UNITED KINGDOM · ENGLAND · LANDSCAPE · GEOLOGY & SOILS
ALC Grade (provisional)
What this layer shows
Provisional Agricultural Land Classification, Grade 1 (excellent) to 5 (very poor). Provisional mapping does not split Grade 3 into 3a and 3b, so it cannot show 'best and most versatile' land on its own, a detailed post-1988 survey does that.
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
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.
Farm & land
Land grade, soils, nitrate rules and agreement land, for England and Wales. Scotland's land capability map is open and on the list; it is not in the app yet, and Northern Ireland's land grade is not in the app yet.