Countryside Survey 2000 (CS2000) is a major audit of the British countryside. It has involved both detailed field observations and satellite imagery which has provided a complete land cover census for Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

CS2000 has been funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs along with the Natural Environment Research Council and several other organisations (see Sponsors) for details.

Observation of the Earth from space can provide very detailed information about the Earth's surface. The latest techniques for analysis of satellite imagery have been employed, and the data obtained have been used to produce Land Cover Map 2000 (LCM2000). Initial results of LCM2000 are included in the main report, 'Accounting for nature: assessing habitats in the UK countryside' (see below), and the full map will be released in 2001.

Together, these two strands represent the most comprehensive audit ever made of the British countryside.

The survey is now virtually complete. The main field work and satellite image capture were carried out in 1998 and 1999 and much of the data have been analysed. The first results from CS2000 have now been published (see Report).

Countryside Information System (CIS)-compatible CS2000 datasets are now available for downloading from this web site.

Click here to access these files.

The results of the survey of Broad Habitats and landscape features are now available as a series of tables. The data may also be downloaded, for use in spreadsheets and other software.

Click here to access the tables.