The Pickering socio-economic baseline study describes socio-economic conditions for three time periods—the mid 1970's, the late 1990's, and 2002—within a 5-km radius of the actual Pickering lands runway location. The considerations included:

• Social—people, communities, community features, and activities
• Land Use—existing, proposed and special uses of the land
• Agriculture—soil capability, productivity, and investment
• Economic—business activity, investment, employment characteristic
• Cultural Heritage—archaeology and heritage features.

As part of the study, data were collected from a number of sources, including an extensive field inventory within 3 km of the Pickering lands, and entered into a GIS.

The field survey was undertaken to develop a spatial database of the existing features in the study area. Coordinate locations of the features were captured using a GPS unit in the field, along with digital photos of each feature. Attribute information for each feature was also collected at the same time on a form template.

The feature locations and attribute information were downloaded to the GIS so they could be plotted for mapping and spatial analysis. A database was developed to store all attribute information for each feature visited. Most field data collection was in rural areas and the nearby small villages, hamlets, and towns. For urbanized areas, data collection was supplemented by air photo interpretation and focused on special features only.