Data & sources
Scot-LAND uses open, public data only. Every layer shows its licence. Here is what we use, what we only link to, and what we leave out.
Sources on the map
Built from the open source catalogue. A source appears only when its licence link is set. Sources are grouped as Land, Natural resource rents, Services of nature and Limits — open a group to see the rows.
Linked, not copied
ScotLIS (the official title record), Common Good registers, Crofting Register maps on RoS, Spatial Hub layers that need a login.
Left out, and why
- Who Owns Scotland and other paid ownership data: paid.
- Full British Geological Survey minerals data: paid.
- Property website listings (Zoopla, Rightmove and others): not allowed.
- Names of individual crofters: personal data.
- Layers without a clear open licence: kept off until the licence is confirmed.
- Oil and gas: kept separate from Scotland's land figures, because it is managed by the UK.
Gaps we know about
- Old land records not yet digital.
- Private owners (we never show them).
- Natural-resource figures not yet split by Data Zone.
- Edinburgh's planning allocations.
- National common grazings boundaries.
- Land figures still on the 2011 Data Zones while we move to the 2022 set.
Comparisons
Some outside estimates are shown for comparison only. They never feed into our figures.
Glossary
- Annual Ground Rent
- the yearly rental value of a site, the land without its buildings. It is public value, created by the community and by nature, not by the owner.
- Data Zone
- a small area used by the Scottish Government for statistics, usually home to 500–1,000 people. Scotland has about 7,400 of them (2022 set). We show figures for Data Zones, never for single plots.
- Market / Modelled / Estimate
- how a figure was found. Market = taken from real prices people paid. Modelled = worked out from related prices. Estimate = used when there is no market price, like peat holding carbon. We never add different kinds together.
- Constraint
- a rule that limits how land can be used, like a nature protection area or flood risk. Constraint: changes best use, adds no value.
- OGL
- the Open Government Licence. It lets anyone use, share and build on public data if they say where it came from.