Droughtiness
High Speed Rail (Crewe – Manchester) Environmental Statement, Glossary, abbreviations and references, published by the Department for Transport in 2022, defines droughtiness as: ‘A physical limitation to the agricultural use of soils. It is a defined calculation in the Agricultural Land Classification guidelines which uses soil and climatic parameters to provide an estimate of likely moisture stress in ‘representative’ crops. Moisture stress can arise when the crop’s requirements for water exceed the available water capacity of the soil.’
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