UNITED KINGDOM · ENGLAND · LANDSCAPE · GEOLOGY & SOILS
ALC Grade (post-1988 surveys)
What this layer shows
Detailed post-1988 ALC field surveys: partial coverage, higher accuracy than the provisional map.
Where the data comes from
ARCGIS · services.arcgis.com
Merestone asks this service live for the area on screen. Nothing is copied or stored beyond a short cache.
Facts shown for each feature
Grade · Survey area (ha)
In these presets
Planning
The constraints that shape a red line: SSSI Impact Risk Zones, Green Belt, the Flood Map for Planning zones and storage areas with present-day rivers-and-sea risk, Agricultural Land Classification (both the provisional national map and the more reliable post-1988 surveys), nutrient neutrality catchments, National Parks, National Landscapes and Local Nature Recovery Strategy areas. Useful for a constraints plan or an early feasibility check before any ecology is commissioned.
Net gain
Habitat and connectivity for biodiversity net gain and offsetting work: the National Habitat Network, the full Priority Habitat Inventory, Local Nature Recovery Strategy areas, registered gain sites, ancient woodland, open mosaic habitat on previously developed land, agricultural land classification and live Environmental Stewardship agreements. The question this set answers is where a gain would actually connect to something.
Farm & land
Land grade, soils, nitrate rules and agreement land. England and Wales; Scotland has land capability and AECS that are not published as open services, and Northern Ireland has neither.