Spatial and temporal variation in British land use 1869-2000

Current Governmental policy debate concerned with the utilisation of land and space is often shaped by pre-conceived ideas of historical land use. However, very little research has actually been done to examine long-run changes despite the growth in the availability of relevant data and the advancement of suitable technology such as GIS in recent years. The paper will present the results of current work to investigate a long-run of changes to British land use from 1869 to 2000. It will compare and contrast results from different historical surveys to construct a fuller picture of both contemporary usage and changes in use over time. Done at a national scale the research uses county level statistics to focus on broad categories of land use. A case study analysing urban growth will also be presented, revealing how this area has changed over a period of seventy years and how this helps researchers understand the implications of this for the society and culture existing within this space. This paper seeks to explore what can be discerned directly through comparisons between maps produced from historical surveys, modern satellite imagery and historical statistics, and how this information can then be used to inform current policy.