Assessing land use change and the impacts on semi-natural habitats across England and Wales using four time points between 1930 and 2020.

ABSTRACT:

Context

Habitat loss and degradation caused by human land use change is one of the major drivers of global biodiversity decline. Understanding historical patterns of land use/land cover (LULC) change over multiple time periods is essential for improving our knowledge of the magnitude and scale of habitat loss, but also for predicting future changes and targeting biodiversity conservation and restoration policy and actions.

Objectives

This study assesses habitat loss resulting from LULC change in England and Wales between 1930 and 2020 at four different time points.

Methods

We digitise a selection of published 1960s land use maps based on detailed field surveys, to use alongside existing published historical data (1930s) and more recent land cover datasets derived from

SUBMITTER: Ridding LE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12630304 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature