document-view architecture and supports three distinct types of documents: region, census and sample. The file / class structure supporting each type of document is similar.

CIS is a system which allows users to work with and analyse data by overlaying and mapping different kinds of data about the UK countryside. The CIS is a raster based system, which means that the data is stored as a regular grid of pixels. 6

Access to the CIS was via the internet. Users could download the programs from the CIS web-site. The web-site also provided a comprehensive overview of the system and user manual for use of the system.

A screenshot of the start-up page can be seen here:

The CIS allows users to enter their own data and extrapolate or refine the values before producing tabular results and geographic distributions. The resultant information can be copied into other packages for further analysis or presentation.

When a census or sample file is opened the user views any of the included datasets on the country map. All squares are coloured with one of up to ten colours showing the detailed topology, species distribution, character areas or land class distribution across the whole country. Passing the mouse over the map displays individual data values in the status bar, and mapping controls enable the map to be redrawn with any colours or ranges.

The Countryside Information system 1992-1997 is stored in this archive as 10 datasets with 120 tables exported from 10 CIS datafiles. To see a list of the datasets, see Links to dataset catalogues

In the original system in order to use the first 6 sample files, CRDA/46/DS/1/1-6, the user needed to access the ITE Land Classification file, ITE LCr.ccf (CRDA/46/DS/1/9). The dataset can function without ITE LCr.ccf, but the sample files will not show the correct results unless it or its equivalent is put in the same directory as them and they are linked. In the CIS it states for all sample files, which are the first six datasets:

"Landclass File: ITE LCr.ccf; Landclass dataset: Land Class; Value dataset: Area weightings." The files "Land Class" and "Area Weightings" are the files contained by ITE LCr.ccf (CRDA/46/DS/1/9).

Relationships have been inferred between a number of tables. All tables created from the CIS sample files (all tables in datasets CRDA/46/DS/1/1-6) have a relationship to the landclass table (CRDA/46/DS/1/9/2). This is a feature of the CIS system, where in order to open any of the sample datasets, the system simultaneously references the landclass file defined for that sample file. Relationships have also been inferred between the CIS Census files, tables counties (CRDA/46/DS/1/7/1), eng_scot_wales_iom (CRDA/46/DS/1/7/2), environmental_zones (CRDA/46/DS/1/8), area_weightings (CRDA/46/DS/1/9/1) and land_class (CRDA/46/DS/1/9/2). No relationships were defined between these tables and those tables within the Land Cover Map 2000 dataset, since the Land Cover Map 2000 dataset archived here is a sample with data for the South East of England only.

The data in CRDA/46 is closed in that once the data was entered it was not subsequently overwritten by other data.

The CIS consists of data from various Countryside Surveys and therefore information on the original validation is not available.

Details of the content and transformation validation checks performed by NDAD staff on each dataset are contained in the catalogues of individual datasets: Links to dataset catalogues.

Dataset catalogues provide more detailed information about individual datasets, and are currently available for the following dataset(s):

1. Barr, C.J et al., 1993. Countryside Survey 1990 Main Report, CS90 Series Vol 2.

2. For detailed information about CS2000, see its web-site at the Countryside Information System, visited May 2003.

3. Taken from the Countryside Research Programme 1999/2000 on DEFRA web site. Visited June 2003.

4. ADAS was established as the State Advisory Service in 1946 and subsequently as the National Agricultural Advisory Service of the then Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the ADAS name first appeared in 1971 when wider science and land management disciplines within MAFF were integrated. ADAS became an Executive Agency of MAFF in 1992 and a private company in 1997. For further information regarding ADAS see their web site. For more information regarding the history of DEFRA see the administrative histories for Agriculture and Transport.

5. Taken from the Countryside Information System CIS on-line manual. Visited October 2003.

6. Excerpt from the CIS Help Topics, taken from the Countryside Information System, version 6.11. See CIS web-site for more information.