Highlights the power of geospatial innovation across land, environment and public good
AGI Scotlands Annual Conference 2026 brought together a diverse and engaged geospatial community for a full day of discussion, challenge and insight, demonstrating the growing importance of location data in addressing some of Scotlands biggest opportunities and most complex problems.
From land reform and infrastructure to environmental restoration, public health, natural capital, lidar, digital twins and forensic science, the conference programme showed the extraordinary breadth of geospatial practice now shaping policy, planning and delivery across the country. The day also provided a valuable forum for reconnecting as a community, sharing practical experience and exploring where geospatial can have the greatest impact next.
The conference opened with welcome remarks from Bruce Gittings, AGI Scotland Chair, before moving into a strong first keynote from Andy Wightman on Land Administration and Data to support land governance and land reform. His contribution set the tone for the day: ambitious, thought-provoking and firmly focused on the need to improve how Scotland manages and connects land information.
Andy argued that despite earlier initiatives, including ScotLIS in the 1990s and further efforts in 2015, Scotland still lacks integrated data that would allow a clear understanding of ownership, tenancy and use of land. The central message was stark: this has still not been delivered. Even with a Land Reform Act 2025, effective reform will depend on the IT and data systems that sit behind policy. At present, there is still insufficient detail about how that underpinning digital infrastructure will be created, and too little attention is given to integrating what already exists. It was a timely reminder that the technical implications of legislation and public policy need to be considered much earlier and much more seriously by government.
That challenge was not framed as purely technical. The wider consequences include lost economic opportunity, ongoing inefficiency and difficulty in supporting better public decision-making. As highlighted during discussion, there remain legal and intellectual property issues, but these should be resolvable through leadership, standards and commitment rather than allowed to remain barriers. Comparisons with places such as Montana, Estonia and Denmark were used to underline that high-quality land data systems are achievable where cadastre, governance and data infrastructure are properly aligned. Too often, critical information remains trapped in spreadsheets and PDFs rather than usable geospatial systems, and standards remain inconsistent.
That keynote was followed by Richard Flemmings, AGI Foresight Report Lead, who introduced the AGI Foresight Report, before Mhairi Robertson of Savills and John Martin of Registers of Scotland explored how digital visualisation of the sasine register is helping unlock historic land records to support major infrastructure delivery. Their session, Unlocking Centuries of Land Data, provided a very practical complement to the morning keynote, showing what becomes possible when legacy records are modernised and brought into a geospatial framework.
The programme then moved into a series of applied case studies illustrating how geospatial is improving decision-making across sectors. In Session 2, Ross McDonald spoke about geospatial innovation at SSEN Transmission, while Peter Green of Crown Estate Scotland and Magdalena Low of Ordnance Survey presented Asset Insight Revolution: Optimising the Scottish Crown Estate with OS National Geographic Database.Andy Gasiorowski of Public Health Scotland then offered a compelling wider perspective with Healing Landscapes, exploring how better understanding of the composition and biodiversity of the NHS estate could support improved health outcomes.
The University of Edinburgh was represented in two particularly strong presentations. Professor Caroline Nichol and Dr Annie Yang discussed monitoring landscape restoration using ultra high-resolution aerial data, demonstrating how remote sensing can support ecological assessment and long-term environmental monitoring. Later in the day, Professor Simon Mudd showcased the applications of Scotlands national lidar programme across geomorphology, hydrology, forestry and erosion risk, underlining the broad scientific and practical value of national geospatial datasets.
The conference also looked ahead to digitally enabled urban and environmental management. Athanasios Daravanis and David McAllister introduced Glasgow City Councils Environmental Digital Twin project, while the afternoon continued with excellent contributions from Donya Davidson of NatureScot on the Natural Capital Tool, Phil Rees and Sam West of Dalcour Maclaren on GIS and route optimisation for the Strathrory Windfarm Connection, and Suzanne Hyde of Brindley Associate on the role of geospatial data in Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment.
A panel session chaired by Richard Flemmings brought together Anna Hill (EDINA), Mike Kerr (Scottish Forestry), Ashley Stewart (Location Data Scotland) and Wendy Ritson (Atkins) for a wider discussion on the future direction of the sector and the importance of collaboration across organisations and disciplines.
The closing keynote from Professor Dame Lorna Dawson, Natural Justice: Helping to answer the where question from crime scene to court,provided a memorable finish to the day. Her presentation fascinated the audience with examples of how trace evidence from soils, geology and biological matter can be analysed using databases and geospatial technologies to link material back to source locations, sometimes to within a few hundred metres. It was a remarkable demonstration of environmental and spatial science in action. Particularly striking was the explanation that the amount of material now required for analysis is so small that even when criminals dispose of clothing and shoes, enough trace evidence can often remain to connect them to the location of a crime.
There was a brief audio-visual hiccup during the day, but it was quickly recovered from and did little to interrupt the overall flow or quality of the event.
AGI Scotland would like to thank all speakers, panel members and session chairs for their excellent contributions, and also our sponsors for their generous support: Ardent, Esri UK, Idox Geospatial, Informed Solutions and Ordnance Survey. We were delighted to round off the day with GeoDrinks and a few geo beers at a local public house, continuing the conversation in an informal setting.
We are grateful to everyone who helped make the event such a success. AGI Scotland is always keen to hear from the community about the topics people would like to see explored at future events, and we are always open to new volunteers who would like to get involved and help shape what comes next.
AGI Members can login to view the event presentations and photographs from the day.