CEH Land Cover plus: Fertiliser Application Maps for England

Predicted average annual application rates for nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium fertilisers across England from 2010 to 2015. The modelled data provides estimates and uncertainty at a 1 km x 1 km resolution, derived from the Defra British Survey of Fertiliser Practice. These maps were created to support analysis of agricultural impacts on the environment and policy development.

Use Cases

• Modelling nutrient runoff to water based on predicted fertiliser application rates.
• Estimating greenhouse gas emissions from fertiliser application to crops and grassland.
• Quantifying impacts of agricultural management on indicators like farmland birds and pollinators.
• Linking crop growth models to predict areas where nutrient management could improve yields.
• Informing catchment-sensitive farming policies to mitigate pollution.

Strengths

• Provides modelled estimates for three key fertiliser types (N, P, K) with associated uncertainty values.
• Offers consistent spatial coverage for England at a 1 km resolution across a six-year period (2010-2015).
• Funded by major UK research councils (NERC/BBSRC) under the ASSIST programme, indicating a research-grade source.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as exact row count, file size, and specific license are missing from all provided sources.
• Data is modelled from survey data (BSFP) via spatial interpolation, not direct measurement, which may introduce error.
• The 'last updated' date of 2026-04-16 appears to be a future date, suggesting a potential metadata error.

Provenance

Source

Environmental Information Data Centre, modelled from Defra British Survey of Fertiliser Practice (BSFP) data.

Collection Method

Spatial interpolation procedure applied to survey data.

Time Range

2010-2015

Freshness

2026-04-16 10:14:39.410831

Geography

England