Habitat Networks for Scotland with High, Medium, and Low Dispersal Extents

Scotland's habitat networks for six types—grassland, heathland, bog and fen, pond, wetland, and woodland—are provided as 10 x 10km tiles. NatureScot's Natural Capital Tool generated these networks using a cost-distance analysis for generic focal species, based on a habitat baseline and permeability scores. The analysis was run with three maximum dispersal distances, coded as 1 (high), 2 (medium), and 3 (low), resulting in nested extents.

Use Cases

• Modeling species dispersal potential based on the three coded dispersal distances (high, medium, low).
• Assessing habitat connectivity for conservation planning based on the six provided habitat network types.
• Prioritizing land management or restoration areas based on the nested network extents and permeability scores.
• Integrating habitat network data with other ecological datasets for landscape-scale analysis.

Strengths

• Covers six distinct habitat network types across the whole of Scotland.
• Provides three nested dispersal extents (high, medium, low) for each network, offering multiple analytical scales.
• Analysis incorporates a defined minimum patch size of 0.1 hectares.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to uk_data sources.

Provenance

Source

Scottish Government SpatialData.gov.scot

Collection Method

Cost-distance analysis using the Natural Capital Tool's habitat baseline and permeability scores from the EcoServ-GIS methodology & SNH Research Report 887.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-07-10 21:05:13.186591; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Scotland