National Forest Inventory Woodland Map for Great Britain, 2019

Great Britain's forest and woodland areas over 0.5 hectares are mapped in this dataset, which is updated annually. The Government Digital Service compiled it using Sentinel 2 imagery, aerial photography, and administrative data from forestry agencies. Woodland is classified into 16 interpreted forest types, and non-woodland open areas are categorized into 11 types.

Use Cases

• Modeling land cover change based on annual updates and canopy cover criteria.
• Classifying forest composition based on the 16 interpreted forest type categories.
• Analyzing the spatial distribution of woodland based on the 0.5 hectare minimum area threshold.
• Identifying non-woodland features within forests based on the 11 interpreted open area categories.

Strengths

• Defines woodland with specific, measurable criteria: minimum 0.5 hectares, 20% canopy cover, and 20-meter width.
• Integrates multiple authoritative data sources: Sentinel 2 imagery, aerial photography, forestry agency databases, and the National Tree Map.
• Provides detailed classification with 16 forest types and 11 open area types.

Limitations

• Row count and file size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Excludes woodland patches smaller than 0.5 hectares, which are covered in a separate survey.

Provenance

Source

Government Digital Service, utilizing data from Forestry England, Forestry and Land Scotland, Natural Resources Wales, and other sources.

Collection Method

Interpretation of satellite and aerial imagery, combined with administrative forestry data.

Time Range

Primarily 2018/2019, with annual updates.

Freshness

Updated annually, with the described version based on 2018/2019 source data.

Geography

Great Britain (England, Scotland, Wales).