UK Land Cover Map 2018 25m Raster Service

25-meter resolution raster data describes land cover across Great Britain and Northern Ireland for 2018. The dataset classifies land using UK Biodiversity Action Plan broad habitats. It was produced by the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and published by the Environmental Information Data Centre.

Use Cases

• Analyze habitat distribution by classifying land cover pixels into UK Biodiversity Action Plan broad habitats.
• Monitor land use change over time by comparing 2018 raster data with other LCM release years.
• Model ecosystem services using the 25m resolution land cover classification as a base layer.
• Assess agricultural or urban expansion by quantifying pixel counts for specific land cover classes.

Strengths

• 25-meter spatial resolution provides detailed land cover classification.
• Covers the complete land area of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
• Derived from the authoritative UKCEH Land Cover Map 2018 land parcels dataset.

Limitations

• Data is a static snapshot for 2018, not a time series.
• Access requires a Web Map Service (WMS) client, not a direct file download.
• Specific row count and file size metrics for the raster are unavailable.

Provenance

Source

UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) Land Cover Map 2018.

Collection Method

Rasterised from the corresponding LCM2018 land parcels datasets into 25m pixels.

Time Range

2018

Freshness

Dataset snapshot is from 2018; metadata was updated in April 2026.

Geography

Great Britain and Northern Ireland.