Land cover change in Scotland
| Rough Grassland | Intermediate Grassland | Smooth Grassland | Blanket Mire | Lowland Mire | Heather Moorland | Lochs | Canals | Reservoirs | Ditches | Rivers | Marginal Inundation | Streams | Wet Ground | Built Land | Quarry | Recreational Land | Rock/Cliff | Transport Corridor | Bare Ground | Tracks | Bracken | Low Scrub | Tall Scrub | Arable | Broadleaved Woodland | Coniferous Woodland | Mixed Woodland | Young Plantation | Broadleaved Plantation | Coniferous Plantation | Parkland | Felled Woodland | Hedgerows | Line of Trees |
Results - Feature - Mire
Blanket Mire
Landscape and vegetation cover, together with surface morphology, were used to infer the presence of wet acidic peat under heather. If drained, heather-dominated mire was classified as heather moorland. When stripped of its surface vegetation it was classified as bare ground.
Blanket mire was interpreted as heather-dominated or grass-dominated. Overall it decreased by around 21 percent, mainly due to afforestation and drainage.
- 1940s baseline - 29% of the area of Scotland
- 1940s-1980s change - 21% reduction in area
- Dynamics of change - biggest reductions to afforestation and, through drainage, to rough grassland and heather moorland
- 1980s outcome - 23% of the area of Scotland