Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) Basic Site Details for the UK

Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) are strictly protected sites designated under the EC Habitats Directive. The dataset contains one row for each individual SAC site, derived from UK-wide data submitted to the EU Commission in cumulative batches known as Tranches. It is provided by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee and received a substantial update on 22 December 2015.

Use Cases

• Track the designation status of protected sites based on the DESIGNATION_STATUS_CODE field.
• Identify marine protected areas based on the IS_MARINE indicator.
• Analyze changes in site quality and importance over time using the archived time series.
• Study the timeline of site compilation and submission using the SITE_COMP_DATE and SITE_SCI_PROP_DATE fields.

Strengths

• Includes a time series of archived versions, allowing analysis of changes over time.
• Provides a clear indicator (IS_MARINE) for sites qualifying as Marine Protected Areas.
• Data is derived from official UK submissions to the EU Commission, suggesting an authoritative source.

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent for most fields; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The last update is listed as 2026-04-14; freshness should be verified.

Provenance

Source

Joint Nature Conservation Committee

Collection Method

Derived from UK-wide data submitted to the EU Commission in cumulative batches (Tranches).

Time Range

Data reflects submissions up to Tranche 50 (22 December 2015), with archived versions available.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-14 09:45:33.469496.

Geography

United Kingdom