Scotland’s Fourth Land Use Strategy

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Closes 5 Oct 2025

Building a Baseline for Future Land Use

In order to further explore the achievement of Scotland’s national targets and ambitions, it is necessary to develop a clear and broadly agreed understanding of land at a national scale. Through the use of existing datasets from 2021 (Scotland Land Cover maps and Land Classification for Agriculture) Scottish Government analysts have been able to identify the current hectarage and distribution of land cover across Scotland. 

Establishing a clear understanding of current land use provides a vital baseline from which we can begin to explore future targets and ambitions. Understanding how these ambitions interact - and their combined impact - will be essential in identifying whether, and how, land use and management practices need to evolve to meet our collective needs.

1. Do you find Map Figure 1 to be a helpful representation of current land cover?
2. How can we most effectively represent housing and renewable energy alongside current land cover maps?
3. What sort of information about current land use would you find useful? (and how would you use it?)