UKCEH Land Cover plus: Pesticides 2012-2014, 2016-2018 and 2020-2022 (England, Scotland and Wales)

UKCEH Land Cover plus: Pesticides maps annual average pesticide applications across England, Wales and Scotland for three time periods (2012-2014, 2016-2018, 2020-2022). The product provides application estimates for 183 different active ingredients including herbicides, insecticides, molluscicides and fungicides. It is produced at a 1km resolution with units of kg active ingredient applied per year. This version of UKCEH Land Cover plus: Pesticides provides average annual application for three different time periods (2012-2014, 2016-2018, 2020-2022), allowing users to assess change in applications over time. This differs from the previous version of UKCEH Land Cover plus: Pesticides which provided a snapshot for a single time period (2012-2017).

Pesticide application rates (kg/km2/yr) are calculated for each of the crops grown in each 1km square, using information from CEH Land Cover® Plus: Crops to determine where each crop is grown. A backcasting method was used to estimate crop cover for the earliest time period. Pesticide application data is provided by the Pesticide Usage Survey. Uncertainty maps are produced alongside each active ingredient map to quantify the level of confidence in the estimated applications. Uncertainty is quantified using the distribution of each parameter estimate obtained from the modelling method and is expressed relative to the total application. The product builds upon the UKCEH Land Cover® Plus: Crops product.