Marine Protected Areas Within Northern Ireland's Marine Plan Extent

December 2020 data on all Marine Protected Areas designated within Northern Ireland's marine plan extent. The dataset includes SAC, SPA, pSPA, Ramsar, MCZ, and ASSI sites with marine components in inshore and offshore regions, compiled by the Government Digital Service. Layers were reprojected to WGS84 and merged using ESRI ArcGIS tools.

Use Cases

• Spatial analysis of marine conservation networks based on designated area types (SAC, SPA, MCZ, etc.).
• Policy compliance and planning assessments based on management authority attribution.
• Habitat and species protection studies based on links to protected feature information.

Strengths

• Includes multiple international and national designation types (SAC, SPA, Ramsar, MCZ, ASSI).
• Covers both inshore and offshore marine regions within a defined plan extent.
• Provides attribution for management authorities and hyperlinks to detailed feature information.

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• A review of bird species under ASSI legislation was ongoing in Dec 2020, indicating potential changes.

Provenance

Source

Government Digital Service, using data from NIEA Features Database and DAERA websites.

Collection Method

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

Time Range

Snapshot as of December 2020.

Freshness

Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Geography

Northern Ireland's marine plan extent (inshore and offshore regions).