National Forest Inventory Woodland Map for Wales, 2017

A 2017 geospatial dataset mapping all forest and woodland in Wales meeting criteria of over 0.5 hectares, 20% canopy cover, and a 20-meter minimum width. It is produced and updated annually by the Forestry Commission, incorporating remote sensing imagery from spring/summer 2016 and new planting data from the 2017/2018 financial year. The map uses Ordnance Survey MasterMap as a spatial reference and excludes features like wide roads and rivers.

Use Cases

• Monitor changes in woodland canopy cover based on annual remote sensing updates mentioned in the description.
• Analyze the spatial distribution of forest and woodland areas based on the defined size and canopy criteria.
• Assess the impact of forestry grant schemes and planting activities based on the incorporated sub-compartment database information.
• Create land cover maps for environmental modeling based on the detailed woodland boundary data.

Strengths

• Defines clear, quantitative inclusion criteria: woodland areas over 0.5 hectares with a minimum 20% canopy cover and 20-meter width.
• Uses authoritative spatial references, specifically Ordnance Survey MasterMap, for boundary accuracy.
• Incorporates multiple data sources for updates, including remote sensing imagery and official forestry grant and planting records.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale statistical analysis.
• The description metadata is limited; actual data quality and completeness require manual inspection after download.

Provenance

Source

Forestry Commission

Collection Method

Likely compiled from remote sensing imagery, aerial orthophotography, and official forestry grant and sub-compartment databases.

Time Range

Primarily 2017, incorporating imagery from 2016 and planting data from the 2017/2018 financial year.

Freshness

The dataset is described as being updated annually, with a platform last updated date of 2026-06-19.

Geography

Wales, United Kingdom