EWCO - Keeping Rivers Cool Riparian Buffers

<p>Spatial data supporting appropriately located and designed
woodland creation where this will provide dappled shade to improve aquatic
ecology by reducing summer water temperatures and benefiting wildlife dispersal
(for example, otter) along the corridors of habitat this creates.</p>

<p>The data represents a 50 m buffer around patches of surface
waterbodies (rivers) with little or no existing riparian shade.</p>

<p>Sections of river with the least amount of shading from
riparian vegetation are considered to be priority areas for tree planting and
therefore candidates for incentives such as additional grant aid to encourage
woodland creation to provide greater shading in the future.</p><p><br /></p><p></p><p><span>Data input sources:</span></p>

<p>Relative riparian shade map (Environment Agency)</p><p>National LIDAR Programme Vegetation Object Model (Environment Agency)<br /></p><br /><p></p><p></p><p>Attributes:</p>

<p>‘AreaHa’ – Area of the feature in hectares.</p><br /><p></p><p></p><p>Lineage:</p>

<p>First published to support the woodland creation grant under
Countryside Stewardship (CS), launched in 2015.<span> 
</span>The layer methodology was then revised by Forest Research and the layer
was updated in 2022/23 to cater for the new England Woodland Creation Offer
(EWCO) scheme.</p>

<p>A detailed methodology describing the development of this
layer can be requested from [e-mail].</p>