UK Recreation Demand Maps at 250-Meter Resolution

Recreation demand maps for the United Kingdom project weekly, monthly, and yearly visit frequencies for outdoor non-vehicular activities. The maps are provided at a 250-meter resolution in a British National Grid projection, with separate layers calculated with and without the inclusion of protected areas as an attractiveness proxy. This research was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council under the AgZero+ programme.

Use Cases

• Analyze weekly, monthly, and yearly recreation demand layers to identify seasonal visitation hotspots for walking and hiking.
• Compare maps calculated with and without protected area attractiveness to assess the influence of conservation areas on projected visits.
• Model spatial accessibility for outdoor recreation using the 250-meter resolution grids in a British National Grid projection.
• Integrate projected visit frequency data with other environmental datasets for land-use and conservation planning.

Strengths

• Maps are provided at a detailed 250-meter spatial resolution.
• Includes separate data layers for weekly, monthly, and yearly visit frequency projections.
• Each frequency layer has a version calculated with and without protected areas as an attractiveness factor.
• Data uses a standardized British National Grid transverse Mercator projection (EPSG 27700).

Limitations

• The underlying visit projections are based on a model (universal law of human mobility) and not direct ground counts.
• Attractiveness is proxied solely by protected areas, which may not capture all factors influencing recreation choice.
• No information is provided on the temporal coverage or specific years the demand estimates represent.

Provenance

Source

Environmental Information Data Centre.

Collection Method

Recreation demand was calculated as projected visits using the universal law of human mobility model.

Freshness

Last updated in March 2026.

Geography

United Kingdom.