Marine Protected Areas in Northern Ireland's Marine Plan Extent

A geospatial layer of all Marine Protected Areas designated within Northern Ireland's marine plan extent. The data includes SAC, SPA, pSPA, Ramsar, MCZ, and ASSI sites with marine components in inshore and offshore regions. It was compiled and reprojected by the Government Digital Service from the NIEA Features Database and DAERA websites, with a note that a review of bird species was ongoing as of December 2020.

Use Cases

• Marine spatial planning based on designated protected area boundaries.
• Conservation impact analysis based on the types of protected features (e.g., SAC, SPA).
• Policy compliance monitoring based on management authority attribution.
• Habitat connectivity studies based on the merged inshore and offshore regions.

Strengths

• Covers multiple designation types (SAC, SPA, pSPA, Ramsar, MCZ, ASSI) as stated in the description.
• Includes attribution for management authority and hyperlinks for further information.
• Data is sourced from authoritative government bodies (NIEA, DAERA).

Limitations

• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The description notes a review of bird species was ongoing, indicating potential changes to species lists.

Provenance

Source

NIEA Features Database and DAERA websites.

Collection Method

Layers were reprojected to WGS84 and merged using ESRI ArcGIS data management tools.

Time Range

Data reflects designations as of at least December 2020.

Freshness

Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Geography

Northern Ireland's marine plan extent, including inshore and offshore regions.