UK Ramsar Sites: Wetlands of International Importance with Location and Ecological Details

Ramsar sites are wetlands of international importance designated under the Ramsar Convention. This dataset contains basic site details for all designated Ramsar sites within the UK and its Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies, provided by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee. The dataset was last updated on 2026-04-14.

Use Cases

• Map and analyze wetland conservation areas based on geospatial coordinates (LATITUDE, LONGITUDE, GRID_REF).
• Study ecological features and biodiversity based on ECO_FEATURES, FLORA, and FAUNA columns.
• Track the history of site designation and extension based on DESIG_DATE and EXTENSION_DATE.
• Assess site characteristics and human use based on columns like OVERVIEW, RESEARCH, EDUCATION, and RECREATION.

Strengths

• Includes sites from the UK, its Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies, indicated by the COUNTRY column.
• Contains detailed ecological and descriptive columns such as ECO_FEATURES, FLORA, FAUNA, and JUSTIFICATION.
• Provides multiple geospatial reference systems including latitude/longitude and GB grid coordinates (X_COORDINATE, Y_COORDINATE).

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Last updated 2026-04-14 09:45:38.533871; freshness should be verified.

Provenance

Source

Joint Nature Conservation Committee

Collection Method

Designation and reporting under the Ramsar Convention.

Time Range

Temporal coverage is implied by DESIG_DATE and EXTENSION_DATE columns, but specific range is unknown.

Freshness

2026-04-14

Geography

United Kingdom, its Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.