Climatic Site Suitability for Scots Pine in Scotland

Polygon data representing the climatic suitability for Scots pine woodland creation in Scotland, based on the Forestry Research Ecological Site Classification system. The dataset is part of the Scottish Rural Development Programme 2014-2020, co-funded by the European Commission and the Scottish Government. It supports grant applications by providing an initial assessment using accumulated temperature, moisture deficit, exposure, and continentality factors.

Use Cases

• Assessing initial climatic suitability for Scots pine planting based on accumulated temperature and moisture deficit factors.
• Supporting grant applications for the Forestry Grant Scheme by identifying 'suitable' or 'very suitable' areas.
• Planning forest habitat networks for climate change mitigation based on carbon sequestration potential mentioned in the description.
• Informing rural development and farm diversification strategies by identifying areas for sustainable timber supply.

Strengths

• Dataset is explicitly tied to a £1,326m funding programme (the Scottish Rural Development Programme).
• Suitability classification is based on a defined decision support system (Ecological Site Classification) considering multiple climatic factors.
• Supports a clear government target to extend woodland cover by 100,000 hectares between 2012 and 2022.

Limitations

• Row count and file formats are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale analysis.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Dataset explicitly does NOT take into account any soils information, which is a critical factor for tree growth.

Provenance

Source

Government Digital Service

Collection Method

Likely derived from climatic modeling and spatial analysis using the Ecological Site Classification system.

Time Range

Associated with the Scottish Rural Development Programme 2014-2020.

Freshness

Last updated date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Geography

Scotland