Marine Pressures-Activities Database: Evidence for Human Impact Links

The Marine Pressures-Activities Database (PAD) v1.1 records evidence from a literature review commissioned by Defra in 2015 to understand relationships between human activities and environmental pressures in marine ecosystems. It was compiled by JNCC and ABPmer, building on a 2013 matrix identifying 39 activity categories and 34 pressure types. The database is released in MS Access and Excel workbook formats.

Use Cases

• Modeling cumulative environmental risk based on documented links between activities and pressures.
• Informing marine spatial planning and policy by synthesizing evidence on human impacts.
• Validating or updating activity-pressure matrices for environmental assessment frameworks.
• Conducting systematic reviews of literature on specific marine activities like fishing or shipping.

Strengths

• Evidence base compiled from a structured literature review commissioned by a government body (Defra).
• Framework is based on a defined matrix of 39 human activity categories and 34 pressure types.

Limitations

• A newer version (v1.2) is available from 2018, making this version potentially outdated.
• Row count and column-level documentation are unknown, requiring manual inspection after download.
• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.

Provenance

Source

Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) and ABPmer, commissioned by Defra.

Collection Method

Literature review and evidence collation for an activity-pressure matrix.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-14 09:48:04.780372; freshness should be verified

Geography

Likely focused on UK marine environment, given the commissioning organizations.