Marine Protected Areas Within Northern Ireland's Marine Plan Extent
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Description
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).
Data is provided under the UK Open Government Licence.