UK Biodiversity Indicator E1 provides data on the availability of biodiversity evidence for decision-making. The indicator evaluates the number and resolution of biological records added annually to the National Biodiversity Network (NBN) Gateway, with the latest data point for 2015. It is one of 24 indicators published by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee on behalf of the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Use Cases
- Tracking annual growth in biodiversity data availability based on records added to the NBN Gateway.
- Assessing data resolution as a proxy for evidence quality for conservation decisions.
- Analyzing trends in volunteer and organizational contributions to national biodiversity data collection.
- Informing policy evaluation on the accessibility of biodiversity information across geographic scales.
Strengths
- Part of a structured suite of 24 UK biodiversity indicators published by a government body.
- Focuses on millions of biological observations recorded over the past century.
- Explicitly evaluates data from the National Biodiversity Network, a major national collation effort.
Limitations
- Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
- Last updated 2026-07-08 13:30:48.540014; freshness should be verified as the latest data point is for 2015.
- Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
Provenance
- Source
- Joint Nature Conservation Committee on behalf of the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
- Collection Method
- Collation of biological observation records submitted to the National Biodiversity Network (NBN) Gateway.
- Time Range
- Records span the past century, with indicator data up to 2015.
- Freshness
- The underlying data is from 2015, though the metadata record was updated in 2026.
- Geography
- United Kingdom.