ISSUES IN GIS DEVELOPMENT - ADAPTING TO RESEARCH AND POLICY-NEEDS FORMANAGEMENT OF WET GRASSLANDS IN AN ENVIRONMENTALLY SENSITIVE AREA

Geographical Information Systems (GIS) represent a rapidly changing te chnology, and awareness of their capabilities outside the GIS arena ha s grown rapidly during the last few years. As part of a wide-ranging e cological research programme on wetlands in Environmentally Sensitive Areas (ESAs) the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology (ITE) developed a GI S for the examination of lowland wet grassland landscapes, and the pot ential for their restoration (the 'Wetlands GIS'). A flexible approach to the development of the GIS was necessary to accommodate changes in technology and in the needs and interests of the key 'stakeholders' i n the project: the research ecologists who supplied much of the data f or the GIS and the policy-makers concerned with the application of res earch findings to land-management problems. This paper explains the ra tionale behind the use of GIS in the context of ESA-management and its evolution over a three year period. Examples of output are used to de monstrate the benefits of map displays for encouraging communication b etween developers and users, the data-storage, handling and analytical capabilities of the GIS and its role in matching the needs of researc hers and policy-makers.