One map to rule them all: National Trails on Esri’s Living Atlas

With the completion of the King Charles III England Coast Path, the National Trail network in the UK will soon cover almost 5,500 miles. However, until now, there has been no single dataset encompassing all 20 of these designated National Trails across the country.

That has changed as of last week. Esri's Living Atlas now hosts a comprehensive map of the National Trails, making it accessible to anyone, even those without an Esri licence. This is also accompanied by a map of the four Scottish National Trails, complementing the existing datasets from Natural England (also available on Living Atlas) and Natural Resources Wales.

This development marks an exciting milestone for NTUK, offering new opportunities for our partners to engage more effectively with us and our members. Esri's Living Atlas of the World is the foremost collection of geographic information from around the globe. It is widely utilised by GIS professionals and provides access to an online library of authoritative maps, apps, and datasets curated by a diverse and trusted number of organisations. With access to these datasets, our partners can now map and analyse the National Trails network alongside their own and external datasets.

For example, NTUK's Impact Fundraiser could immediately use Living Atlas to map National Trails alongside the National Grid network. This helped identify sections of trail that might qualify for funding through National Grid's Landscape Enhancement Initiative. Previously, she had to compare separate static maps for the National Trails network, National Grid, National Parks, and National Landscapes. Now, with all these datasets on one single map, it is much easier to see where they intersect.

You can now access these datasets here:

• Scottish National Trails: https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=91e32ce4eff74940a1117f3cab5dd853
• National Trails UK: https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=461e38c7248a47e39f1273f4ad166f9b

While Esri ensures that all data within the Living Atlas meets specific standards, it will be the responsibility of National Trails UK (NTUK) to maintain and update both datasets. National Trails UK is a proud member of the Esri UK Nonprofit Programme.

For more information on these datasets please contact hannah@nationaltrails.uk or for more information on the Esri UK Notprofit Programme or Living Atlas please contact Hattie at hgwilt@esriuk.com.

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