Checking out other data projects
One of the aims of Project Granite is to produce insight into Scottish communities and places that does not already exist.
In order to make sure that we are not repeating others’ work, I have searched for similar projects that map features and services of Scottish places and communities. Thank you to everyone that shared links and referred us to other projects. I was really surprised by how many there were.
It is likely that I have not found them all, so if you know of a project that I have missed, please let me know. I have included a date and attribution statement where possible, and in other cases I have just linked to the relevant project.
Summary
Some projects are quite general in their approach, whereas others take a very targeted view of the features of communities that they are mapping, and use only one or a small number of indicators. These projects all aim to map how communities are functioning, most with the aim of helping others to target interventions that can improve things in those communities.
I was astonished that there are so many data projects looking at communities from different perspectives which take on slightly different configurations of data but on the face of it have some overlap.
All of these tools take a great deal of time and expertise to produce, as well as in many cases secure funding or negotiate partnership agreements. A lot of this work would need to be repeated at regular intervals in order for the data to remain relevant and useful.
Each of these projects provides insight but more effort could be made to standardise outputs (particularly when within or funded by government) and make sure that these projects are widely known about to reduce the risk of wasting resources through duplication of effort.
Asset Mapping
Scotland's Economic Asset Register
This tool was developed by Scotland's Centre for Regional Inclusive Growth, with the aim of informing regional economic strategies. The tool allows you to view and filter companies, infrastructure, tourism, research, education, Companies House - Business Base, offshore assets, land use, population, and admin boundaries. It also has a data download feature for open datasets, which you can access by clicking the black arrow button at the bottom of the page. However, it is not clear whether the data that they have included is the most recent data available.
Hot Spots of Rural Resilience in Scotland, 2019-2020
This report1 was developed as part of a partnership between the National Centre for Resilience, Scotland's Rural College and The James Hutton Institute. The map shows distance to features that indicate community resilience (e.g. community centres, doctor surgeries) through a resilience score for each area. Alongside the map, a resilience indicators database2 was published, as well as the data generation code.3
2021 Legatum UK Prosperity Index
The Legatum Institute’s UK Prosperity Index4 ranks local authorities in terms of prosperity, as defined by numerous indicators. The methodology is available here. On the downloads page, users can find profiles for each local authority in Scotland by scrolling down, for instance here is the profile for Dundee City.
Understanding Scotland's Places (USP), 2018
This tool was developed by a consortium of organisations commissioned by the Scottish Government and led by the Carnegie UK Trust. The consortium includes Scotland’s Towns Partnership (STP), the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES), and the University of Stirling. Users can select and compare towns on a range of indicators. Towns are ranked on a scale of independence, interdependence and dependence for each of the indicators.
The Community Wellbeing Index
This index produced by Co-op5 includes a tool that allows users to search a postcode and view information about the area including education, health, jobs, culture, transportation, housing, relationships/trust, equality and participation. There is also a mapping tool that shows local authorities or constituencies and associates their score with a colour, and a report that highlights the methodology.
Community business map
This map from the Plunkett Foundation has markers for community businesses across the UK, and you can filter on a range of community business types.
20 Minute Neighbourhoods in a Scottish Context
This mapping tool6 and report look at 20 minutes neighbourhoods, places where residents can access all the services they need (for instance, stewardship, civic, movement, resources, and spaces) within a 20 minute walk, cycle, or public transport journey from their homes. The accompanying map scores neighbourhoods by the percentage of people who live in a 20 minute neighbourhood.
Health and COVID-19
The ScotPHO Profiles
A mapping and data visualisation tool from the Scottish Public Health Observatory that includes both health determinants and health outcomes data, available at a range of geographical levels including health board area and local authority in tabular, graphical and map formats.
Covid 19 Building Community Resilience
Produced by Scotland’s Regeneration Forum (SURF), this mapping tool and report7 highlight the need for community resilience in an effective Covid-19 response as well as indicating some of the places where organisations have formed to support people affected by the pandemic.
Covid-19 Community Vulnerability
This mapping tool produced by ScotPHO uses a range of clinical, social, and demographic indicators to rank communities on vulnerability to Covid-19. Users can filter map view on council area, intermediate zone, and datazone level.
Isolation Plus, 2020
This tool, which was trialled in 2020 and produced/funded by the European Space Agency, Stevenson Astrostat Ltd, and Lanterne uses satellite technology to identify communities vulnerable to isolation in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. The tool is no longer available for use, but was in commercial development as of April 2021.
Interactive databank on charities and Covid-19
This databank8 produced by New Philanthropy Capital (NPC) allows users to visualise a range of statistics relating to the impact of Covid-19 on UK communities. Most of the datasets do not include Scotland, but one useful data source is a section for the British Gas Energy Trust which outlines the number and value of awards for each local authority as well as the percentage of households in fuel poverty for each local authority (2020-2021).
Community business map
This map from the Plunkett Foundation has markers for community businesses across the UK, and you can filter on a range of community business types.
COVID-19 Vulnerability Index
This tool from the British Red Cross includes a map where users can view a vulnerability score for each local authority area in the UK. The scores are calculated from four domains: clinical, health and wellbeing, economic, and social. More information is available here. Note: the map can take a while to load.
Data downloads for identifying areas with higher proportions of people at risk from Covid-19
This page from the Oxford Consultants for Social Inclusion (OSCI) contains an indicator list and Intermediate Zone data download for Scotland.
Third Sector
State of the Sector, 2020
This tool from SCVO visualises voluntary sector statistics from OSCR and SCVO, allowing users to view this data in a variety of forms. The tool also includes distribution of organisations by urban/rural code and SIMD quintile.
Community Funding dashboard
This dashboard includes a map and graphs, and allows users to select one or more local authority areas and view the total and per capita funding allocated by the Scottish Government to the area(s) in response to challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
360Giving
This tool from GrantNav allows users to visualise collection of grants data published by UK funders. You can filter by geography (local authority), year, amount, recipient, and funding organisation.
Other
Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation, 2020
An interactive map and data download tool that allows users to view detailed statistics at datazone level. The technical report is available here.
Council Area Profiles, 2021
National Records of Scotland’s Council Area Profiles9 allow users to view detailed population data and trends for each council area, including population estimates, population projections, births, deaths, life expectancy, migration, marriages and civil partnerships, household projections, and dwellings. The tool allows users to compare one council area across multiple years, as well as against other council areas and Scotland as a whole.
Community Planning Outcomes Profile
Using this tool from the Improvement Service, which is still in development, users can select and compare a range of local authorities and community areas on a range of indicators of community wellbeing such as healthy birthweight, BMI, child poverty, attainment, positive destinations, employment rate, median earnings, out of work benefits, business survival, crime rate, dwelling fires, carbon emissions, emergency admissions, unplanned hospital attendances, early mortality, fragility, well-being, and fuel poverty. The data is also available for download. The producers of this tool acknowledge gaps in data on social inclusion/loneliness, community empowerment/resilience, early years development, emotional and physical wellbeing, and lived experience in local environments.
Brexit Vulnerability Index Map
This map from the Scottish Government and Rural and Environment Sciences and Analytical Services (RESAS) groups Data Zones into deciles based on their vulnerability to the consequences of Brexit. If you click on a Data Zone, you can view vulnerability scores for each domain.
Stat-Xplore
This tool from the Department for Work and Pensions allows users to view DWP benefit statistics as tables or on a map.
The State of our Social Fabric
By visiting Onward’s data visualisation page10 and selecting the "social fabric" filter, users can view a variety of Office for National Statistics data at local authority level. There is also an accompmanying report11, which includes an index that aims to build on/improve Legatum Institute’s Prosperity Index, Young Foundation’s Community Wellbeing Index, and Local Trust and OSCI’s analysis of left behind neighbourhoods.
1 John E Meador, Ruth Wilson, Mike Spencer, and Mags Currie. (2020). Hot Spots of Rural Resilience in Scotland. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3733112.
2 Michael Spencer, Elliot Meador, and Ruth Wilson. (2019). Identifying Hot Spots in Rural Community Resilience in Scotland - database [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3386198 © Crown Copyright and Database Right 2019. Ordnance Survey (Digimap Licence). This material includes data licensed from PointX Database Right/Copyright 2019. Contains NRS data © Crown copyright and database right 2019. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/legalcode.
3 Michael Spencer. (2019). Identifying Hot Spots in Rural Community Resilience in Scotland - data generation code (v1.02). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3519006 https://opensource.org/licenses/GPL-3.0).
4 2021 Legatum UK Prosperity Index™ (https://li.com/reports/uk-prosperity-index-2021/).
5 © Co-operative Group Limited. All rights reserved.
6 Ramboll for ClimateXChange, 20 Minute Neighbourhood in the Scottish Context, 2021.
7 Elaine Cooper, SURF, September, 2020.
8 © 2021 Think NPC.
9 © Crown copyright, 2021. Data supplied by National Records of Scotland.
10 Copyright © Onward, Company Registration no. 11326052.
11 Tanner, W., O’Shaughnessy, J., Krasniqi, F. and Blagden, J., 2020. The State of our Social Fabric.