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Vector maps of the 1960 Second Land Utilisation Survey in England and Wales, from 110 published maps

[This dataset is embargoed until November 20, 2025]. This is a vector dataset representing land use in the 1960s across a selection of areas in England and Wales. The land use data is digitised from 110 published maps of the 1960s Second Land Utilisation Survey (2LUS) which was directed by Professor Alice Coleman. The published maps were digitised using a semi-automated supervised classification, followed by extensive post-processing to clean the vector dataset. The resulting dataset maps 11 land-use categories including “Arable”, “Broadleaved and mixed woodland”, “Coastal”, “Coniferous woodland”, “Grassland”, “Heath, moorland and rough land”, “Market gardening and orchards”, “Open space”, “Settlement”, “Unvegetated land”, “Water and Marsh”. Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/03940756-afe9-428b-8c69-275e6b889251

Simple

Date (Publication)
2025-09-24
Identifier
https://catalogue.ceh.ac.uk/id/03940756-afe9-428b-8c69-275e6b889251
Identifier
doi: / 10.5285/03940756-afe9-428b-8c69-275e6b889251
Other citation details
Ridding, L.E., Wickenden, A.R., Orsler, Z., Rowland, C.S., Hampton, J.M., Mitchell, B., Edwardes, A., Mullin, K., Haughton, G., Thurston, N., Pola, I., Sinclair, G., Sinclair, M.R., Shaw, J., Pywell, R.F. (2025). Vector maps of the 1960 Second Land Utilisation Survey in England and Wales, from 110 published maps. NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre 10.5285/03940756-afe9-428b-8c69-275e6b889251
Point of contact
  UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology - Ridding, L.E.
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3141-8795
Author
  UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology - Ridding, L.E.
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3141-8795
Author
  UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology - Wickenden, A.R.
Author
  UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology - Orsler, Z.
Author
  UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology - Rowland, C.S.
Author
  Office for National Statistics - Hampton, J.M.
Author
  Office for National Statistics - Mitchell, B.
Author
  Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs - Edwardes, A.
Author
  Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs - Mullin, K.
Author
  Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs - Haughton, G.
Author
  Wood PLC - Thurston, N.
Author
  Wood PLC - Pola, I.
Author
  Environment Information Services - Sinclair, G.
Author
  Environment Information Services - Sinclair, M.R.
Author
  King's College - Shaw, J.
Author
  UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology - Pywell, R.F.
Owner
  UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
Custodian
  NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre
Publisher
  NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre
GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0
  • Land Use
  • Land Cover
Access constraints
otherRestrictions Other restrictions
Other constraints
Embargoed
Use constraints
otherRestrictions Other restrictions
Other constraints
This resource is available under the terms of the Open Government Licence
Use constraints
otherRestrictions Other restrictions
Other constraints
If you reuse this data, you should cite: Ridding, L.E., Wickenden, A.R., Orsler, Z., Rowland, C.S., Hampton, J.M., Mitchell, B., Edwardes, A., Mullin, K., Haughton, G., Thurston, N., Pola, I., Sinclair, G., Sinclair, M.R., Shaw, J., Pywell, R.F. (2025). Vector maps of the 1960 Second Land Utilisation Survey in England and Wales, from 110 published maps. NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre https://doi.org/10.5285/03940756-afe9-428b-8c69-275e6b889251
Spatial representation type
vector Vector
Distance
10  urn:ogc:def:uom:EPSG::9001
Metadata language
EnglishEnglish
Character set
utf8 UTF8
Topic category
  • Environment
Begin date
1960-01-01
End date
1960-12-31
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Unique resource identifier
OSGB 1936 / British National Grid
Distribution format
  • Shapefile ()

Distributor
  NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre
Hierarchy level
dataset Dataset
Other
dataset

Conformance result

Date (Publication)
2010-12-08
Statement
All 110 published Second Land Utilisation Survey (2LUS) maps were digitised using a semi-automated supervised classification method. Firstly, maps were scanned and saved as Tiff images at 300 dots per inch at a colour depth of 8 bits per channel (24-bit depth). These were georeferenced in ArcGIS v10.7 using the Ordnance Survey (OS) 1km National Grid. For the classification, georeferenced 3-band images were converted to 16-bit single band images (256 colours). A manual look-up table was created for each map image identifying the dominant unique pixel values of the different land use classes. Any “noise” present on the images including text, contour lines and symbols were assigned a single blank value of 0. Similarly, pixel values which were common to multiple land use classes, such as the white colour were also assigned to 0. For these reasons it was not possible to classify either the “unvegetated land” or the “derelict land” land use categories. The model reclassified the 256 colours within a range of 0 to 10, representing the 10 land use categories and the noise category (pixel value = 0), with the latter being removed and replaced. Classified images were vectorised and manually cleaned using eliminate functions in ArcGIS. All “unvegetated land” was manually digitised as this could not be classified, along with a new category for “coastal” areas which were not classified. Railway lines, roads and very small rivers were inconsistently classified and were therefore removed, while “industry” and “transport” classes were grouped with “settlement” to ensure uniformity. “Derelict land” could not be classified but was often mapped in the classification as “settlement”, so this was later grouped with this category. Woodland was manually split into broadleaved and coniferous using the woodland symbology provided on the OS background, this usually aligned with the manual over-printed symbols but the latter was not present for all woodlands, thus the OS backdrop was used. The date of each OS basemap varied, however these were largely published or reprinted in the 1960s and were largely consistent with the surveyed land cover data, though there were exceptions e.g. Bristol East. To validate the classified 2LUS maps, 3,000 random points were generated across the digitised maps. For each point, a manual assessment was undertaken assigning the most representative land cover class to the point based on the raw georeferenced 3-band images. A confusion matrix between the manually assigned points and the classified 2LUS maps revealed an overall accuracy of 95.8%. Please see supporting documentation for more information.
File identifier
03940756-afe9-428b-8c69-275e6b889251 XML
Metadata language
EnglishEnglish
Character set
ISO/IEC 8859-1 (also known as Latin 1) 8859 Part 1
Hierarchy level
dataset Dataset
Hierarchy level name
dataset
Date stamp
2025-10-16T10:53:41
Metadata standard name
UK GEMINI
Metadata standard version
2.3
Point of contact
  NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre
Lancaster Environment Centre, Library Avenue, Bailrigg , Lancaster , LA1 4AP , UK
https://eidc.ac.uk/
 
 

Overviews

Spatial extent

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Keywords

GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0
Land Cover Land Use

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