This report is the Method Statement for Version 2026 - 1 of the England Green Infrastructure Mapping Database (Issued May 2023).
The report sets out the methods applied to develop the Green Infrastructure mapping along with the first iteration of the Index of Multiple Environmental Deprivation for England (IMED) and the Environmental Equity Index for English Built Up Areas (EEI).The naming protocol for this version of the database has changed to provide a year of issue and number of iteration (such as 2026 – 1, 2026 – 2 etc) in order to make the date and iteration of each version clearer. However, this does not mean that all content from an individual version has been updated and each module retains a version number and date as set out in the database Mapping Guide on the Green Infrastructure Framework website. The guide can be accessed here.
Because the database now contains material from a range of versions, the methodological descriptions will reference the version where changes were last made to the relevant module.
The report details the methodological approaches taken in developing all the content that has been directly created by Natural England (or contractors). No methods are detailed for any data sourced from third parties (even if included as a specific layer within the database) and information regarding how such data was created should be sought from the respective data owner.