About CPRE

We believe a beautiful, thriving countryside is important for everyone, no matter where they live. Millions of town and city dwellers recharge their batteries with a walk or a bike ride in the local Green Belt, spend weekends and holidays in our National Parks, or enjoy fresh local produce. People who live in rural areas keep our countryside beautiful and productive.

The countryside is unique, essential, precious and finite – and it’s in danger. Every year, a little more is lost forever to urban sprawl, new roads, housing and other developments. Rural shops and services are closing, and increasingly intensive farming is changing the character of the countryside. Climate change, too, will have serious impacts on the rural environment. 

Protecting and shaping the English countryside
We work locally and nationally to stand up for the countryside: to protect it from the threats it faces, and to shape its future for the better.

Our ambition
A beautiful and thriving countryside that’s valued and enjoyed by everyone.

CPRE Undergraduate GIS Internship Project

The Severn Vale below Gloucester is a complex area of land and water that is coming under increasing pressure from development. However, compared with the neighbouring Cotswolds and the Forest of Dean, our understanding of the lower Vale is comparatively poor. Campaign to Protect Rural England is funding a 5 year programme of student research aiming to increase the understanding of the
character of the area and the forces for change within it.

As part of this project, University of Gloucestershire internship students are helping to build a Geographical Information System (GIS) dataset of the Severn Vale, using open-source software and data, which it is hoped will become an important tool for helping to inform future decision-making in the area.

Previously Completed Projects:

• Ashtree Dieback

• Flood Risk Modelling

• Land Use Change and Characteristics