BGS Geology - 50k (DiGMapGB-50) Artificial version 8

Data identifies areas (shown as polygons) attributed with the type of artificial or man-made ground. The polygons indicate areas where the ground surface has been significantly modified by human activity. The scale of the data is 1:50 000 scale showing areas of artificial and man-made ground. Onshore coverage is provided for England, Wales, Scotland and the Isle of Man.

Types of artificial ground include:

Disturbed ground - areas of ill-defined shallow or near surface mineral workings where distinction cannot be made between made and worked ground.

Infilled ground - areas where original geology has been removed and then wholly or partially back filled, includes waste or landfill sites.

Landscaped ground - areas where surface has been reshaped, includes former sand and gravel workings for recreation and amenity use.

Made ground, man-made features - includes embankments and spoil heaps.

Worked ground - areas where ground has been removed including quarries and road cuttings.

Whilst artificial ground may not be considered as part of the 'real geology' of bedrock and superficial deposits it does affect them. Artificial ground impacts on the near surface ground conditions which are important to human activities and economic development.

Due to the shifting nature of land use and re-use caution must be exercised when using this data as it represents a snapshot in time rather than an evolving picture hence the data may become dated very rapidly.

The data are available in vector format (containing the geometry of each feature linked to a database record describing their attributes) as ESRI shapefiles and are available under BGS data licence.