What is this on-line viewer for?
The on-line viewer provides a general guide to land managers, and aims to identify areas of Wales which are most suited to new woodland creation using Geographic Information Systems (GIS).
A score for woodland creation is shown at a medium scale in green, highlighting the best opportunities at a strategic level for new woodland creation, which is based on data identified to best meet the requirements of Glastir - the Welsh Government’s sustainable land management scheme.
This green scoring layer has been created across all of Wales. However, sensitive areas (such as areas of deep peat, or scheduled ancient monuments) have been ‘erased’ from the scoring layer in order to identify areas which may need further consultation (there are likely to still be suitable woodland creation sites within these other areas).
Some areas of Wales are also covered by further information in the form of guidance layers. For example should red squirrels be present, or should the area be on open access land. Detailed further guidance can be found accompanying these layers.
This viewer should be used in conjunction with glastir woodland creation rules booklet
Air Quality
This data layer was compiled by the National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory (NAEI) and uses 1km grid squares of point source data, as well as road transport data. These inputs are compiled, averaged, and mapped across the UK, and are then split by source category and further split by pollutant. The specific layer used in this project is "Total emissions < PM10", which contains emissions from 2012 using CORINAIR SNAP sensors and measures pollutants in particulate matter of less than 10µm.
Sources of PM10 in the UK include road traffic, industry and power production. Results from numerous investigations of human respiratory and other diseases show consistent statistical associations between human exposure to outdoor levels of PM10 and adverse health impacts. Vegetation intercepts airborne particulate matter (PM10), reducing concentrations in the air, thereby improving air quality. This reduces the amount of PM10 exposure to humans and, in turn, can reduce the incidence of respiratory illness.
Communities First
Communities First is Welsh Government’s community focussed tackling poverty programme. The programme provides funding for Lead Delivery Bodies within local authority areas known as Communities First Clusters to narrow the economic, education/skills and health gaps between our most deprived and more affluent areas. It has three strategic objectives helping to achieve these outcomes:
Habitat Suitability
NRW identified areas not sensitive to woodland creation. These include habitat land that is not Priority Habitat, such as bracken and upland acid grassland, as well as non-habitat land such as agriculturally improved grassland and refuse tips. Priority Habitat coded '1' is especially suitable for low density planting of native trees to create long-term sustainable woodland habitat.
New Flood Plain Woodland (NFPW)
This dataset was provided by Natural Resources Wales (NRW), via a FCW project developed by Peter Van-Velzen in 2009. Much of Peter’s work is based on the effort and methodology provided by Forest Research’ Samantha Broadmeadow & Tom Nisbet, in their report “Opportunity Mapping for Trees and Floods in Yorkshire & The Humber Conservancy” (Nov.2008). Full acknowledgement goes to the authors for their original work.
The dataset identifies areas of fluvial floodplain and stream riparian zone within Wales where there is potential to create or expand floodplain and riparian woodland for reducing flood risk within urban populations. The NFPW dataset aims to generate a suitability-map identifying areas within Wales where woodland planting is free of constraints and could benefit flood management by reducing flood generation. Reduction of runoff containing sediment and nutrients could also benefit water quality.
Nitrate Vulnerable Zones (NVZs)
A Nitrate Vulnerable Zone (NVZ) is designated where land drains and contributes to the nitrate found in “polluted” waters. Polluted waters include:
Noise Pollution
This noise pollution data was created under the environmental noise directive 2012, calculated using 10m grids at 4m high and measuring decibels (dB). Data is collected at industry sites, as well as roads which have >3million vehicles/yr., and rail networks with >3000 train journeys/yr. The data values represent an average from day, evening, and night and use a scale from 55dB as low, to >75 dB as high.
Trees bring multiple benefits to the built environment, including reducing the urban heat island effect and absorbing air pollution. They have only a limited ability to absorb or scatter noise, but much more significant is their ability to reduce the perception of noise by hiding the noise source from sight and making a place feel more tranquil, both visually and by introducing natural sounds to soften an otherwise purely mechanical soundscape. When the trees are bare in winter these effects are lessened, but at this time of year people are less likely to be outside or to have their windows open. The Trees and Design Action Group, CIRIA and the European HOSANNA project have produced guides to help maximise the benefits brought by urban trees and other forms of vegetation.
Woodland creation to support market and non-market goods (UEA)
These data show optimal planting locations for new woodland and was funded by the Social and Environmental Economic Research (SEER) project, created by the University of East Anglia.
A computer program, The Integrated Model (TIM), linked spatially-explicit environmental valuation models to ascertain the impacts of land use change upon ecosystem services (subject to various constraints e.g. projected climate change). A policy context was established wherein the Welsh Government intended to plant 250,000 ha of new woodland over a 50 year period (i.e. plant 5,000 hectares of new woodland per annum for each year between 2014 and 2063). Planting was simulated at a 2 km resolution (400 ha). Implementation of TIM generated predictions of the impact of proposed future woodlands on agricultural production, timber production, CO2 in the atmosphere and recreational opportunities. Optimal planting locations were identified as those which yielded the greatest net benefits to society across this range of ecosystem services and derived goods.
Woodland Habitat Networks (WHNs)
Habitat networks are woods which are connected enough to function together, with exchange of individuals between woodlands. They are defined by a combination of distance between woods and the ‘permeability’ of the intervening habitat, i.e. how likely woodland species are to be able to move through the intervening habitat.
We’re suggesting that the layers be used to achieve more robust woodland networks through ranking/prioritisation of the layers. This will identify where money is best spent or where it should be spent first but, most importantly, should influence the design of the capital grants aimed at improving silvicultural regime and encouraging certain types of replanting ie targeted grant supported activity to improve woodland ecosystem health and overall resilience.
Each network was considered individually with OS 1:25,000 base maps and aerial photos as a backdrop, and edited to remove any inappropriate areas for this exercise. Areas were then extended to fill obvious gaps between networks so that larger-scale connectivity might be encouraged, and around very restricted habitat types, e.g. floodplain woodland, to promote their expansion.
