Future Priorities for the National Mapping Programme
The National Mapping Programme (NMP) delivers high-quality baseline information to enhance the understanding and enjoyment of the historic environment, to assist the management of change through the planning and other statutory systems, and as the basis for more detailed research.The long term aim of NMP is to complete the analysis and mapping of archaeological information on aerial photographs for the whole of England but this will take many years to achieve. The NMP Strategy identifies key priorities, issues and landscapes to ensure that resources ares directed to where they are most needed.
Priority will be given to projects in areas where the NMP methodology will have greatest benefit or where there is the greatest threat of change to the historic environment. NMP is likely to have greatest benefit in those areas where we know the existing record of the historic environment is inadequate, landscapes that have seen considerable archaeological aerial reconnaissance but where the results have not been analysed, and areas where the results of NMP can feed directly into management plans for the National Parks and Areas of Outstanding National Beauty. NMP can most usefully inform those areas with the greatest threat that can be addressed on a large scale including the coast, areas where arable farming is most damaging to buried remains, and where strategic guidance on development plans is required.
The programme is undertaken through external projects funded from English Heritage’s Historic Environment Enabling Programme supported by a core team within English Heritage’s Aerial Survey and Investigation team that set standards, provide training and quality control and also undertake key projects.
The full version of A Strategy for the National Mapping Programme can be downloaded here.
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