UKCEH Land Cover Maps

Land Cover Map of UK 2021 with key to land cover classes

The UKCEH Land Cover Maps (LCMs) map UK land cover. They do this by describing the physical material on the surface of the United Kingdom providing an uninterrupted national dataset of land cover classes from grassland, woodland and fresh water to urban and suburban built-up areas.

UKCEH has a long history of using satellite imagery to map land cover from the first national Land Cover Map of Great Britain in 1990 to the current production of annual Land Cover Maps and land cover change data.

The UKCEH land cover classes are based on UK Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) Broad Habitats (Jackson, 2000).

Main users

Government, researchers, councils, charities, consultancies and utility companies successfully use Land Cover Maps for a wide range of applications in pursuit of academic, policy-related and commercial interests in the following areas:

Atmosphere and climate	Agriculture and forestry
Water and catchments	Landscape planning
Ecosystem service assessment	Telecommunications
Marine and coastal	Urban planning and studies
Ecology and conservation	Statistics, information and maps
Impact assessment	Flood risk modelling
Health and hazards	Carbon accounting

Land Cover Map series

Latest release: Land Cover Map 2023

Land Cover Map 2023 (LCM2023) datasets describe the UK land surface in 2023. These were produced by classifying satellite images from 2023. LCM2023 includes four datasets each for Great Britain and Northern Ireland: 10m classified pixel dataset; 25m pixel rasterised land parcel dataset; land parcel datasets; and 1km summary raster products.

Also available

Further information on the Land Cover Map Series is found at the Environmental Information Data Centre.

The series is complemented by UKCEH Land Cover^® plus: Crops, as well as Land Cover plus: Fertilisers and Land Cover Plus: Pesticides.

Formats

Land Cover Maps are available in a number of formats to suit users’ requirements:

Vector Land Parcels
25m Raster
20m Raster – available for LCM2017, 2018 and 2019 only
10m Raster – available for LCM2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 only
1km Raster - available for LCM1990, 2000, 2007, 2015, and 2017-2023.

The level of spatial detail in these is illustrated below:

Set of map images showing comparison in detail between different Land Cover Maps — Comparison of the level of spatial detail in the vector data set, 25m raster data set and 1km dominant cover raster data set for an area ~ 35km x 35km (top images) and ~ 6km x 6km (lower images). (LCM2015 is used for illustrative purposes). © UKCEH 2017. © Crown Copyright 2007. Ordnance Survey Licence number 100017572.

Vector Land Parcels: Each polygon represents a parcel of land and has attributes describing land cover and metadata outlining how this information was derived. Regarding scale, the Minimum Mappable Unit for land cover parcels is 0.5ha.

Raster: The raster gives the most likely UK Biodiversity Action Plan Broad Habitat for each pixel (10m, 20m, 25m or 1km).

Obtaining UKCEH's Land Cover Maps

Please contact the UKCEH Data Licensing Team using our Data Request Form or emailing Spatial Data for more information.

The way we license our Land Cover Maps depends upon how the dataset will be used. Choose your intended usage:

Academic research and education

Academic research and education

The series of Land Cover Maps is available for free to subscribers to the EDINA Environment Digimap service, which include all staff and students at more than 160 UK further and higher educational establishments.

If your academic institution does not subscribe to EDINA, please contact the UKCEH Licensing Team via our Data Request Form or email Spatial Data for more information.

Non-commercial use of raster data

All of UKCEH’s raster Land Cover Maps are available to download and use for free for non-commercial organisations and their contractors from the Environmental Information Data Centre:

Non-commercial use of vector data

Non-commercial use of vector land parcels data

Non-commercial organisations and their contractors can access all vector Land Cover Maps for Great Britain from UKCEH under licence. While data fees will not be charged, administration fees (total of £300 plus VAT) will apply. A condition of the licence is that information on how the data are used is provided to help inform our product development. Understanding how and where our data are being used ensures they are kept fresh and relevant. Please make a request using this licence application form (Word).

Commercial internal business use

All of UKCEH’s Land Cover Maps are available for commercial internal business use under licence and subject to payment of a licence fee. Please make a request via our Data Request form or email Spatial Data for more information.

Innovation use and value-added reselling

UKCEH encourages use of our data to develop your ideas for new products and services. You can assess the datasets for potential commercial opportunity or to see what benefits they may bring under a free-of-charge innovation licence, which may lead to a bespoke value-added-reseller agreement. Please make a request via our data request form or email Spatial Data for more information.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) agencies

Working for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra)?

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and UKCEH have signed a licence, which will give the Defra family of agencies and public bodies* access to Land Cover Map vector data for Great Britain at no additional cost to that agency/public body. If you work for one of these, or if one of them funds your project, please contact the UKCEH Data Licensing team.

*Scroll to Defra in the list and click view all.

Web mapping service

UKCEH provides a Web Mapping Service for Land Cover Map 2021 10m raster data, as well as Land Cover Map 2007, 2015, 2017-2019 and 2020 10m and 25m raster data. There is a Web Mapping Service for Land Cover Map 2007 and 2015 1km raster data. Using our map viewer, high-resolution data for the whole of Great Britain can be seen, but not downloaded. For Land Cover Map 2007 and 2015 1km raster data only, data for Northern Ireland can be viewed. Images of Land Cover Map data can be captured but, if these are published, they must be acknowledged appropriately. See details below of how to cite Land Cover Map data products when you use them.

How to cite Land Cover Map

How to cite and acknowledge LCM - 2024 update

Upcoming Land Cover Map developments

In 2020 the first Land Cover Change dataset was released, spanning the 25 years between 1990 and 2015. Work is currently in progress (funded by UK-SCAPE and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy) to develop new Land Cover Map data between 1990 and 2015 to provide better information on the dynamics of land cover change in the UK.

Land cover change

We need to understand how the UK's land surface is being used, so we can monitor the impact of environmental changes and plan environmental improvements.

For these infographics, we calculated the overall net gains and losses in simplified land cover categories over 25 years in Great Britain and by country between 1990 and 2015. Click on each image to view a larger size.

Case studies: Using land cover map (LCM2007 examples)

Norfolk Rivers Trust

Customer: Norfolk Rivers Trust

Project: Diffuse Pollution Risk Mapping
Land Cover Map product: Land Cover Map 2007 25m raster data

"My project aims to identify high-risk sites for water runoff. To give me a good idea of where to concentrate my effort, I ran the SCIMAP Model. Using Land Cover Map 2007 25m raster data, as well as rainfall and digital terrain data, the model highlighted risky areas of flow within the River Nar catchment. When I went out on site to these identified areas during heavy rain, I could see the flow of water out of fields and down roads. I wouldn’t solely rely on the model to tell me where to look because there was other evidence elsewhere in the catchment, but it is a good indicator."

Helen Mandley, Farming & Water Project Officer.

Severn Trent Water

Customer: Severn Trent Water

Project: Risk mapping to support catchment management and drinking water safety planning.
Land Cover Map product: Land Cover Map 2007 vector data

CEH's Land Cover Map 2007 vector dataset. which defined the baseline land parcels, was used in support of archival satellite imagery to produce annual land use maps. In turn, these land use maps were overlaid with inherent field risk (soil type, slope and proximity to water) to develop pesticide risk maps.

OFCOM, Microsoft and other global technology companies

Customer: OFCOM, Microsoft and other global technology companies

Project: TV White Space - Europe's first major pilot project to support wireless innovation.
Land Cover Map product: Land Cover Map 25m raster data

Land Cover Map 2007 25m raster data is a vital component of this pilot project, which is investigating the potential for the gaps or "white spaces" in the frequency band for digital terrestrial TV to be used for other applications at certain times. The amount of white space available varies by location, hence the requirement for Land Cover Map. Examples of the applications include monitoring the behaviour of cities, enhancing traffic information, improving broadband in hard-to-reach places and developing intelligent devices.

Further information (Frequently Asked Questions and documentation)

Sample files

Sample files (updated July 2024)

GIS layer files

GIS layer files provide the correct symbology so helping to make sense of the data when it is viewed in a Geographic Information System (GIS). Please download the zip file below for the correct layer files for each of the Land Cover Maps. This also contains a file with a colour palette for users with red-green colour vision deficiency.

Land Cover Map Symbology Layer Files