Urban development has not yet managed to win territory from British nature
BBC cites four facts that refute the traditional perception of the country by Britons and tourists.
One of the key concepts for this study is “continuous urban development.” These are territories built up by 80-100%. A fifth may be occupied by private gardens and small parks, but the rest is paved with asphalt and concrete. By this indicator, the City of London – the central business district of the British capital – confidently leads with 98%.
1. Only 0.1% of the territory is fully built up
Many are convinced that cities are encroaching on nature, but in reality, continuous urban development is a rare phenomenon in the British Isles. The grass here is greener than we think.
2. Only 5.3% of the territory is partially built up
This category includes lands where buildings occupy at least half but no more than 80% of the territory. If the figure of 5.3% seems underestimated, one can turn to other sources.
The UK National Ecosystem Assessment, for example, shows that overall 1% of the kingdom is built up, and in densely populated England – 2%. According to the government mapping agency Ordnance Survey, buildings – houses, shops, factories, greenhouses, and offices – cover 1.4% of the land, and in England this figure is slightly higher but still does not exceed 2%.
It turns out that the area of development in the UK is smaller than the territory exposed by the sea at low tide. So some people complain in vain that Britain is gradually being paved with asphalt and concrete.
According to the results of the European study, British lands were divided into 44 categories depending on their use. For greater clarity, we grouped them into four categories:
• agricultural land – pastures, orchards, vineyards;
• wild nature – forests, lakes, heathlands, bogs;
• development – houses, roads, airports, quarries;
• urban green spaces – parks, gardens, golf clubs, football fields.
And what did we get? Most of British land is given over to agriculture – 57%. About a third is wild nature. One could argue here, because livestock grazes on heathlands, for example. But we classified them as untouched lands. According to our very conservative estimates, 5.9% of the UK's territory is built up, and urban green spaces cover 2.5%.
3. In the Lake District, lakes occupy only 3% of the territory
Anyone who has ever visited the British Lake District will tell you that water dominates the local landscape. In fact, it is only 3%. It's all about psychology: people tend to notice things pleasing to the eye and ignore the dreary landscape. For example, peat bogs.
4. Peat bogs account for as much as 9.4%
A tenth of the UK's territory potentially threatens the sanity and life of Sir Henry from “The Hound of the Baskervilles,” whom an anonymous person advised to stay away from the peat bogs. The area of British bogs is almost 100 times greater than the scale of continuous urban development and seven times larger than the land under all buildings in the country.