A NEW online map displays the most comprehensive digital records of historic Scottish woodlands dating back 180 years.
The National Library of Scotland (NLS) collaborated with tech platform Zulu Ecosystems to create the landmark map using machine learning, which was able to extract all the woodland displayed on Ordnance Survey 1st edition maps dating all the way back to 1840.
The OS First Series Woodland Layer accurately pinpoints the locations and extent of historic woods and is available to view on the NLS website.
Members of the public are being invited to contribute to the improvement of the map by highlighting any missing woodlands.
Zulu Ecosystems used the details of woodland recorded in a 6-inch, first edition OS map of Scotland (1843-1882) held in the NLS archives.
READ MORE: New Scotland to Europe ferry 'won't work without government support'
They then refined the data through a combination of machine learning, post-processing techniques and manual verification to ensure its accuracy across a large scale.
When compared to present-day satellite imagery, it clearly highlights areas where woodlands once stood in Scotland.
Edward Asseily, CEO of Zulu Ecosystems, said: “The 1st edition Ordnance Survey maps published in the late 19th century are a precious resource for locating areas of ancient woodland.
“Previously, government agencies, woodland conservationists, and land managers have had to manually identify individual areas of woodland shown on these early maps. Now, we have a single digital layer showing Scotland's ancient woodlands.
“Once the layer has been refined, it will be freely downloadable to the public. Identifying these historic woods is crucial to understanding the scale of their decline so that we can accelerate their revival.
“This window to our past helps to identify and prioritise areas with the highest potential for natural regeneration and shows where interventions are urgently needed to restore these once-thriving ecosystems.”
Chris Fleet from the NLS added: “We are very keen to share information from our map collections, and this collaboration has created an important new dataset showing woodland on Ordnance Survey 1st edition six-inch maps.
“We hope that the refinement and improvement of this woodland layer before its release as an open dataset will assist the wide range of people today who are interested in Scotland’s historic woodland.”
The interactive map is available to view here.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel