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The publication hub of the ONS website serves as a gateway to national statistics and information on different themes. The Agriculture and Environment theme brings together information and statistics from across the UK about the agriculture, natural environment, fishing, food and forestry sectors.

Action to manage and improve air quality is largely driven by European (EU) legislation.  The 2008 ambient air quality directive (2008/50/EC) sets legally binding limits for concentrations in outdoor air of major air pollutants that impact public health such as particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2).  As well as having direct effects, these

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Since December 1997 each local authority in the UK has been carrying out a review and assessment of air quality in their area. This involves measuring air pollution and trying to predict how it will change in the next few years. The aim of the review is to make sure that the national air quality objectives (PDF) will be achieved throughout the UK by the relevant deadlines. These

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Site hosted by defra. Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency (AHVLA) is an executive agency working on behalf of the Department for the Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra), Scottish Government and Welsh Government.

Natural Resources Wales monitors bathing water sites identified under EC Bathing Waters Directive 2006/7/EC in Wales. Samples are taken throughout the bathing season from May to the end of September and analysed for two parameters: Escherichia coli and intestinal enterococci. A classification of bathing water quality, generally based on 4 years of sample results, is produced for each bathing

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The Better Woodlands for Wales (BWW) grant scheme ran from 2006 until the introduction of the Glastir Woodland Creation Grant scheme in 2010/11. BWW provided aid to land managers to achieve forest policy objectives, including the creation of new woodlands, and management of existing woodlands to secure a range of beneficial environmental and social amenity outcomes.

Attribution Statement

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Site sponsored by JNCC, provides information on the UK Biodiversity Action Plans (BAP’s) of the last 20 years (1992-2012).

Site sponsored by Defra, “use it to find out where practical action is in place to benefit important habitats and species as well as generate summaries of the data. It also offers an efficient way for you to contribute information about your own biodiversity actions.”

BIS was the first Local Record Centre in Wales and was established in 2000 covering the counties of Breconshire, Radnorshire and Montgomeryshire. It was one of 3 pilot record centres in the UK, (the others being in Cheshire and Northeast Scotland), funded by the partners and the Esmee Fairburn Trust through Wildlife Trusts UK. These pilot record centres were set up as 'nodes of the National

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“On this site you can find out about the work of the Wales Biodiversity Partnership including: national and local actions and objectives; biodiversity-related news and events; and how you can help biodiversity.”

British Geological Survey (BGS) home page.

The Canal & River Trust is here so you have a place to escape. A place where you can step off the pavement, onto the towpath and breathe. We are a charity, and we are entrusted to care for 2,000 miles of waterways in England and Wales.

The Trust’s Open Data site provides access to some of our core data and maps. Please note some data is subject to INSPIRE end user licence.

Site sponsored by the University of Edinburgh, provides information and data relating to the COBWEB project.

This GIS dataset and supporting information providing design / extreme sea level and typical surge information around the coastline of Wales under present day conditions. This is a specialist dataset which informs on work commenced around the coast ranging from coastal flood modelling, scheme design, strategic planning and flood risk assessments. The dataset contains the following layer

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Cofnod is one of four Local Records Centres (LRCs) in Wales and forms part of the first national network of LRCs anywhere in the UK. Our name, which means 'a record' in Welsh, was chosen to reflect the importance of observing and recording wildlife, with the creation of a record being the starting point for all the data we hold. Our task is to bring together all these individual records into a ...More

Boundaries of Conservation Areas in Wales, to conform with s.70(5) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990.  This dataset provides information on the map boundaries only. For the full information, including information on designations, individuals should contact the appropriate Local Authority.

Site hosted by the copernicus programme and allows the user to view earth observation generated High Resolution Layers for 5 key land uses. Pan-European High Resolution Layers (HRL) provide information on specific land cover characteristics, and are complementary to land cover / land use mapping such as in the Corine land cover (CLC) datasets.

The guidance is to promote better understanding of the agricultural issues that affect the restoration of mineral and waste sites where the long-term agricultural potential of the land is to be preserved.

The Development Advice Map (DAM) shows areas at risk of flooding for the purposes of land-use planning. The DAM should be used alongside Planning Policy Wales and Technical Advice Note (TAN) 15 to guide new development away from areas at risk of flooding wherever possible. Together, they form a precautionary framework to guide planning decisions. The maps shown here are not designed for

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The Development Advice Map (DAM) shows areas at risk of flooding for the purposes of land-use planning. The DAM should be used alongside Planning Policy Wales and Technical Advice Note (TAN) 15 to guide new development away from areas at risk of flooding wherever possible. Together, they form a precautionary framework to guide planning decisions. The maps shown here are not designed for

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The Environmental Noise Directive required the Welsh Government to produce noise maps in 2012 for major roads, for major railways and for roads, railways and industry in agglomerations. This data package contains all the sound level contours calculated in 2012, in 5-decibel “A-weighted” contour bands. It also contains spatial data on the sources modelled (the major roads, major

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The European nature information system, EUNIS, brings together European data from several databases and organisations into three interlinked modules on sites, species and habitat types.

Website hosted by the European Commission. This European Soil Portal is an integral part of the European Soil Data Centre, which is one of the ten environmental data centres in Europe and is the focal point for soil data at European level. This European Soil Portal contributes to a thematic data infrastructure for soils in Europe. It presents data and information regarding soils at European

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The Glastir Monitoring and Evaluation Programme (GMEP) has been commissioned by the Welsh Government to assess the performance of Glastir. GMEP was launched at the same time as the Glastir scheme. This provides fast policy feedback allowing for the scheme to be modified to improve efficiency and effectiveness. Click the links below to find out more about the work GMEP is undertaking within the

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This data layer was compiled by the National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory (NAEI) and uses 1km grid squares of point source data, as well as road transport data. These inputs are compiled, averaged, and mapped across the UK, and are then split by source category and further split by pollutant. The specific layer used in this project is ‘Total emissions <PM10’, which contains

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This dataset provides an account of the work on connectivity and priority mapping in Wales and provides a basis for mapping connectivity. The output of the model is a series of mapping layers, known as core, focal and local networks. Together these provide a guide to overall habitat connectivity and can be interpreted in various ways to inform biodiversity action and environmental projects in

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A tile catalogue of Historic LiDAR DTMs and DSMs in Wales provided by Natural Resources Wales with download hyperlinks.

This is a temporary asset provided until a more permanent solution is developed through the Welsh Government Lle portal. As such it is liable to change.

The data are available, depending on time and location, in resolutions between 0.25 and 2m. In some locations there

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This is a dataset compiled of spatially-referenced survey data obtained from different intertidal communities (biotopes) in Wales. Maps include information on biotope location, target note location, access and photographs points locations. Sites are mapped once and therefore are a 'snapshot' in time. Survey methodology is based on 'Handbook for Marine Intertidal Phase 1 Biotope Mapping Survey'.

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Website statement: "Keep Wales Tidy considers that a "clean and tidy Wales" can be primarily achieved by changing peoples attitudes so that they do not engage in activities that have a negative impact on their local environments. A number of activities impact on the quality of the local environment and Keep Wales Tidy will initially concentrate on tackling the issues of litter, flytipping and dog

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Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) is an airborne mapping technique, which uses a laser to measure the distance between the aircraft and the ground.  Up to 100,000 measurements per second are made of the ground, allowing highly detailed surface and terrain models to be generated at different spatial resolutions.

The Natural Resources Wales composite dataset contains digital

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Information about flooding and other environmental alerts from NRW.

Local Record Centres (LRC) Wales home page

The National Biodiversity Network is a collaborative partnership created to exchange biodiversity information and involves many UK wildlife conservation organisations, government, country agencies, environmental agencies, local environmental records centres and many voluntary groups.

The usage, name and grade of the series of recreation segments that link together to form linear recreation features, for example, mountain bike or Walking trails.

- Walking - Must be promoted as an NRW route, and have management activity and investment (e.g. Nature trail, heritage trail, education trail, forest

- Cycling - Must be promoted as an NRW route, and have management activity and

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The National River Flow Archive (NRFA) is the UK's focal point for river flow data and is the primary archive of daily and peak river flows for the United Kingdom. The archive incorporates daily, monthly and flood peak data from over 1500 gauging stations across the UK. The NRFA holds a wide range of hydrological information to assist in the understanding and interpretation of measured river

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RANDD – Site sponsored by defra, provides information and data related to defra funded projects on natural and social sciences.

Natural Resources Wales (NRW) is the organisation responsible for the work carried out by the three former organisations, the Countryside Council for Wales, Environment Agency Wales and Forestry Commission Wales.  It is also responsible for some functions previously undertaken by Welsh Government.

NRWs purpose is to  pursue sustainable management of natural resources

NRW work for the

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If you are a developer, you can now browse and download our data APIs directly from the Natural Resources Wales API Portal. 

Current available API data sets 

Flood Risk Forecast API (Open Data) - gives the indication of the potential for flooding for three days: the day on which it is issued and the subsequent two days ahead.

Live Flood Warnings and Alerts API (Open Data) - provides

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Nitrate Vulnerable Zones (NVZs) are areas within Wales that contain surface water or groundwater that is susceptible to nitrate pollution from agricultural activities. They are designated in accordance with the requirements of the European Commission’s Nitrates Directive 91/676/EEC, which aims to protect water quality across Europe by preventing nitrates from agricultural sources polluting

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Natural Resources Wales Species data held on the National Biodiversity Network (NBN) Gateway. This includes marine, terrestrial and freshwater species records for a variety of taxonomic groups. Data was collected to support core NRW functions including statutory and non-statutory reporting, condition monitoring and decision making.

The NBN key portal is the main route for the publishing NRW

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The CRoW Act provides for public access on foot to certain types of land, amends the law relating to public rights of way, increases measures for the management and protection for Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and strengthens wildlife enforcement legislation, whilst providing for better management of Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). Dedicated Forestry Commission (FC)

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The Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic known as the OSPAR Convention 1998 (Oslo Convention 1972 & Paris Convention 1974), is an agreement signed by a number of European countries (including the United Kingdom) to protect the quality of the North East Atlantic. The objective of the OSPAR Convention is to take all possible steps to prevent and

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Polygon data layer showing the extent of Saltmarsh in Coastal and Transitional waters for use by both Flood and Coastal Risk Management and the implementation of Water Framework Directive. At the seaward end of the transect, the final demarcation will be where the saltmarsh vegetation cover has become so sparse it only covers 5% whether it is Upper, Mid, Lower or Pioneer saltmarsh.

Saltmarsh

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This is a spatial dataset showing the extent of the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive (UWWTD) sensitive areas (bathing waters) in Wales. The UWWTD (91/271/EEC) regulates the collection and treatment of waste water from homes and from industry. In the UK, the directive is implemented through the Urban Wastewater Treatment regulations 1994. Under these regulations, water bodies where treatment

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This dataset consists of 3 shapefiles showing the extent of Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive (91/271/EEC) (UWWTD) sensitive areas (eutrophic). The UWWTD describes eutrophication as 'the enrichment of water by nutrients, especially compounds of nitrogen and/or phosphorous, causing an accelerated growth of algae and higher forms of plant life to produce an undesirable disturbance to the balance

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This dataset is a shapefile showing the extent of Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive (91/271/EEC) (UWWTD) sensitive areas (nitrate). The Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive (91/271/EEC) regulates the collection and treatment of waste water from homes and from industry. In the UK, the directive is implemented through the Urban Wastewater Treatment regulations 1994. Under these regulations,

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Source Protection Zones [Individual] have been created as public facing boundaries where discrete groundwater bodies within Source Protection Zones (SPZ) have been dissolved on zone number where common boundaries and overlaps have been removed. SPZs are defined around large and public potable groundwater abstraction sites. The purpose of SPZs is to provide additional protection to safeguard

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South East Wales Biodiversity Records Centre (SEWBReC) is the centre for the collation, management and dissemination of biodiversity data for South East Wales. Our aim is to make appropriate local biodiversity information available to all those who need it, to help ensure that decisions which affect local biodiversity are made using best available data.

This is a dataset of the Strategic Search Areas (SSAs) identified in Technical Advice Note (TAN) 8: Planning for Renewable Energy.

The SSAs are areas in Wales identified in TAN 8 as being the most appropriate locations for large scale wind farm development. The detailed characteristics of the SSAs and the methodology used to define them are outlined in TAN8 and its Annexes. For further

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This dataset holds comprehensive habitat cover data for the whole of Wales derived from a programme of field recording that was begun by the Wales Field Unit of the Nature Conservancy Council in 1979 and continued by the Countryside Council for Wales after restructuring in 1991. The purpose of this data capture was to inform site selection, casework and policy decisions. The fieldwork was

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