dataset · United Kingdom
National Forest Inventory GB 2025
The National Forest Inventory (NFI) woodland map covers all forest and woodland area over 0.5 hectare with a minimum of 20% canopy cover, or the potential to achieve it, and a minimum width of 20 metres. This includes areas of new planting, clearfell, windblow and restock. The woodland map excludes all 'tarmac' roads and active railways, and forest roads, rivers and powerlines where the gap in the woodland is greater than 20 meters wide. All woodland (both urban and rural), regardless of ownersh
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Licence: ["There are no public access constraints to this data. Use of this data is subject to the licence identified.", "There are no public access constraints to this data. Use of this data is subject to the
Evidence quality: 45.1
Listed in data.gov.uk public catalogue API on 2026-10-16; relevance/value screened (haiku).
Metadata checked: 2026-10-14T13:20:00.000Z
What's in it
- Data offered docs-verified
- woodland map polygons (forest and woodland over 0.5 ha) · interpreted forest type (IFT) classes · interpreted open area (IOA) classes
- Coverage docs-verified
- Great Britain (GB) · 2025 edition; imagery from spring/summer 2025
- Resolution docs-verified
- Minimum mapping unit 0.5 ha (0.1 ha for Assumed woodland or Low density areas); minimum width 20 m
- Update frequency docs-verified
- annually
- Access docs-verified
- Open: no public access constraints; Open Government Licence v3.0
Useful for
- Use cases llm-inferred
- BNG habitat baseline: map woodland parcels within a site boundary for habitat assessment · Planning constraints screening: identify woodland presence on development or linear scheme corridors · Drainage/flood inputs: woodland cover as a land-use layer for catchment runoff assessment
- Audience llm-inferred
- ecologists · GIS analysts · planners · flood and drainage engineers · civils engineers
Limitations
- Constraints docs-verified
- Woodland under 0.5 ha is not mapped; it is covered only by a separate sample survey · Areas where the last assessment is more than 19 years old are flagged as transition areas · Classifications (IFT/IOA) are interpreted from aerial photography and satellite imagery · Assumed woodland and Low density areas can be as small as 0.1 ha, so small features are less reliable
Evidence
- https://data-forestry.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/2620d81bd55846b295d980020574e042/about
- https://www.data.gov.uk/dataset/928d9e79-3705-400a-8809-c27269b2d671/national-forest-inventory-gb-2025
Check upstream coverage, uncertainty and licence before use. Station observations are not forecasts or design levels.