Approximately 14,000 sites from the Historical Land Use Database were analyzed for potential mercury land contamination. Of these, 25 sites initially received a 'High' risk rating, but were subsequently re-classified as 'Low' risk by NIEA scientists following a detailed review. The dataset was last updated on April 15, 2026, and is provided by OpenDataNI.
Use Cases
- Validate and audit historical land contamination risk assessments based on expert review outcomes.
- Analyze the factors leading to risk rating downgrades based on changes in land use or development.
- Study the correlation between historical industrial processes and subsequent environmental risk classifications.
- Benchmark desktop analysis results against expert scientific review for quality assurance.
Strengths
- Contains expert-reviewed risk classifications for 25 specific sites.
- Derived from a larger analysis of approximately 14,000 sites in the Historical Land Use Database.
- Provides a clear case study of risk rating revision based on scientific evidence.
Limitations
- Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
- Row count for the specific reviewed subset is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
- Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to uk_data, focusing on Northern Ireland.
Provenance
- Source
- OpenDataNI
- Collection Method
- Desktop analysis and subsequent expert review by NIEA scientists.
- Freshness
- Last updated 2026-04-15 14:21:42.677498; freshness should be verified.
- Geography
- Northern Ireland