Nitrate Vulnerable Zones (NVZ) 2017 Pre-Appeals Designations for England and Wales

Environment Agency data delineates areas in England and Wales designated as at risk from agricultural nitrate pollution for the 2017 review cycle. The dataset represents the designations prior to appeals and was superseded by final 2017 designations and later by the 2021 NVZ dataset. It was created under the Nitrate Pollution Prevention Regulations 2015, incorporating data from Ordnance Survey, the British Geological Survey, and water companies.

Use Cases

• Map historical nitrate pollution risk zones based on the 2017 pre-appeals designations.
• Analyze changes in regulatory land designations by comparing pre- and post-appeals datasets.
• Model agricultural land-use impacts on water quality using designated vulnerable zone boundaries.
• Support environmental compliance assessments for farms located within the 2017 designated zones.

Strengths

• Designated under specific legislation (Nitrate Pollution Prevention Regulations 2015).
• Derived from multiple authoritative sources including Ordnance Survey and the British Geological Survey.
• Explicitly documents its superseded status, clarifying its place in the data lineage.

Limitations

• Dataset is retired and superseded by newer versions (NVZ 2017 Final and NVZ 2021).
• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.

Provenance

Source

Environment Agency, UK.

Collection Method

Compiled from multiple sources including Ordnance Survey, British Geological Survey, National Soils Research Institute, Defra, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, and UK Water Companies.

Time Range

Designations for implementation in 2017.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-07-06 07:15:59.564482; freshness should be verified.

Geography

England and Wales (implied from UK regulatory scope).