Land Cover Surveys

Land cover describes the principal features and characteristics of the countryside. Data on land cover, both in map and statistical format, is essential to assess the stock and distribution of landscape features as well as the determination of change within the countryside. In Scotland, there are currently three basic sources of land cover data.

The ITE Countryside Surveys, 1978, 1984, 1990, 2000 (ITE now Centre for Ecology & Hydrology)
The Land Cover of Scotland, 1988. Summary Statistics Reports for the 32 Authorities (word documents of about 3.5 Mb each) are available. One page version & one page per authority version.
The Scottish Natural Heritage Countryside Monitoring Scheme (LCS88) Different systems rely
on different methodologies:

	ITE	LCS88	NCMS
Methodology	Systematic stratified sample of 192 x 1km squares, with stratification based on ITE land classes	National census	Stratified random, area-based sampling design
Data Collection	Field survey	Aerial photographs	Aerial photographs
Mapping scale	1:10 000	1:24 000	1:10 000 to 1:32 000
Classification	Flexible: combination of 100 primary and 150 secondary classes	127 cover types 1300 mosaics	32 aerial cover types 5 linear features
Mapping Units	Areas: > 0.04ha Linear: Features: >20m length Points: mapped as features in isolation	Areas: > 4ha vegetation > 5ha built land > 2ha woodland Linear: Features: >200m length Points: 2ha	Minimum land parcel mapped is 0.1ha

LCS 88 | Land cover types

Introduction Page