Land Cover Map of Great Britain 1990

The Land Cover Map of Great Britain (1990) is a digital dataset, providing classification of land cover types into 25 classes, at a 25m (or greater) resolution. Data from the map provides: 

  • the first complete map of the land cover of Great Britain since the 1960s. 
  • the first time the land cover of Great Britain has been comprehensively mapped from satellite information. 
  • the first digital map of national land cover. 
  • accuracy to the field scale, checked against ground survey. 

Uses

The Land Cover Map can be used to plan, manage and monitor: 

  • agriculture
  • ecology
  • conservation
  • forestry
  • environmental assessment
  • water supplies
  • urban spread
  • transport
  • telecommunications
  • recreation
  • mineral extraction

Classes

The Land Cover Map comprises 25 categories, including:

  • sea and inland waters
  • bare, suburban and urban areas
  • arable farmland, pastures and meadows
  • rough grass, grass heaths and moors, bracken
  • dwarf shrub heaths and moorland
  • scrub, deciduous and evergreen woodland
  • upland and lowland bogs 

 

Current Examples

  • detection of changing land cover
  • landscape management
  • mapping bracken - which supports ticks carrying human diseases
  • environmental assessments of motorway extensions
  • planning telecommunication lines 

More Information

Further information on the dataset, and how to obtain it can be found on our Data Availability page.

Please see also Dataset Descriptions, Land Cover Map 1990 Categories and Quote Form.

 

Contact

Data Licensing Enquiries, Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Maclean Building, Benson Lane, Crowmarsh Gifford, Wallingford, Oxfordshire, OX10 8BB, UK

Tel: +44 (0)1491 692549

E-mail: datalicensing@ceh.ac.uk            

The CORINE-GB dataset may also be of interest to you: this dataset is derived from LCM1990, is polygonized, but has a lower resolution. More details about CORINE-GB datasets are provided at the European Environment Agency.