Use of geographical information systems and remote sensing for river management: Thames Region, UK environment agency

UK Environment Agency's Thames Region is continuing the use and development of Geographical Information Systems (GIS). Began in the late 1980's and carried out until the mid 1990's by previous organisations, the project to date has included the use of four major systems. The Geo-Facilities Information System, used from 1988, allowed digitising of the Thames drainage network, but proved complex and costly to run. The Spatial Analysis System, adopted in 1990, was cheaper, more versatile and ideal for modelling, but had cartographic and networking limitations. 1996 saw a shift to MapInfo: a 'user-friendly' networkable GIS, good for desktop mapping, but with limited analytical capabilities. Arc View, similar to MapInfo, but with better analytical capabilities, was adopted in 1997: all staff with networked PCs now have access to GIS data. Remote sensing has been used to map Thames Region floodplains since the 1970s, using aerial photographs and photogrammetry. Landsat imagery has been used since the 1980s, mostly for land cover mapping, augmented recently by hyperspectral data from the Compact Airborne Spectral Imager. A notable trend is towards greater use of the Internet for distributing GIS data within the Environment Agency and to the general public. Case studies are given of applications in flood defence, fisheries, planning, archaeology and land cover mapping.