An agricultural stratification of Scotland: From plot to parish

Abstract

A stratification of Scottish land in terms of predominant agricultural use is constructed by calibrating low‐resolution remote‐sensed data with detailed ground survey samples, using the calibration to extrapolate the detailed compositional information from the field survey to the whole of Scotland. Although initially constructed for analyses of biodiversity in relation to land use, pollution and climate, the strata are applicable to a wide range of land use and ecological problems. Four agricultural strata are defined: ‘arable’, ‘inbye’, ‘moor’ and ‘plateau'; also a ‘non‐agricultural’ stratum comprising mainly urban areas, large forest blocks, and large water bodies. The strata are applicable at spatial scales from a few square metres to several hundred square kilometres, enabling directly comparable analyses at widely differing spatial resolutions. Some advantages of the system and examples of applications are outlined, and possible developments suggested.