Aquaculture: Marine Fish Farm Location Guidelines for Scotland

Scottish sea lochs are categorized based on predictive models for nutrient enhancement and benthic impact. The dataset contains Category 1, 2, and 3 areas designated by Marine Scotland Science for aquaculture siting. It originates from the Scottish Government's locational guidelines and is published via the EU Open Data platform.

Use Cases

• Assess environmental suitability for new fish farm sites based on the categorized sensitivity areas.
• Model potential nutrient enrichment and benthic impact in Scottish sea lochs using the underlying indices.
• Inform regulatory and planning decisions for aquaculture development using the official government guidelines.

Strengths

• Based on predictive modeling by Marine Scotland Science, a government scientific body.
• Provides a clear categorization system (Categories 1-3) with defined index ranges (0-10).
• Focuses on a specific, policy-relevant geography: Scottish sea lochs and similar water bodies.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and file formats are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

Government Digital Service (publisher), Marine Scotland Science (model creator)

Collection Method

Predictive modeling to estimate nutrient enhancement and benthic impact indices.

Time Range

unknown

Freshness

unknown

Geography

Scotland, specifically sea lochs and similar water bodies