Ramsar Site Boundaries for UK Wetlands of International Importance

Ramsar Sites are wetlands of international importance designated under the Convention on Wetlands. This spatial dataset contains the boundaries of these sites in Great Britain and Northern Ireland, based on information supplied by national conservation agencies. The dataset was last updated on the platform on 2026-04-14, but the spatial information itself has not been updated to include boundary changes since 2021.

Use Cases

• Map and analyze the spatial distribution of protected wetlands based on the site boundaries.
• Conduct spatial overlap analysis with other land-use or environmental datasets based on the boundary polygons.
• Support conservation planning and impact assessments for developments near Ramsar Sites based on the official site extents.

Strengths

• Boundary information is sourced from authoritative national conservation agencies: Natural England, Natural Resources Wales, Northern Ireland Environment Agency, and NatureScot.
• Dataset explicitly defines its geographic scope as covering Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Limitations

• Spatial information has not been updated to include changes to site boundaries since 2021.
• Row count and specific file formats are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.

Provenance

Source

Joint Nature Conservation Committee, based on information from Natural England, Natural Resources Wales, Northern Ireland Environment Agency, and Scottish Natural Heritage (NatureScot).

Collection Method

Aggregated from information supplied by national conservation agencies.

Time Range

Boundary data current as of 2021.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-14 09:45:32.633045; freshness should be verified

Geography

Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Does not cover Crown Dependencies or UK Overseas Territories.