Abstract

Current planning legislation precludes mineral development on high quality land unless it can be restored to its original quality. High quality land is defined as Grades 1,2 and 3a in the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) Agricultural Land Classification Scheme. The criteria depend on the physical attributes of the land. However, the MAFF system is not directly appropriate to restored sites due to the unnatural attributes of restored soils. In particular, soil structure is an important element of land quality which is disrupted during the soil handling process but which is not assessed in the current MAFF system. Measurement of soil physical characteristics, including a method for structural quality, is suggested as providing an improved assessment of land quality upon which the success of site restoration may be judged. An example is given of how the structural classification was tested on a site in north Essex enabling a comparison of different restoration methods to be made. The paper concludes that, as a result of more rigorously defined agricultural land quality classes for disturbed land, together with recent developments in restoration techniques, there could be a wider release of high quality land for gravel extraction.