British National Grid Ecological Surveys With Land Class Data

1978, 1984, and 1990 surveys collected botanical, soil, and land cover data from up to 508 sample 1 km squares across Great Britain. The dataset includes land class assignments for approximately 250,000 grid squares, enabling statistical predictions of ecological characteristics. The Countryside Survey 1990 was sponsored by the UK Department of the Environment, British National Space Centre, and Natural Environment Research Council.

Use Cases

• Predict land class for a 1 km square using environmental characteristics like geology and climate.
• Analyze correlations between soil type strata and botanical occurrence/cover data from quadrat surveys.
• Model changes in land cover over the surveyed years (1978, 1984, 1990) across the 32 distinct land classes.
• Extrapolate ecological characteristics from the 508 sample squares to the circa 250,000 squares in the national database.

Strengths

• Data collected from up to 508 sample squares across three survey years (1978, 1984, 1990).
• Land class assignments cover approximately 250,000 1 km squares of the British National Grid.
• Surveys are representative of 32 distinct land classes defined by environmental characteristics.

Limitations

• Sample size is limited to a maximum of 508 squares relative to the national scale.
• Data is temporally stale, with the last survey conducted in 1990.
• Geographic coverage is restricted to Great Britain, limiting generalizability.

Provenance

Source

Countryside Survey 1990, sponsored by UK Department of the Environment, British National Space Centre, and Natural Environment Research Council.

Collection Method

Field surveys of selected 1 km squares, with data held in Arc-Info GIS and an Oracle database.

Time Range

1978, 1984, 1990

Freshness

null

Geography

Great Britain (British National Grid)