Cotswold Water Park
Project Introduction
The aim of the project was to create a master plan for the CWP
as there will be further mineral extraction in the future.
Therefore there was a need to identify potential changes in
recreation, tourism, minerals, the local community and the
sustainable environment. And also to look at the conflicting
requirements between mineral extractions, existing habitats,
agriculture, recreation, nature and heritage conservation, water
conservation, landscape, employment and tourism.
Project Background
The CWP Society is an environmental charity working to improve
the 40 square miles of the Cotswold Water Park for people and
wildlife. The park has many activities available from angling, bird
watching, camping, cycling and walks to bathing, boating, swimming
and water skiing.
Project Scope
The master plan was broken down into a number of key areas
(drivers). These were socio-economic and travel, agriculture,
biodiversity / nature conservation, sand and gravel extraction,
tourism, leisure and recreation and sport.
The GIS aspect of the project was conducted for the Planning,
Leisure & Tourism team based in Abingdon. The GIS analysis
involved collecting and collating data based on the drivers. The
process began with the combination of multiple environmental,
ecological and planning datasets e.g. SSSI, flood risk areas and
planning applications.
Value Adding Project Achievements
The collected data was then hosted on a Internet GIS website for
both the internal and external stakeholders to view. This allowed
stakeholders access to the data within a dynamic and easy to use
system. Individuals from various disciplines then had the
opportunity to view all the conflicting requirements of the water
park and create the final master plan.
The final GIS deliverable of the project was the online
consultation GIS Website for members of the public to use. A link
was placed on the Cotswold Water Park site to allow tourists and
visitors to access the available information on the water park.
