SSSI Impact Risk Zones: GIS Tool for Planning in England

England's Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) Impact Risk Zones are a GIS tool developed by Natural England. The zones define areas around terrestrial SSSIs and underpinned SACs, SPAs, or Ramsar sites to reflect feature sensitivities and indicate potentially adverse development types. LPAs can use the tool for rapid initial assessments and to determine when to consult Natural England.

Use Cases

• Assessing potential development impacts on SSSIs based on defined risk zones.
• Determining when to consult Natural England for statutory advice based on zone criteria.
• Generating formal consultation responses where statutory advice is included or risk is deemed unlikely.

Strengths

• Tool is developed by the statutory body Natural England.
• Zones are defined to reflect the specific sensitivities of notified site features.
• Includes statutory advice for certain development types in specific locations.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Last updated 2026-04-29 12:05:38.636292; freshness should be verified.

Provenance

Source

Natural England

Collection Method

Developed as a Geographical Information System (GIS) tool.

Geography

England