Module 1

Chapter 1: Introduction

The Nova Scotia Committee on Standards for Geographic Information, the body responsible for geomatic standards development, was approached by a number of municipalities to provide a standardized provincial land use classification system. To accomodate this request, a Land Use Coding Task Group was formed to both investigate existing systems and either endorse or develop a new system. The Task Group consisted of members from municipal, provincial and federal levels of government. The members of the committee had varied backgrounds, each offering a different perspective regarding the subject of classifying land use. Consequently, the group was able to produce a classification system which can be used by a broad range of agencies.

The Task Group reviewed existing classification systems and agreed that though some systems satisfied the needs of a few agencies they fell short of the requirements by others. The Task Group decided to develop a new system which would be built on the strengths of previous systems, while satsifying the needs of the majority of users of land use classification systems. Therefore, collectively, they developed a new system that could sufficiently satisfy the majority of potential user agencies.

Most of the existing land use classification systems use ambiguous terms such as commercial, institutional and industrial. These terms do not clearly indicate what is taking place on the property being classified and are essentially outdated terms (see Table 1.1). For example, in the past, government offices occupied entire properties and were classified as institutional. Today, government offices are found sharing property with the private sector, rendering the old classification system less applicable. The new system is not concerned with ownership but rather activity. If the activity is administrative it is classified as such, regardless of whether it is a public or private business.

Table 1.1 Comparing Systems

With the proliferation of technology and the expanding capabilities computer systems offer, a standardized provincial classification can be a very useful tool. Land use information can be stored in a database program and accessed by several agencies. Currently, the greatest difficulty faced by agencies who wish to share data is that their existing data is incompatible, with standardization of information, agencies can alleviate this problem. Because, using a standard land use classification system facilitates the sharing of data; maps and data developed under the new classification system can be applied to a Geographic Information System, updated continuously, and cross referenced with similar information province wide. By sharing land use information, agencies can be more efficient as they need not repeat similar survey tasks.

As mentioned above, this classification system is meant to be used by a broad range of agencies involved in land use planning and/or carrying out land valuation. Therefore, the standard land use classification system is flexible enough for agencies to build upon, as their requirements dictate, and detailed enough for agencies not interested in creating new classifications to use as is. The system is hierarchical, allowing users of the system to be as general or specific in their classifications as they wish. The system has three levels, each offering more detail than the other. Agencies can build "underneath" the standard by adding extra levels to the classification system.

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