Blue Space Access Points in England

England's Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs created this dataset to support the 'Access to green and blue spaces in England' statistic. It identifies point locations where it is likely possible to walk up to or alongside blue spaces such as canals, rivers, and lakes. The dataset is intended for public health, environmental planning, and spatial analysis.

Use Cases

• Assessing public health equity based on proximity to accessible blue spaces.
• Planning green and blue infrastructure development using point location data.
• Analyzing spatial distribution of public access points to inland waters and canals.
• Supporting environmental policy creation with geospatial evidence on blue space access.

Strengths

• Created by a national government department (Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs), suggesting authoritative sourcing.
• Specifically designed to support an official national statistic, indicating a clear, validated purpose.
• Available on multiple data platforms (uk_data, eu_open_data), signaling importance and cross-border relevance.

Limitations

• Key technical metadata is missing from all sources: column names, row count, and file size are unknown.
• A metadata document is referenced but not described, indicating potential documentation gaps.
• The 'last updated' field is only provided on one platform and shows a future date (2026-04-07), creating a conflict and uncertainty about data currency.

Provenance

Source

Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (UK)

Collection Method

Likely created through geospatial analysis and surveying to identify public access points; specific methodology is not detailed.

Freshness

2026-04-07 16:02:39.397250

Geography

England