Special Protection Areas (SPA): Digital Boundaries for Bird Conservation in Wales

Designations from 1982 to the present day establish a network of protected sites for bird conservation in Wales. This spatial dataset contains the digital boundaries of all Special Protection Areas (SPAs), which are designated under the EC Birds Directive of 1979 and form part of the European Natura 2000 network. The data has been held digitally since the mid-1990s and is managed by Natural Resources Wales in conjunction with the UK Joint Nature Conservation Committee.

Use Cases

• Map and analyze the spatial distribution of protected bird habitats based on the digital boundary data.
• Assess site connectivity and network completeness for the Natura 2000 framework based on the described SPA and SAC contributions.
• Study long-term conservation policy implementation based on the designation timeline from 1982 onward.
• Perform overlay analysis with other land-use datasets based on the geospatial boundary format.

Strengths

• Boundaries are digitally available from the mid-1990s, providing a multi-decade digital record.
• Sites have dual protection status as both SPAs and Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs).
• The dataset contributes to a defined European Union network (Natura 2000), ensuring a standardized conservation context.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.
• Row count and file format details are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Natural Resources Wales (NRW) and the UK Joint Nature Conservation Committee.

Collection Method

Designated by the First Minister for the Welsh Assembly Government under the EC Birds Directive.

Time Range

1982 to present day (ongoing).

Freshness

Designations are ongoing from 1982 to the present day, but the specific data update date is unknown.

Geography

Wales, United Kingdom.