The aim of this project is to map historic landscape types and areas and their potential sensitivity to woodland expansion.

• Project Dates: February 2016 - January 2017
• Project Leader: Dr Caron Newman
• Sponsors: Historic England

The UK government, through its Forestry and Woodlands Policy Statement, has made a commitment to increase England's coverage of woodland by 2060. It has been recognized that woodland expansion may be a risk to historic sites and landscapes and may also have an impact on historic landscape character. The aim of this project is to map historic landscape types and areas and their potential sensitivity to woodland expansion.

The project is using GIS to map the capability of historic landscape types and areas to absorb new woodland. The end result will be a Woodland Futures map which will indicate the future scale and type of woodland expansion, The map will also provide the capability to analyse the potential for, and sensitivity to, woodland expansion of different historic landscape types and areas. The project will also produce a woodland expansion assessment framework, which will be made available digitally and in hard copy for use at a strategic and site-based level. The framework is aimed at end users who need to identify areas of potential for woodland expansion. It will also provide advice on designing new areas of woodland or forestry with regard to historic landscape types and areas, as well as ensuring consideration of the interpretation and protection of historic features and heritage assets.

The project is now complete and has been uploaded to ADS (http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/woodland_he_2018/).

All the reports can be downloaded doi.org/10.5284/1047576.