Spatial Prioritisation of Carbon Sequestration and Loss from Land Use in England 2023

A geospatial layer identifies strategic opportunities for enhancing carbon sequestration across England, measured in tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per hectare per year (t CO2e ha-1 y-1). It was produced by Natural England, following IPCC methodology, with sequestration recorded as negative values and emissions as positive. The data integrates three habitat layers: the National Forest Inventory (2016), the NE priority habitat Inventory, and the Living England habitat map from satellite imagery (2020).

Use Cases

• Prioritizing areas for tree planting schemes based on identified low-intensity grasslands.
• Assessing regional carbon balance trends based on aggregated habitat sequestration values.
• Identifying peatland soils vulnerable to rapid carbon loss under arable or intensive grassland management.
• Informing land-use planning to enhance carbon storage, as suggested by the layer's focus on strategic opportunities.

Strengths

• Follows the IPCC methodology for reporting carbon emissions and sequestration.
• Integrates three distinct national-scale habitat data layers for England.
• Values are adjusted spatially using additional datasets, including protected sites and soil types.
• Sequestration figures are derived from the published Natural England Report NERR094 (Gregg et.al. 2021).

Limitations

• The description notes confidence in the sequestration data is lower than in carbon storage data, as it is less researched and harder to measure.
• The data is described as a guide for broad trends, not local differences in management practices.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.

Provenance

Source

Natural England

Collection Method

Collated from the National Forest Inventory (2016), NE priority habitat Inventory, and Living England habitat map (2020), with sequestration values assigned per habitat and adjusted using management datasets.

Time Range

Primary habitat data sources range from 2016 to 2020; dataset references 2023.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-29 12:06:06.550224; freshness should be verified.

Geography

England