Land cover map

Land cover describes the physical material on the surface of the country. For example: grassland, woodland, rivers & lakes and artificial materials such as roads and buildings.

Land cover maps have many uses; they are used for the management of natural resources, urban planning, carbon accounting and flood risk modelling, to name but a few.

UKCEH has produced four land cover maps which have been successfully used in a wide range of applications by government departments & agencies, county councils, charities and environmental management bodies.

Land cover map 2015

The Land Cover Map 2015 (LCM2015) is the latest land cover map to be produced by the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology.

It has been derived from satellite images and digital cartography and gives land cover information for the entire UK. Land cover is based on UK Biodiversity Action Plan Broad Habitats.

LCM2015 updates the 2007 Land Cover Map (LCM2007) and uses an updated version of the LCM2007 spatial framework. LCM2015, like LCM2007 before it, is therefore constructed from polygons that reflect real-world boundaries. This increases both its ease of interpretation for users and also its compatibility with other geospatial data sets.

There are several LCM2015 data products and all can be obtained from UKCEH under licence for academic, non-commercial and commercial use. Most are available free of charge but there may be a licensing fee for some as the data is derived from Ordnance Survey data.

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Land cover map

Land cover map 2015

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How LCM is used

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