Two series of Land Capability for Agriculture (LCA) maps (now available on Scotland’s Soils website in digital format) have been produced. Firstly a national coverage of seven maps at the 1:250 000 scale [1] was published in 1983 but with the assessment carried out in 1981. Secondly there is a more restricted coverage of 30 1:50 000 scale [2] maps covering virtually all of the Scotland’s improved agricultural land and adjacent uplands, published at various dates between 1984 and 1986.
Both map series have subsequently been digitised; the 1:250 000 scale [3] data in the late 1980s and the 1:50 000 scale [3] in the early 2000s and are available to download as Esri shapefiles elsewhere on this site. A statistical summary of the distribution of the various classes in Scotland's 32 local authorities is available here [4].
This difference in resolution has resulted in a number of issues which are not unique to LCA maps and data but are ubiquitous when dealing with maps of different scales.
Where it exists (predominantly in the agricultural lowlands of the south and east of the country) the 1:50,000 scale map information is seen as the definitive mapped assessment and the 1:50 000 scale map should be used in preference to the 1:250 000 scale map. For a more site-specific query or to resolve a planning issue, we recommend that a further and very detailed site inspection is carried out.
Links:
[1] http://map.environment.gov.scot/Soil_maps/?layer=5
[2] http://map.environment.gov.scot/Soil_maps/?layer=6
[3] http://www.hutton.ac.uk/learning/natural-resource-datasets/soilshutton/soils-maps-scotland/download#thematicmapdata
[4] http://abwww03.hutton.ac.uk/sites/default/files/files/LCA250k_UnitaryAuthority_Stats.xlsx
[5] http://www.soils-scotland.gov.uk/data/lca250k
[6] http://abwww03.hutton.ac.uk/learning/natural-resource-datasets/soilshutton/soils-maps-scotland
[7] http://abwww03.hutton.ac.uk/learning/natural-resource-datasets/landcover/land-capability-forestry