Scottish Sea Areas for Environmental Monitoring and Marine Strategy Reporting

Fifteen Scottish sea areas used for environmental monitoring and reporting under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive. The areas can be aggregated to form regional and national assessments and align with the OSPAR Greater North Sea and Celtic Seas regions. The dataset is provided by the Government Digital Service.

Use Cases

• Aggregating regional environmental data based on the defined 15 Scottish sea areas.
• Developing national-level marine assessments by combining data from the sea areas.
• Reporting for the Marine Strategy Framework Directive using the aligned OSPAR sea areas.
• Spatial analysis of marine environmental conditions within standardized Scottish zones.

Strengths

• Defines 15 standardized sea areas for consistent environmental monitoring.
• Aligns with established OSPAR regions (Greater North Sea and Celtic Seas) for international reporting.

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

Collection Method

Likely derived from areas adopted for existing environmental monitoring programmes.

Time Range

unknown

Freshness

unknown

Geography

Scottish sea areas, aggregatable to the Greater North Sea and Celtic Seas.