Hedgehog records from the UK-wide Big Hedgehog Map, first launched in 2015. The survey is jointly funded by People's Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) and the British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS), as part of the Hedgehog Street project. Further details can be obtained from www.bighedgehogmap.org

Colourful and easy to use, Bartholomew’s maps became a trademark series. The maps were popular and influential, especially for recreation, and the series sold well, particularly with cyclists and tourists. To begin with, Bartholomew printed their half-inch maps in Scotland as stand-alone sheets known as 'District Sheets' and by 1886 the whole of Scotland was covered. They then revised the maps into an ordered set of 29 sheets covering Scotland in a regular format. This was first published under the title Bartholomew’s Reduced Ordnance Survey of Scotland. The half-inch maps of Scotland formed the principal content for Bartholomew's Survey Atlas of Scotland published in 1895. Bartholomew then moved south of the Border to the more lucrative but competitive market in England and Wales, whilst continuing to revise the Scottish sheets. The first complete coverage of Great Britain at the half-inch scale was achieved by 1903, and this is the layer shown here.The half-inch maps were distinctive for using different layers of colour to represent landscape relief. A subtle and innovative gradation of colour bands were employed for land at different heights. Lighter greens were used for low ground closest to sea-level, darker greens and browns for higher ground, with white used for mountain tops. Whilst layer colouring had been developed in Germany from the 1860s, Bartholomew's development of it was both innovative and influential. John Bartholomew junior (1831-1893) first used the firm's trademark layer colouring in Baddeley’s Thorough Guide to the English Lake District (1880). His son, John George Bartholomew (1860-1920), later went on to refine the style. You can see Bartholomew’s continued experimentation with layer colour palettes in the Cairngorms layer colour explorer ( http://geo.nls.uk/maps/bartholomew/layers/ )

Bartholomew based their half-inch maps on more detailed Ordnance Survey mapping at one-inch to the mile (1:63,360). The firm had published 'Reduced Ordnance Maps' of Scotland, England and Wales at this scale from the 1890s. These maps were progressively revised and updated with new information. Usually Bartholomew made revisions the sheets right up to the time of publication, so the date of publication is the best guide to the approximate date of the features shown on the map. You can view the dates of publication for the series at:

● Scotland: https://maps.nls.uk/series/bart_half_scotland.html

● England and Wales: https://maps.nls.uk/series/bart_half_england.html

Under the Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment (NCEA) Pilot, Natural England and the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI) have been working in partnership to use BSBI's vast database of plant records to inform the evidence base for tree-planting activities. Poorly targeted tree planting risks damaging wildlife and carbon-rich habitats, therefore using these data we aim to ensure that areas of high conservation value are preserved in the landscape. The summarised botanical value map provides an easily interpretable output which categorises monads (1 x 1 km grid squares) as being of Low, Moderate or High botanical value according to the presence of Rare, Scarce and Threatened (RST) plant species and/or the proportion of Priority Habitat Positive Indicator (PHPI) species that were recorded within the 1 x 1 km grid square between 1970 and 2022. The PHPI species are a combination of BSBI axiophytes, positive indicators for common standards monitoring and ancient woodland indicators. The dataset includes an overall botanical value, as well as values based on only the presence of RST plant species, and a value for each broad habitat type based on the PHPI species records. By viewing the different attributes, you can gain insights into how valuable a monad is for different habitat types and for plant species of conservation concern, as well as an indication of how well a particular monad has been surveyed. The categories of 'No indicators, poor survey coverage' and 'No indicators, good survey coverage' indicate where no indicator species have been recorded and survey coverage either is above or below a threshold of 3 'recorder days'. A 'recorder day' is defined as being when 40 or more species have been recorded on a single visit and 3 recorder days is assumed sufficient to achieve good survey coverage within a 1 x 1 km grid square. This map is not intended to be used to carry out detailed assessments of individual site suitability for tree planting, for which the RST plant species heatmap at 100 x 100 m resolution and the PHPI heatmaps at 1 x 1 km resolution have been developed by BSBI and Natural England. However, the summarised botanical value map can provide useful insights at a strategic landscape scale, to highlight monads of high value for vascular plants and inform spatial planning and prioritisation, and other land management decision-making. These should be used alongside other environmental datasets and local knowledge to ensure decisions are supported by the appropriate evidence. Please get in contact if you have any queries about the data or appropriate uses at botanicalheatmaps@naturalengland.org.uk.Datasets used:BSBI botanical heatmap data - BSBIOS Grids - OSONS Country boundaries - ONSCommon Standards Monitoring guidance - JNCC 2004BSBI's Axiophyte list - Walker 2018Ancient Woodland Indicators - Glaves et al. 2009Plantatt - Hill et al. 2004Further information can be found in the technical report at:Botanical Heatmaps and the Botanical Value Map: Technical Report (NERR110)Full metadata can be viewed on data.gov.uk.

Geological map 'Standards', manuscript and published maps of Great Britain produced by the Survey on County Series (1:10560) and National Grid (1:10560 & 1:10000) Ordnance Survey base maps. Maps produced since the 1860's, current holdings over 41,000 maps, all now available internally as image files.

Scanned images of Geological map 'Standards', manuscript and published maps produced by the Survey on County Series (1:10560) and National Grid (1:10560 & 1:10000) Ordnance Survey base maps. Current holdings over 41,000 maps for Great Britain. The majority of maps were scanned in 2004, any new maps produced are scanned and added to the collection.

PLEASE NOTE: This data product is not available in Shapefile format or KML at https://naturalengland-defra.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/Defra::living-england-habitat-map-phase-4/about, as the data exceeds the limits of these formats. Please select an alternative download format.This data product is also available for download in multiple formats via the Defra Data Services Platform at https://environment.data.gov.uk/explore/4aa716ce-f6af-454c-8ba2-833ebc1bde96?download=true.The Living England project, led by Natural England, is a multi-year programme delivering a satellite-derived national habitat layer in support of the Environmental Land Management (ELM) System and the Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment (NCEA) Pilot. The project uses a machine learning approach to image classification, developed under the Defra Living Maps project (SD1705 – Kilcoyne et al., 2017). The method first clusters homogeneous areas of habitat into segments, then assigns each segment to a defined list of habitat classes using Random Forest (a machine learning algorithm). The habitat probability map displays modelled likely broad habitat classifications, trained on field surveys and earth observation data from 2021 as well as historic data layers. This map is an output from Phase IV of the Living England project, with future work in Phase V (2022-23) intending to standardise the methodology and Phase VI (2023-24) to implement the agreed standardised methods.The Living England habitat probability map will provide high-accuracy, spatially consistent data for a range of Defra policy delivery needs (e.g. 25YEP indicators and Environment Bill target reporting Natural capital accounting, Nature Strategy, ELM) as well as external users. As a probability map, it allows the extrapolation of data to areas that we do not have data. These data will also support better local and national decision making, policy development and evaluation, especially in areas where other forms of evidence are unavailable. Process Description: A number of data layers are used to inform the model to provide a habitat probability map of England. The main sources layers are Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-1 satellite data from the ESA Copericus programme. Additional datasets were incorporated into the model (as detailed below) to aid the segmentation and classification of specific habitat classes. Datasets used:Agri-Environment Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) Monitoring, British Geological Survey Bedrock Mapping 1:50k, Coastal Dune Geomatics Mapping Ground Truthing, Crop Map of England (RPA), Dark Peak Bog State Survey, Desktop Validation and Manual Points, EA Integrated Height Model 10m, EA Saltmarsh Zonation and Extent, Field Unit NEFU, Living England Collector App NEFU/EES, Long Term Monitoring Network (LTMN), Lowland Heathland Survey, National Forest Inventory (NFI), National Grassland Survey, National Plant Monitoring Scheme, NEFU Surveys, Northumberland Border Mires, OS Vector Map District , Priority Habitats Inventory (PHI) B Button, European Space Agency (ESA) Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 , Space2 Eye Lens: Ainsdale NNR, Space2 Eye Lens: State of the Bog Bowland Survey, Space2 Eye Lens: State of the Bog Dark Peak Condition Survey, Space2 Eye Lens: State of the Bog (MMU) Mountain Hare Habitat Survey Dark Peak, Uplands Inventory, West Pennines Designation NVC Survey, Wetland Inventories, WorldClim - Global Climate DataFull metadata can be viewed on data.gov.uk.

Index to BGS geological map 'Standards', manuscript and published maps for Great Britain produced by the Survey on County Series (1:10560) and National Grid (1:10560 & 1:10000) Ordnance Survey base maps. 'Standards' are the best interpretation of the geology at the time they were produced. The Oracle index was set up in 1988, current holdings are over 41,000 maps. There are entries for all registered maps, but not all fields are complete on all entries.

This dataset consists of the 25m raster version of the Land Cover Map 2015 (LCM2015) for Northern Ireland. This is the most detailed of the LCM2015 raster products both thematically and spatially, and it is used to derive the 1km products. The 25m raster product consists of two bands: Band 1 - raster representation of the majority (dominant) class per polygon for 21 target habitat classes; Band 2 - mean per polygon probability as reported by the Random Forest classifier (see supporting information). The 21 target classes are based on the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) Broad Habitats, which encompass the entire range of UK habitats. This dataset is derived from the vector version of the Land Cover Map, which contains individual parcels of land cover and is the highest available spatial resolution. LCM2015 is a land cover map of the UK which was produced at the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology by classifying satellite images from 2014 and 2015 into 21 Broad Habitat-based classes. LCM2015 consists of a range of raster and vector products and users should familiarise themselves with the full range (see related records, the CEH web site and the LCM2015 Dataset documentation) to select the product most suited to their needs. LCM2015 was produced at the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology by classifying satellite images from 2014 and 2015 into 21 Broad Habitat-based classes. It is one of a series of land cover maps, produced by UKCEH since 1990. They include versions in 1990, 2000, 2007, 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2019.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The data are from a large Internet-based survey designed and administered in collaboration with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Between November 2009 and April 2011, 588,014 individuals competed the “Big Personality Test”.

Volunteers were told that the survey was designed to assess personality and that by clicking on the link to proceed to the survey they were giving their consent to participate. Informed consent was not requested from the next of kin, caretakers, or guardians on behalf of minors or children because only individuals 18 and older were eligible to participate. Initiating the survey was used as a record of participant consent. To complete the survey, respondents clicked on a link on the BBC’s Lab UK website.

Before beginning the survey, respondents were asked to create a BBC ID if they did not already have one. This was used to invite participants to take part in future projects and to prevent individuals from repeat responding – the survey could not be completed more than once with the same ID. After completing the survey, participants received customized feedback about their personalities based on their responses to the survey items.

A primary aim of the data was to map the distribution of personality in Great Britain (GB), so of all the participants who completed the survey, only those who reported living in England, Wales, and Scotland were included. Participants who did not complete the personality measure were also excluded. These selection criteria resulted in a total sample of 386,375 respondents.

In the present dataset, the researchers are sharing select demographic variables and the personality data used for mapping personality variation across GB. The dataset includes postcode sector information, which allows for aggregating responses for 380 Local Authority Districts.

Further information can be found on the BBC Lab UK Big Personality Test webpage.

Some participants also took part in other studies hosted by the BBC’s Lab UK (with the same unique ID) so in principle matching is possible across data sets. A combined dataset containing matched respondents who also completed the BBC Big Money Test is available from the UK Data Archive under SN 8132.


Main Topics:

Main topics of the BBC Big Personality Test, 2009-2011 included:

• personality
• demographics
• location of residence at the postcode district level

Survey name: Roxton A1(M) Improvements (Map 3) Post 1988 Agricultural Land Classification (ALC) site survey data – scanned original paper maps and survey reports for individual sites surveyed in detail between 1989 and 1999 by the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food. Where Grade 3 is mapped this includes the subdivision of Grade 3 into subgrades 3a and 3b. Surveys use the current grading methodology as described in "Agricultural Land Classification of England and Wales," a link for which is provided with the data. Individual sites have been mapped at varying scales and level of detail from 1:5,000 to 1:50,000 (typically 1:10,000). Unedited sample point soils data and soil pit descriptions are also available for some surveys. Attribution statement: © Natural England copyright. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right [year]. Attribution statement: © Natural England copyright. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right [year].

Supplementary information files for article: 'The future scope of large-scale solar in the UK: site suitability and target analysis'.Abstract:This paper uses site suitability analysis to identify locations for solar farms in the UK to help meet climate change targets. A set of maps, each representing a given suitability criterion, is created with geographical information systems (GIS) software. These are combined to give a Boolean map of areas which are appropriate for large-scale solar farm installation. Several scenarios are investigated by varying the criteria, which include geographical (land use) factors, solar energy resource and electrical distribution network constraints. Some are dictated by the physical and technical requirements of large-scale solar construction, and some by government or distribution network operator (DNO) policy. It is found that any suitability map which does not heed planning permission and grid constraints will overstate potential solar farm area by up to 97%. This research finds sufficient suitable land to meet Future Energy Scenarios (UK National Grid outlines for the coming energy landscape).

The Living England project, led by Natural England, is a multi-year programme delivering a satellite-derived national habitat layer in support of the Environmental Land Management (ELM) System and the Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment (NCEA) Pilot. The project uses a machine learning approach to image classification, developed under the Defra Living Maps project (SD1705 – Kilcoyne et al., 2017). The method first clusters homogeneous areas of habitat into segments, then assigns each segment to a defined list of habitat classes using Random Forest (a machine learning algorithm). The habitat probability map displays modelled likely broad habitat classifications, trained on field surveys and earth observation data from 2021 as well as historic data layers. This map is an output from Phase IV of the Living England project, with future work in Phase V (2022-23) intending to standardise the methodology and Phase VI (2023-24) to implement the agreed standardised methods.

The Living England habitat probability map will provide high-accuracy, spatially consistent data for a range of Defra policy delivery needs (e.g. 25YEP indicators and Environment Bill target reporting Natural capital accounting, Nature Strategy, ELM) as well as external users. As a probability map, it allows the extrapolation of data to areas that we do not have data. These data will also support better local and national decision making, policy development and evaluation, especially in areas where other forms of evidence are unavailable.

Process Description: A number of data layers are used to inform the model to provide a habitat probability map of England. The main sources layers are Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-1 satellite data from the ESA Copericus programme. Additional datasets were incorporated into the model (as detailed below) to aid the segmentation and classification of specific habitat classes.

Datasets used: Agri-Environment Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) Monitoring, British Geological Survey Bedrock Mapping 1:50k, Coastal Dune Geomatics Mapping Ground Truthing, Crop Map of England (RPA), Dark Peak Bog State Survey, Desktop Validation and Manual Points, EA Integrated Height Model 10m, EA Saltmarsh Zonation and Extent, Field Unit NEFU, Living England Collector App NEFU/EES, Long Term Monitoring Network (LTMN), Lowland Heathland Survey, National Forest Inventory (NFI), National Grassland Survey, National Plant Monitoring Scheme, NEFU Surveys, Northumberland Border Mires, OS Vector Map District , Priority Habitats Inventory (PHI) B Button, European Space Agency (ESA) Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 , Space2 Eye Lens: Ainsdale NNR, Space2 Eye Lens: State of the Bog Bowland Survey, Space2 Eye Lens: State of the Bog Dark Peak Condition Survey, Space2 Eye Lens: State of the Bog (MMU) Mountain Hare Habitat Survey Dark Peak, Uplands Inventory, West Pennines Designation NVC Survey, Wetland Inventories, WorldClim - Global Climate Data

Photographic negatives of Geological map 'Standards', manuscript and published maps produced by the Survey on County Series (1:10560) and National Grid (1:10560 & 1:10000) Ordnance Survey base maps. Current holdings over 41,000 maps for Great Britain. The majority of maps were scanned in 2004, any new maps produced are scanned and added to the collection. This is essentially a back up collection for disaster recovery.

Survey name: Bishop Auckland (Etherley Grange) (Wear Valley L.P.) Post 1988 Agricultural Land Classification (ALC) site survey data - scanned original paper maps and survey reports for individual sites surveyed in detail between 1989 and 1999 by the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food. Where Grade 3 is mapped this includes the subdivision of Grade 3 into subgrades 3a and 3b. Surveys use the current grading methodology as described in "Agricultural Land Classification of England and Wales," a link for which is provided with the data. Individual sites have been mapped at varying scales and level of detail from 1:5,000 to 1:50,000 (typically 1:10,000). Unedited sample point soils data and soil pit descriptions are also available for some surveys. Attribution statement: Natural England copyright. Contains Ordnance Survey data. Crown copyright and database right [year].

https://www.openstreetmap.org/images/osm_logo.png" alt=""> OpenStreetMap (openstreetmap.org) is a global collaborative mapping project, which offers maps and map data released with an open license, encouraging free re-use and re-distribution. The data is created by a large community of volunteers who use a variety of simple on-the-ground surveying techniques, and wiki-syle editing tools to collaborate as they create the maps, in a process which is open to everyone. The project originated in London, and an active community of mappers and developers are based here. Mapping work in London is ongoing (and you can help!) but the coverage is already good enough for many uses.

Browse the map of London on OpenStreetMap.org

Downloads:

The whole of England updated daily:

• england.osm.bz2 ~185M - .osm formatted raw XML data (compressed)
• england.shp.zip ~156M - ESRI shapefiles

For more details of downloads available from OpenStreetMap, including downloading the whole planet, see 'planet.osm' on the wiki.

Data access APIs:

Download small areas of the map by bounding-box. For example this URL requests the data around Trafalgar Square:
http://api.openstreetmap.org/api/0.6/map?bbox=-0.13062,51.5065,-0.12557,51.50969

Data filtered by "tag". For example this URL returns all elements in London tagged shop=supermarket:
http://www.informationfreeway.org/api/0.6/*[shop=supermarket][bbox=-0.48,51.30,0.21,51.70]

The .osm format

The format of the data is a raw XML represention of all the elements making up the map. OpenStreetMap is composed of interconnected "nodes" and "ways" (and sometimes "relations") each with a set of name=value pairs called "tags". These classify and describe properties of the elements, and ultimately influence how they get drawn on the map. To understand more about tags, and different ways of working with this data format refer to the following pages on the OpenStreetMap wiki.

• .osm - About the raw XML data format of OpenStreetMap
• Downloading data - More details of the API and extract download options
• Xapi - The extended api for filtering by tag
• Map Features - A list of tags, and what map features they represent
• Converting map data between formats - catalogue of tools for converting from .osm to other formats

Simple embedded maps

Rather than working with raw map data, you may prefer to embed maps from OpenStreetMap on your website with a simple bit of javascript. You can also present overlays of other data, in a manner very similar to working with google maps. In fact you can even use the google maps API to do this. See OSM on your own website for details and links to various javascript map libraries.

Help build the map!

The OpenStreetMap project aims to attract large numbers of contributors who all chip in a little bit to help build the map. Although the map editing tools take a little while to learn, they are designed to be as simple as possible, so that everyone can get involved. This project offers an exciting means of allowing local London communities to take ownership of their part of the map.

Read about how to Get Involved and see the London page for details of OpenStreetMap community events.

PLEASE NOTE: This dataset has been retired. It has been superseded by https://environment.data.gov.uk/dataset/04532375-a198-476e-985e-0579a0a11b47.The Flood Map for Planning (Rivers and Sea) includes several layers of information. This dataset covers Flood Zone 2 and should not be used without Flood Zone 3. It is our best estimate of the areas of land at risk of flooding, when the presence of flood defences are ignored and covers land between Zone 3 and the extent of the flooding from rivers or the sea with a 1 in 1000 (0.1%) chance of flooding each year. This dataset also includes those areas defined in Flood Zone 3.This dataset is designed to support flood risk assessments in line with Planning Practice Guidance ; and raise awareness of the likelihood of flooding to encourage people living and working in areas prone to flooding to find out more and take appropriate action.The information provided is largely based on modelled data and is therefore indicative rather than specific. Locations may also be at risk from other sources of flooding, such as high groundwater levels, overland run off from heavy rain, or failure of infrastructure such as sewers and storm drains.The information indicates the flood risk to areas of land and is not sufficiently detailed to show whether an individual property is at risk of flooding, therefore properties may not always face the same chance of flooding as the areas that surround them. This is because we do not hold details about properties and their floor levels. Information on flood depth, speed or volume of flow is not included.NOTE: We have paused quarterly updates of this dataset. Please visit the “Pause to Updates of Flood Risk Maps” announcement on our support pages for further information. We will provide notifications on the Flood Map for Planning website to indicate where we have new flood risk information. Other data related to the Flood Map for Planning will continue to be updated, including data relating to flood history, flood defences, and water storage areas.

An updated map of peat extent for Wales has been developed by the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, with support from the British Geological Survey and Natural Resources Wales in support of the Glastir Monitoring & Evaluation Programme, commissioned by the Welsh Government. This map represents a considerable advance on previous attempts to map the deep peat resource of Wales and yields a significantly larger estimate than that based on the Soil Survey of England and Wales alone. This new map highlights the wide distribution of peatlands across much of Wales, with large areas of upland blanket bog in North east and North-central Wales (Migneint, Berwyn) and central Wales (Cambrian Mountains), as well as smaller areas of upland peat in and around the Brecon Beacons National Park. The new unified map also provides a much more detailed picture of the distribution of deep peat in the lowlands, many areas of which retain significant biodiversity interest. The Glastir Monitoring & Evaluation Programme was set up by the Welsh Government in 2013 to monitor the effects of the Glastir agri-environment scheme on the environment and ran from 2013 to 2016.

A 1:250,000 map showing the main geological bedrock divisions in Northern Ireland. The bedrock shown on GeoIndex map comprises the bedrock geology, which represents the outcrops (at surface) and subcrops (at near-surface, beneath superficial deposits) in Northern Ireland. For each rock unit there is a brief generalised description showing the major rock group, rock type and age under the following headings. LEX_D: The name of the selected area. This can be a group, formation or igneous intrusion e.g. dyke. LEX_RCS: Map code as it appears on the published 1:250,000 map. RCS_D: The name of the dominant types of rock (lithologies) in the different areas shown on the map e.g. granite. The names of the rock types given here are often generalisations, appropriate for the large areas of geological coverage at this scale. These areas may include a number of different geological formations whose distribution can only be portrayed on more detailed geological maps. RANK: Identifies formations and groups. Min_Time_D and Max_Tim_D: The age of the rock unit in terms of periods, relatively smaller units of geological time e.g. Carboniferous, Jurassic etc. Some of the map areas include rocks with a range of ages and these are shown as such e.g. Triassic to Cretaceous. The oldest metamorphic rocks are described as Moinian and Dalradian. The rocks range in age from those deposited relatively recently, some 2 million years ago, back to ancient and highly altered Precambrian rocks over 2500 million years old. In broad terms the youngest rocks are found in the south and east of the UK, the oldest in the north and west. VERSION: Version of the data. RELEASED: Date of release/update of the data. CAUTION Because of the generalisation and simplification used in the compilation of this map, it should not be used to determine the detailed geology of any specific sites. It is best used to provide a basic understanding of the geology of the country in general, and for showing the geology of large regions where broad trends are more important than specific details. Persons interested in the detailed geology of particular sites should consult the latest large-scale maps or the Geological Survey of Northern Ireland.

The BGS collection of 1:10 560 / 1:10 000 National Grid Series geological maps. These maps are based on the Ordnance Survey National Grid series of maps, which are defined by the 10 km intervals of the larger 100 km square identified by a specific two-letter code. Each map is thus denoted by a unique reference, e.g. SP 29 NW. SP=100 km square; 29=10 km square; NW=5 km square. Since field mapping is generally undertaken at the scale of 1:10 000 (or equivalent), these maps are the largest-scale main series of geological maps that BGS holds. A small number of remote areas were mapped at 1:25 000 scale, the subsequent maps are also at 1:25 000 scale and are included in this series. The equivalent to the National Grid Series prior to the 1960s is the County Series (at 1:10 560 scale). In the 1960s, this series started to be replaced by 6 inches to 1 mile (1:10 560 scale) National Grid sheets based on the four quadrants (NW, NE, SW, SE) of a 10 km Ordnance Survey National Grid square. Areal coverage provided by the National Grid series of large-scale maps is limited in extent and the preceding County series of six-inch maps can still be the most up to date map available for some areas. Geological maps represent a geologist's compiled interpretation of the geology of an area. A geologist will consider the data available at the time, including measurements and observations collected during field campaigns, as well as their knowledge of geological processes and the geological context to create a model of the geology of an area. This model is then fitted to a topographic basemap and drawn up at the appropriate scale, with generalization if necessary, to create a geological map, which is a representation of the geological model. Explanatory notes and vertical and horizontal cross sections may be published with the map. Geological maps may be created to show various aspects of the geology, or themes. The most common map themes held by BGS are solid (later referred to as bedrock) and drift (later referred to as superficial). These maps are, for the most part, hard-copy paper records stored in the National Geoscience Data Centre (NGDC) and are delivered as digital scans through the BGS website.

Soilscapes is a 1:250,000 scale, simplified soils dataset covering England and Wales. It was created from the far more detailed National Soil Map (NATMAP Vector) held by Cranfield University, with the purpose of communicating effectively a general understanding of the variations which occur between soil types, and how soils affect the environment and landscape of the two countries. Soil exerts a strong influence on our whole ecosystem, being the foundation for many of the ecosystem services and functions recognised, and is a fragile resource that needs to be understood and protected.Soilscapes is one of our most popular datasets - and to encourage a wider understanding of soils, web access to this data is now made freely accessible. Soilscapes does away with confusing terminology, enabling informed decision-making by non-soil scientists who need to understand soil and how it affects broad landscapes. Using the Soilscapes web mapping service, it is simple to build up a good understand of many fundamental soil-landscape processes for any region across England and Wales.For more information about soils and soils data please visit the LandIS - Land Information System www.landis.org.uk