Shellfish Water Protected Areas in England Under Water Framework Directive

England's shellfish water protected area designations under the Water Environment (Water Framework Directive) Regulations 2017. The dataset contains polygon boundaries based on Ordnance Survey tidal water data and incorporates updates from a 2015 review. It was created by the Environment Agency.

Use Cases

• Map shellfish water protected area boundaries based on Ordnance Survey tidal water data.
• Monitor compliance with Water Framework Directive regulations for shellfish production.
• Analyze changes in protected area designations following the 2015 review.
• Support economic assessments of shellfish production in designated waters.

Strengths

• Polygon boundaries are based on Ordnance Survey tidal water open data.
• Incorporates agreed changes from a 2015 Designation Review.
• Designated by the Secretary of State under specific regulations.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to uk_data, focusing solely on England.

Provenance

Source

Environment Agency

Collection Method

Designated by the Secretary of State under regulations, with polygons derived from Ordnance Survey data.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-24 13:17:51.937119; freshness should be verified.

Geography

England