Vehicle tracks in the UK uplands vary in occurrence with land use and overlap with peatlands and protected areas

Human modification of natural landscapes is accelerating, including the construction of vehicle tracks in ecologically sensitive areas. In the United Kingdom, upland ‘hill tracks’ are associated with land uses such as wind energy, forestry and recreational shooting, and there is concern over their environmental impacts, but their extent and distribution remain poorly quantified. We developed a semi‐automated method to detect and map surfaced hill tracks across GB uplands using remote sensing and tested their distribution in relation to land use and environmentally sensitive features. Our best‐performing model achieved an F1 score of 84.3%, identifying 5190.6 km of surfaced hill track (95% CI: 5182.6–5203.3 km), equivalent to a mean density of 0.29 km/km 2 . Track density varied by country: Scotland 0.39 km/km 2 (3391.9 km), Wales 0.34 km/km 2 (293.4 km total) and England 0.26 km/km 2 (1505.3 km). A total of 2503.2 km of surfaced hill track overlapped with known carbon rich soils in Great Britain, including 1135.7 km in Scotland (0.17 km/km 2 ), 1345.2 km in England (0.45 km/km 2 ) and 22.3 km in Wales (0.08 km/km 2 ). 89.4% of English upland tracks occurred over peat >30 cm, with track density higher over peat >30 cm than in areas <30 cm. Track density was similar inside and outside of protected areas (0.27 vs. 0.30 km/km 2 ) but higher in national parks (0.35 vs. 0.27 km/km 2 ). Track presence was most strongly associated with land managed for wind energy and grouse shooting. Wind farms (0.49 km/km 2 ), grouse moors (0.25 km/km 2 ) and forestry (0.21 km/km 2 ) exhibited the highest predicted track densities. Whilst agricultural grazing use (0.17 km/km 2 ), no dominant land use (0.10 km/km 2 ) and conservation (0.09 km/km 2 ) had the lowest. Our findings show that surfaced hill tracks are widespread and frequently overlap environmentally sensitive areas. Our results highlight the urgent need for stronger regulation of track construction. Solution : We recommend strengthened planning and/or consenting controls to ensure that hill track development is subject to appropriate environmental scrutiny. Within conservation holdings, there is a need to develop an evidence‐base for effective track evaluation, track impact mitigation and prioritisation of removal where ecologically justified.