The Domesday Machine: A Nationwide Geographical Information System

This paper describes selected aspects of the Domesday project led by the BBC and intended to create 'an exhibition of Britain1 in the 1980s. Among other things, this resulted in what is perhaps the first example of a second-generation Geographical Information System (GIS). Based upon a micro-computer linked to a new Laser Vision-Read Only Memory (LV-ROM), this holds 54000 images (maps, photos, satellite images, etc), 300 megabytes of digital data and millions of words of text per side of video disk; the different types of data are cross-referenced by geographical position or by theme. Access to the data is by pointing at maps, by specification of place name or geographical coordinates, or through use of a thesaurus: the source and storage form of the data is transparent to the user. Included in the initial disks are 21 000 files of spatial data showing national coverage down, in some cases, to 1 square kilometre resolution. Data sets stored include geology, soils, geochemistry, population, employment and unemployment, agricultural production and land use/land cover. Though the normal purchase price of the data held would be over ?250 000, the price charged to schools for the complete system?hardware, software and data?at the launch date in November 1986 was ?3000. All this has significant implications for the spread of use of geographical data bases and GIS technology; it also has major implications for the teaching of Geography at different levels.