Carbon and Peatland 2016 Map: Simplified Wind Farm Planning Framework for Scotland

Scotland's simplified geospatial map of carbon-rich soils, deep peat, and priority peatland habitats, derived from soil and vegetation data by Scottish Natural Heritage. This version is intended for use in developing spatial frameworks for wind farm planning, showing only Class 1 and 2 areas. The map is a predictive, high-level planning tool based on data from the James Hutton Institute and Land Cover Scotland 1988.

Use Cases

• Identify areas potentially unsuitable for wind farm development based on the presence of carbon-rich soils and deep peat.
• Create regional spatial planning frameworks for renewable energy based on a consolidated map of priority peatland habitats.
• Assess potential environmental constraints for infrastructure projects at a coarse scale using the predictive peat indication.

Strengths

• Derived from authoritative soil and vegetation data sources, including the James Hutton Institute's 1:25,000 and 1:250,000 scale soil data.
• Designed as a high-level planning tool to promote consistency and clarity for planning authorities.
• Simplified version focuses specifically on Class 1 and 2 areas for wind farm spatial framework development.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), derived from James Hutton Institute soil data and Land Cover Scotland 1988.

Collection Method

Consolidation and classification of existing spatial soil and vegetation datasets.

Time Range

2016 (map version). Underlying data sources from 1988 onward.

Freshness

2016 (inferred from title).

Geography

Scotland.