Northern Ireland Special Protection Areas Boundaries, Last Updated 2017

A spatial dataset of Special Protection Areas (SPAs) in Northern Ireland, maintained by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC). The data was last updated in November 2017, and more recent changes to the UK National Site Network have not been incorporated. SPAs and Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) form the UK's National Site Network for nature conservation.

Use Cases

• Map and analyze protected bird habitats based on the spatial boundaries.
• Assess land-use changes near conservation sites based on the boundary data.
• Support environmental impact assessments for development projects based on proximity to SPAs.
• Integrate with other geospatial datasets for ecological modeling based on the protected area network.

Strengths

• Boundary data is maintained by the authoritative Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC).
• Dataset includes updates for new site designations, boundary amendments, and base map corrections.

Limitations

• Data was last updated in November 2017; more recent network changes are not included.
• Row count and column-level documentation are unknown, limiting suitability assessment.
• Statutory bodies may have more recent boundary data than this periodic JNCC release.

Provenance

Source

Joint Nature Conservation Committee

Collection Method

Periodically published updates following changes to the UK National Site Network.

Time Range

Data reflects the network as of November 2017.

Freshness

Last updated in November 2017.

Geography

Northern Ireland