Second Land Utilisation Survey of Britain

The late Professor Alice Coleman (1924-2023) directed the Second Land Utilisation Survey of Britain (2LUSB) between 1960 and 1973. This was developed from Prof Sir Dudley Stamp’s first such survey (First Land Utilisation Survey, Britain, 1931-1938) Using a clear categorisation system, with brand of pencil stipulated to ensure consistency, surveyors recorded land-use by hand-colouring OS 1:10,560 basemaps for England and Wales. As well as categorising use of land across the whole of England and Wales, where necessary, surveyors included structures missing from the OS basemaps, including residential developments, reservoirs, power stations, motorways and airports. The 2LUSB comprises nearly 7,000 Field Maps and 119 Published Maps. There is also a draft Wildscape Atlas (WA) and a generalisation of the 2LUSB data named Scapes and Fringes (S+F), each comprising maps and associated papers. Through the ONS, UKCEH and Defra the maps are now all digitised and published by the NLS. ONS initiated the work, and remained the principal contact with the Coleman family. The family were very keen for the legacy to be published on Creative Commons terms. Kings College London (KCL, Coleman’s alma mater), had been foreseen by Coleman as the natural home for her material, but in the event, KCL elected not to follow this up and ceded priority to ONS. Defra agreed with ONS’ assessment of the significance of the legacy and provided funds through its Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment to allow for the material to be rescued, scanned and georeferenced. The material was transported to ONS Titchfield in two tranches by a cousin of Prof Coleman. ONS inventoried the legacy, amounting to over 10,000 items and 200+ categories. The UKCEH also recognised the value of the agricultural, vegetation and wildscape data and became a second keen advocate of having the material scanned and georeferenced. GENUSIT were appointed to undertake the scanning and the scanned images were forwarded to the National Library of Scotland (NLS) for georeferencing and publication. ONS, GENUSIT and NLS collaborated closely on QA to ensure the highest achievable standard of work. Attribution statement: The Second Land Utilisation Survey of Britain © Trustees of the Land Use Research Unit, 1958-1973