Scotland’s Geospatial Renaissance Period

Robin McLaren

Know Edge Ltd

Bruce Gittings

University of Edinburgh

INSPIRE ConferenceEdinburgh, 28 June 2011

Scotland’s Geospatial Renaissance 1970s and 1980s

� Many of the concepts underlying today’s GI solutions were conceived and operationally implemented here in Scotland during the 1970s and 1980s.

� We will walk you through the highlights of this geospatial renaissance and try to explain why no global geospatial enterprise emerged here in Scotland.

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Neolithic Skara Brae Orkney3,200 BC

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Source: © Copyright C Michael Hogan

Renaissance Scotland - James IV

� James took the throne on 11 June 1488 and was considered a successful monarch who did much to advance learning and culture. He was particularly skilled as a linguist, speaking no less than six languages, including Gaelic.

� The Renaissance Court of King James IV was home to Scots Makars (master poets) including William Dunbar, Walter Kennedy and Gavin Douglas.

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Pont’s Map of Renaissance Period [1650s]

The twin summits of Ben Vorlich (Bin Vouirlyg) and Stùc a' Chroin (Struik chron), to the south of Loch Earn, still look much the same now as in Timothy Pont's day.

Source: National Library of Scotland

The Scottish Enlightenment

� Part of the Europe-wide Age of Reason, the Scottish Enlightenment was an intellectual movement that ranged across the fields of philosophy, chemistry, geology, architecture, poetry, engineering, technology, economics, sociology, medicine and history.

� The 18th century is often described as Scotland’s ‘Golden Age’.

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Robert Adam, Architect

Source: http://carltonhobbs.co.uk

David Hume, Philosopher

Source: http://carltonhobbs.co.uk

James Hutton, GeologistSource: www.nndb.com

Alison Rutherford, Poet

Source: www.ltscotland.org.uk

Adam Smith, Philosopher

Source: http://en.wikipedia.com

Adam Ferguson, Sociologist

Source: http://en.wikipedia.com

GI Renaissance 1970s and 1980s

� So what significant GI concepts emerged from Scotland during the 1970s and 1980s?

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GI Renaissance - 1966

� In 1966, Tom Waugh, working for the Program Library Unit of Edinburgh Regional Computing Centre (ERCC) while completing his undergraduate degree in geography, wrote the Computer Mapping System (CMS), which produced its output on line-printer.

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Tom Waugh

GI Renaissance - 1968

� In 1968 University of Edinburgh was in the vanguard of teaching computing to geography undergraduates, with a course entitled "Computers in Geography" remarkably becoming a compulsory part of the degree programme by 1970.

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Bob Hodgart

GI Renaissance - 1972

� Terry Coppock (founding editor of IJGIS) established the Tourism and Recreation Research Unit (TRRU) in 1972, which was innovative in early GIS. It was here that Steve Dowers developed the Tourism and Recreation Information Package (TRIP), one of the first packages to use spatial analysis.

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Terry Coppock

GI Renaissance - 1973

� Tom Waugh is best remembered for the Geographic Information Mapping and Manipulation System (GIMMS).

� This was an advanced vector-topological mapping system with a sophisticated command language which included data management and spatial analysis capabilities.

� GIMMS was sold as a commercial product from 1973

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GI Renaissance - 1973

� According to David Rhind:

“GIMMS can be considered the first globally-used GIS" which "anticipated some key characteristics of the Harvard Odyssey system by nearly five years and ARC/INFO by a decade"

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GI Renaissance - 1976

� The Edinburgh based company Ferranti Cetec Graphics Ltd delivered the world’s first Land Information System (Cadastral and Land Use Management Information Systems – CLUMIS) to the cities of Basel (1976) and Munich (1979), beating Intergraph to the contracts.

� This included integration with Basel’s mainframe property valuation system.

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Source: www.animatormag.com

GI Renaissance - 1981

� Innovations also came from the General Register Office for Scotland (GROS) in relation to census geographies.

� GROS took a far-sighted decision to align census areas with postcodes from the 1981 census, a change later adopted a decade later in England and Wales, enabling the more effective use of GIS techniques.

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GI Renaissance - 1985

� The Environmental Systems Research Institute (now ESRI) released the first version of ARC/INFO in 1982 and the University of Edinburgh acquired it in 1985, agreeing to develop an interface to the Oracle database management system.

� Such an arrangement may seem remarkable today, with both companies having grown to become multi-national corporations, but this development, now recognised as a crucial step in the development of GIS technology, arose in a Scottish university.

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GI Renaissance - 1986

� The GEOVIEW project undertaken in Edinburgh between 1985 and 1988 (Waugh, Healey and Sinha) represented one of the first practical storage of points, lines and polygons, together with their topological relationships, in a relational database management system and its principles underlie most GIS on the market today.

� [The first RDBMS GIS was SYSTEM 9 developed in Canada 1984-86]

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GI Renaissance -1985 … present

� In the University of Edinburgh Geography Department, encouraged by the vision of the Head of Department Sandy Crosbie, Tom Waugh and Richard Healey were responsible for launching the MSc programme in GIScience in 1985.

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� The first in the world of its type, this recognised the need for professionals in the field and has, to date, produced 669 graduates.

Richard Healey

Example MSc GIS Dissertations 1986

� BOOTH, P.J. An Investigation of the Potential for the Development of the Subcompartment Database of the Forestry Commission by the Use of the Geographical Information Manipulation and Mapping System or a GIS.

� GERBRANDY, P.S. May I Borrow Your Brolly, There's Fall Out About?!

� GRAY, D.A. The Relational Database in GIS - A Case Study.

� HARRIS, M.C. The Role of ARC/INFO as a Tool for Rural Planning and Policy-Making in Local Authorities.

� PERKINS, T.J. Water and Pollution in Scotland.

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IBM PcXT: exactly that with 10MB hard drive and 640k RAM

After the GI Renaissance, why is Scotland not ruling the GI world?

� Ordnance Survey domination?

� No venture capital available?

� Early adopters were researchers?

� Research peaked too early in the technology lifecycle?

� Cultural (UK wide) weakness?

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After the GI Renaissance, why is Scotland not ruling the GI world?

� GI people are more altruistic than commercial?

� Large number of graduates found employment in Scotland’s grossly over-manned public sector?

� Despite early adoption there were few commercial risk takers?

� Education failing?

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Maybe the University of Edinburgh’s

GI mafia are ruling the world anyway!