Section 15 Ordnance Survey Land Use Change Statistics
The Land Use Change Statistics (LUCS) dataset, created by the Ordnance Survey (OS), is a local authority-level dataset which concentrates on changes in development activities, usually associated with housing and development of land. Polygon data is drawn from the OS database (e.g. MasterMap) that has undergone change and also changing address data with regards residential development. The data produced is derived from inferred intelligence that has not been directly observed by field or other survey method and may be in error with regards real world use. However this method does allow for large scale analysis at a very high level of detail and spatial resolution. Data parcels that specifically underwent change for 2017 to 2018 were provided by the OS as vector data (c. 1.1 million parcels). The parcels are classified into 28 categories – predominantly building and development based, with some agricultural land and forestry – which were reclassified to LULUCF categories. The table below shows the correspondence between OS classes and LULUCF classes.
| LUCS_ID | LUCS_name | LUCS_DESCRIPTION | LULUCF_ID | LULUCF_name |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ~B | Unidentified building | 5 | urban |
| 2 | ~M | Unidentified general manmade surface | 5 | urban |
| 3 | ~S | Unidentified structure | 5 | urban |
| 4 | ~U | Unknown surface type with no classification | 6 | other |
| 5 | A | Agricultural Land | 2 | crop |
| 6 | B | Agricultural Buildings | 5 | urban |
| 7 | C | Community Buildings | 5 | urban |
| 8 | D | Defence | 5 | urban |
| 9 | F | Forestry/Woodland | 1 | forest |
| 10 | G | Rough grassland | 4 | rough |
| 11 | H | Highways and roads | 5 | urban |
| 12 | I | Industry | 5 | urban |
| 13 | J | Offices | 5 | urban |
| 14 | K | Retail | 5 | urban |
| 15 | L | Leisure (indoor) | 5 | urban |
| 16 | M | Minerals and Mining | 5 | urban |
| 17 | N | Natural Land | 3 | grass |
| 18 | O | Outdoor Recreation | 3 | grass |
| 19 | Q | Communal Accommodation | 5 | urban |
| 20 | R | Residential | 5 | urban |
| 21 | RG | Residential Gardens | 3 | grass |
| 22 | S | Storage and Warehousing | 5 | urban |
| 23 | T | Transport | 5 | urban |
| 24 | U | Utilities | 5 | urban |
| 25 | V | Vacant Land | 6 | other |
| 26 | W | Water | 6 | other |
| 27 | X | Undeveloped Land | 3 | grass |
| 28 | Y | Landfill and Waste Disposal | 5 | urban |
The land-use change matrix derived from these data is shown below. The values in most elements of the matrix are extremely small, although the transitions to urban appear reasonable. Without further investigation, it is not clear which elements we can validly use, so these data are not used further in the current analysis.
Figure 15.1: Land-use change matrix derived from LUCS data for 2017-2018. Units are km2.