A new set of high-resolution soil and landscape maps for Great Britain have been developed, to support online tools used by farmers and land managers, and future research across environmental science. 

The maps, created as part of the AgZero+ programme, aim to provide more detailed, harmonised and easily updated information on key aspects of the soils that underpin the UK’s ecosystems and food production.

Healthy soils play a critical role in supporting biodiversity, improving climate resilience and food production. But without accurate, up-to-date mapping, land management practices risk contributing to soil erosion, compaction and the loss of organic matter – all key threats to long-term soil health, and ultimately, society and the wider environment.

Although the UK already holds extensive soil data, the new maps offer easy-to-interpret information at a finer level of spatial detail, consistency across Great Britain and a greater capacity for regular future updates as environmental conditions change, ensuring long-term relevancy.

To build the maps, national scale datasets on underlying geology, hydrology, terrain and land use were combined. These factors, which shape how soils form and evolve, were integrated to produce a new high-resolution map of 13 soil classes covering the whole of Great Britain.

How can the new maps be used?

The maps will support a wide range of applications. They will help researchers to develop new datasets to better understand our landscapes, model risks to soil health, and enhance digital tools to help farmers and other land managers to improve their soils. Key examples include: 

  • Supporting the e-Planner tool to help land users identify which areas of land can be managed differently to produce several environmental opportunities, like creating new habitats for pollinators and reducing flood risks. 
  • Providing valuable soil type context to allow farmers to compare their soil health against nationally representative benchmarks. 
  • Refining algorithms that allow us to map different habitats more accurately. 
  • Educating people about the soils beneath their feet, including how different soils are formed across the landscape, and why this matters for people and planet. 

The dataset is available for non-commercial use via the Environmental Information Data Centre