Map of U.K. Development Types Reveals Wide Open Spaces

A post on the website of the Local Authority of Building Control (LABC) in the United Kingdom has produced a new map that uses high definition satellite images to plot the different kinds of land development in the United Kingdom.

The maps were created with Corine (coordination of information on the environment) Land Cover data from 2012 which includes 44 different types of land classification including:

• ‘continuous urban fabric’: used to describe the most built up urban areas
• ‘industrial and commercial units’
• ‘green urban’: golf courses, football pitches, parks etc
• ‘farmland’: pasture, arable land, vineyards, orchards
• ‘natural’: moors, forests, lakes

According to the article, the "continuous urban fabric" designation, which applies to areas where 80-100% of the land surface is built on, only accounts for o.1 percent of the land in the United Kingdom. "Another category called 'discontinuous urban fabric', places where between 50% and 80% of the land surface is built on accounts for a mere 5.6%."

Hat tip to H. Pike Oliver for sharing the link to the LABC's post.