Standard Area Measurements for National Parks in Great Britain

Standard Area Measurements (SAM) provide flat area calculations for National Parks in Great Britain. The dataset includes four measurement types per park: total extent, area to coastline, inland water area, and land area, all reported in hectares to two decimal places. These measurements support the Eurostat-recommended method for calculating population density.

Use Cases

• Compiling population density figures based on the Eurostat-recommended land area measurement (AREALHECT).
• Analyzing the proportion of inland water (AREAIHECT) versus total land area within national parks.
• Comparing the total geographic extent (AREAEHECT) of different national parks over time.
• Assessing coastal park boundaries using the area to mean high water measurement (AREACHECT).

Strengths

• Provides four distinct, standardized area measurements per geographic unit.
• Measurements are calculated to a consistent precision of two decimal places in hectares.
• Dataset is available for multiple snapshots in time (2016, 2018, 2019).

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, specific column names, and license are missing from all source descriptions.
• Sources provide conflicting 'last updated' timestamps (2025 and 2026) that do not align with the data's reference dates.
• Measurements are 'flat' and do not account for terrain relief, which may affect true surface area.

Provenance

Source

Government Digital Service

Collection Method

Calculated standard area measurements for administrative boundaries.

Time Range

2016-2019

Freshness

Data reference dates range from 2016 to 2019; platform metadata was last updated in 2026.

Geography

Great Britain (National Parks)