This large-scale strategic study considers the types and scales of change to land use and management that will be required (over the period to 2020) in order to realise significant improvements in the condition of four key ecosystem services. These four services are the regulation of water quality, availability of water resources, management of flood risk and storage of carbon in soils.
The primary purpose of this research was to assist the Environment Agency in providing evidence of environmental implications for Defra’s developing policy on strategic land use across England and Wales. We did this by overlaying a large number of national spatial datasets, supported by a review of research evidence, to understand the effects of land use and management on the delivery of the four ecosystem services, in relation to defined environmental limits. The study examined how these effects are distributed across England and Wales singly and in combination. We took account of the implications of climate change, increasing development pressure and population growth and their combined implications for future land use and demands on natural resources.
A critical issue for land use policy is the extent to which targeted spatial interventions can deliver multiple benefits. We found that nearly a third of England and Wales (30%) is affected by the failure of, or significant challenges to, two or more of the four services. These ‘hotspots’ include many upland areas such as the Pennines and Snowdonia, as well as lowland areas such as the southern part of the Fens and the North Downs. In these areas, there is the potential for changes in land use or management to achieve multiple integrated outcomes.
Looking to the future, it is significant that areas of the country such as south-east England that will face the greatest challenge from climate change and population growth already have extensive areas that the study identified as having multiple priorities for intervention. This increases the imperative for policy to address the challenges that already exist.
This study has demonstrated the benefits of taking an integrated approach to land use policy. It shows that by working together in pursuit of collective outcomes, public bodies can achieve far more than by acting individually in pursuit of narrow objectives.
