Identification

Title

England Woodland Creation Low Sensitivity Map v3.0: variant 2

Alternative title(s)

Abstract

The Forestry Commission has developed a series of sensitivity maps, based on nationally available and consistent datasets, to indicate where there are likely to be fewer sensitivities to woodland creation. These maps will help to indicate to landowners whether there is likely to be potential to establish new woodland on their land, and where there may be sensitivities that would preclude woodland creation. The maps do not indicate that, where there is a low sensitivity to new woodland being created, that planting will be agreed by the Forestry Commission, the regulator for woodland and forestry projects in England. However, the low sensitivity areas have fewest identified constraints to address, and it should be easier to agree creating new woodland here than in other areas. Likewise, creation of new woodland, particularly of native woodland, may be appropriate outside ‘low sensitivity’ areas, but the appropriateness of proposals in these areas will again be determined by the Forestry Commission, including through responding to the views of Natural England, Environment Agency, Historic England, the Local Authority and other stakeholders, where relevant. The Sensitivity Maps exclude all land that is unsuitable for planting, including urban areas, existing (and assumed) woodland and habitats that are considered too wet, too rocky, and too salty to support the growth of trees. This is achieved through restricting the Sensitivity Maps to the following land covers, based on the most recent update of Landcover Map: Acid grassland Arable and horticulture Calcareous grassland Heather Heather grassland Improved grassland Neutral grassland The spatial datasets and individual layers of those datasets that define land as unsuitable and low, medium, or high sensitivity for woodland creation in the Full Sensitivity Map version 3.0, the Low Sensitivity Map and their variants are set out in the document here: www.gov.uk/guidance/a-guide-to-forestry-commissions-sensitivity-maps-for-woodland-creation Attributes: ‘Sensitivity’ = the sensitivity to woodland creation level the land has been assigned. ‘Area (Hectares)’ = the area in hectares of the polygon. Lineage: This is version 3.0 of these layers, having gone through several iterations where new data inputs were added and changes made to how these were treated as sensitivities for woodland creation. These are the first versions of the layers to be published as Open Data.

Resource type

dataset

Resource locator

https://data-forestry.opendata.arcgis.com/

protocol: http

name: England Woodland Creation Low Sensitivity Map v3.0: variant 2

description: Forestry Commission Open Data Site

Unique resource identifier

code

a1fdf1f9-c208-4b1d-8c64-2ab00476df18

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

http://www.opengis.net/def/crs/EPSG/0/27700

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

environment

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Creation

Opportunity

publication

effective date

2010-01-13

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

-7.026241

East bounding longitude

2.840191

North bounding latitude

56.317078

South bounding latitude

49.811176

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

2023-07-25

End position

2023-07-25

Dataset reference date

date type

creation

effective date

2023-07-25

date type

revision

effective date

2023-07-25

Frequency of update

unknown

Quality and validity

Lineage

This is version 3.0 of these layers, having gone though several iterations where new data inputs were added and changes made to how these were treated as sensitivities for woodland creation. These are the first versions of the layers to be published as Open Data.

Conformity

Data format

name of format

Open format | Shapefile (SHP)

version of format

1998

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Any maps produced using this data should contain the following acknowledgements: "Contains, or is based on, information supplied by the Forestry Commission. © Crown copyright and database right (current year) Ordnance Survey [100021242]." “© Natural England copyright [2019], reproduced with the permission of Natural England, www.gov.uk/natural-england © Crown Copyright and database right [year]. Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000851168. Derived from 1:50 000 scale BGS Digital Data under Licence 2006/072 British Geological Survey. © NERC. National Soils map © Cranfield University (NSRI) © Crown Copyright and database rights [year].” “Data reproduced with the permission of RSPB. © Crown Copyright. Ordnance Survey licence number 100021787 (year).”

Constraint set

Limitations on public access

There are no public access constraints to this data. Use of this data is subject to the licence identified.

Constraint set

Use constraints

Constraint set

Limitations on public access

There are no public access constraints to this data. Use of this data is subject to the licence identified.

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

organisation name

Forestry Commission

email address

mapping.geodata@forestry.gov.uk

web address

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/

description: Forestry Commission England Website

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact

organisation name

Forestry Commission

email address

mapping.geodata@forestry.gov.uk

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata date

2025-03-05

Metadata language

eng