This service is a representation of the Land Classification of Great Britain. The Land Classification is a classification of sets of environmental strata (land classes) to be used as a basis for ecological survey. The classification was originally developed by the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology (ITE) in the late 1970s. The strata were created from the multivariate analysis of 75 environmental variables, including climatic data, topographic data, human geographical features and geology data. The Land Classification has provided a stratification for successive ecological surveys (the Countryside Survey of Great Britain), the results of which have characterised the classes in terms of botanical, zoological and landscape features. Additionally, the Land Classification can be used to stratify a wide range of ecological and biogeographical surveys to improve the efficiency of collection, analysis and presentation of information derived from a sample. There are three layers in this WMS (1) the 1990 version of the Land Classification which contains 32 classes - classifying all 240,000km squares in Great Britain (2) the 1998 version in which the Land Classification was adjusted to 40 classes as a consequence of the need to provide National Estimates for habitats in Scotland in addition to GB (3) the 2007 version in which the Land Classification was adjusted once again, to 45 classes, as a consequence of the need to provide Wales-only estimates in addition to those for Scotland and GB.

This view service displays Environmental Zones which are aggregations of ITE Land Classes; these classes are derived from repeatable multivariate analysis of environmental data collected for each 1 km square in the country. Thus the classes, and hence the zones, are determined by combinations of environmental characteristics, not by just one or two. This means that the naming of classes (and zones) is not straightforward and cannot be achieved by reference to single parameters such as altitude. The approach taken with the ITE Land Classes is to give each a numeric identifier, rather than a text name, and to supplement these Land Class numbers with a brief description of the class.

This is a web map service for the Land Classification of the Shetland Isles. The classification was originally developed by the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology (ITE) in 1974 as a framework for ecological sampling and is a stratification of the land into a set of sixteen environmental strata at a 1km resolution. Each strata is an area sharing similar environmental characteristics (such as altitude, geology, distance from sea). The web map service contains two layers: 1) EnvironmentalStrata - all sixteen land classes; 2) OverviewOfStrata - land classes arranged into four related groups. The strata may briefly be described thus: Classes 1-4 - Coastal strata with few rivers running into the sea, gentle terrain; Classes 5-8 - Coastal strata with more sea and steeper slopes; Classes 9-12 - High altitude inland group, with few small water bodies; Classes 13-16 - Lower altitude zones with much peat and freshwater lochans. The four strata within each of these groups contain subtly different variations.

Gridded daily meteorological variables over Great Britain for the years 1961-2019 at 1 km resolution. This dataset contains time series of daily mean values of air temperature (K), specific humidity (kg kg-1), wind speed (m s-1), downward longwave radiation (W m-2), downward shortwave radiation (W m-2), precipitation (kg m-2 s-2) and air pressure (Pa), plus daily temperature range (K). These are the variables required to run the JULES land surface model with daily disaggregation. The data are provided in gridded netCDF files. There is one file for each variable for each month of the dataset. This research has been carried out under national capability funding as part of the NERC Hydro-JULES programme (NE/S017380/1) and under the NERC Changing Water Cycle program (NE/I006087/1). Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/835a50df-e74f-4bfb-b593-804fd61d5eab

This is a digital map containing polygons representing areas of vegetation within Roudsea Wood National Nature Reserve (NNR), Cumbria. Vegetation was mapped in the field on a basemap as parcels according to tree cover type, tree stocking rates and ground flora communities. The map covers the western side of the reserve (the woodland). The field map was originally created by staff at the Nature Conservancy’s Merlewood Research Station, Grange-over-Sands, Cumbria in 1962 and digitized by the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology from the original field map in 2019. Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/a8d710fb-177d-467c-b2c1-2b215f582d2c

The Land Classification of Shetland is a classification of the Shetland Isles into a set of 16 environmental strata, termed land classes, to be used as a basis for ecological survey, originally developed by the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology (ITE) in 1974. The strata were created from the multivariate analysis of 150 environmental variables, including topographic data, geographical features and geology data. The Land Classification can be used to stratify a wide range of ecological and biogeographical surveys to improve the efficiency of collection, analysis and presentation of information derived from a sample. Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/f1b3179e-b446-473d-a5fb-4166668da146

The Environmental Zones are aggregations of ITE Land Classes; these classes are derived from repeatable multivariate analysis of environmental data collected for each 1 km square in the country. Thus the classes, and hence the zones, are determined by combinations of environmental characteristics, not by just one or two. This means that the naming of classes (and zones) is not straightforward and cannot be achieved by reference to single parameters such as altitude. The approach taken with the ITE Land Classes is to give each a numeric identifier, rather than a text name, and to supplement these Land Class numbers with a brief description of the class.

The Land Classification 2007 is a classification of Great Britain into a set of 45 environmental strata, termed land classes, to be used as a basis for ecological survey, originally developed by the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology (ITE) in the late 1970s and building upon previous 1990 and 1998 versions. The strata were created from the multivariate analysis of 75 environmental variables, including climatic data, topographic data, human geographical features and geology data. The Land Classification can be used to stratify a wide range of ecological and biogeographical surveys to improve the efficiency of collection, analysis and presentation of information derived from a sample. The Land Classification 2007 provided stratification for the Countryside Survey of Great Britain 2007 and was adjusted from the 1998 version as a consequence of needing to provide National Estimates for habitats for Wales from Countryside Survey 2007 in addition to Scotland and GB as a whole. Both the 1990 version and the 1998 versions are also available. Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/5f0605e4-aa2a-48ab-b47c-bf5510823e8f

The Land Classification 1998 is a classification of Great Britain into a set of 40 environmental strata, termed land classes, to be used as a basis for ecological survey, originally developed by the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology (ITE) in the late 1970s and building upon a previous 1990 version. The strata were created from the multivariate analysis of 75 environmental variables, including climatic data, topographic data, human geographical features and geology data. The Land Classification can be used to stratify a wide range of ecological and biogeographical surveys to improve the efficiency of collection, analysis and presentation of information derived from a sample. The Land Classification 1998 provided stratification for the Countryside Survey of Great Britain 2000 and was adjusted from the 1990 version as a consequence of needing to provide National Estimates for habitats for Scotland from Countryside Survey 2000 in addition to GB as a whole. The dataset was later modified in 2007 during Countryside Survey 2007. Both the 1990 version and the 2007 version are also available. Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/971671a6-98b4-4d80-b165-21dace7373b9

The Land Classification 1990 is a classification of Great Britain into a set of 32 environmental strata, termed land classes, to be used as a basis for ecological survey, originally developed by the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology (ITE) in the late 1970s. The strata were created from the multivariate analysis of 75 environmental variables, including climatic data, topographic data, human geographical features and geology data. The Land Classification can be used to stratify a wide range of ecological and biogeographical surveys to improve the efficiency of collection, analysis and presentation of information derived from a sample. The Land Classification 1990 provided stratification the Countryside Survey of Great Britain 1990. The dataset was later modified in 1998 and 2007 for successive Countryside Surveys, both versions of which are also available. Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/ab320e08-faf5-48e1-9ec9-77a213d2907f