CDDA: European Protected Areas Database for National Designations

The Common Database on Designated Areas (CDDA) is a data bank for officially designated protected areas in Europe, run by the European Environment Agency. It includes data for National Designations such as Sites of Special Scientific Interest, National Nature Reserves, and National Parks. The data are updated annually in March and cover all EU member states.

Use Cases

• Mapping the spatial distribution of protected areas based on the sites table.
• Analyzing the frequency and types of national designations based on the designations table.
• Joining site and designation information for comprehensive area profiles based on the DESIG_ABBR field.

Strengths

• Data is updated annually in March, providing a regular refresh cycle.
• Includes a defined data model with descriptions of each table and attribute, available from the EIONET portal.
• Covers all EU member states, offering a pan-European scope.

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The database format (APPLICATION/MSACCESS) may require specific software to access.

Provenance

Source

European Environment Agency (EEA)

Collection Method

Annual submissions from member states for the CDDA.

Time Range

Annual updates.

Freshness

Updated annually in March; last metadata update was 2026-04-14.

Geography

Europe, specifically all EU member states.