EWCO - Keeping Rivers Cool Riparian Buffers

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. The data represents a 50 m buffer around patches of surface waterbodies (rivers) with little or no existing riparian shade. 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. Data input sources: Relative riparian shade map (Environment Agency) National LIDAR Programme Vegetation Object Model (Environment Agency) Attributes: ‘AreaHa’ – Area of the feature in hectares. Lineage: First published to support the woodland creation grant under Countryside Stewardship (CS), launched in 2015. 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. A detailed methodology describing the development of this layer can be requested from [e-mail].