Summary data for UK SPAs
Spreadsheet of UK SPA information as contained within the
Natura 2000 standard data forms submitted to the European
Union.
Summary data for all classified (also known as designated) SPA
in the UK is included in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, which
enables users of Excel to carry out a number of analyses of the SPA
data. By using Excel's AutoFilter function (
Data >
Filter > AutoFilter), it is possible, for example, to
list all SPAs supporting any marine features, or, by using
the Custom AutoFilter function, to carry out multiple queries such
as identifying all SPAs in England that have wintering curlew as a
qualifying species. The columns can also be sorted in a variety of
ways (
Data > Sort) - for example alphabetically
by SPA name or by feature name.
Data for potential SPAs (currently in the process of being
classified) are not available, but will be added once sites have
been classified (some information for potential SPAs is available
in the SPA Review).
The status of 'qualifying'
species on individual SPAs -
important information>>>
The spreadsheet contains a number of tabs/worksheets:
- SPA site details - contains summary
information about the SPAs themselves, including a brief
description, their size, location and date of classification. Most
of the data are sourced from the Natura 2000 Data Form, the
exceptions are those in 'overview' and 'local authority' which are
sourced from the 2001 SPA Review. The list includes all classified
SPAs. There is also an indication of which sites contain marine
components ie can be considered to be part of the Marine Protected
Areas Network.
- Admin regions contains
details of the administrative regions for each site using the NUTS
Level 2 categories.
- SPA interest features shows
bird data submitted to the EU - ie the occurrence of each species
on each site. The list of species for each site includes only those
listed on the Natura 2000 Data Form submitted to the European
Commission (specifically those listed in section 3.2 of this form).
It does not yet take account of the amendments published in the SPA
Review - because in many cases these data have not yet been
submitted to the EU as part of an amended Natura 2000 Data Form.
This does not include assemblages – these are listed in a separate
sheet.
- Assemblages - shows the
assemblages that are cited on the legal site documentation used for
consultation with Stakeholders. Please note that these are not
listed in the Site data form in Section 3.2. This is because
assemblages are not recognised as qualifying features at an EU
level – only individual species/sub-species of birds can be
included as qualifiers on the standard data form. Assemblages are
however included on the standard data form in section 4.2 – quality
and importance. This is included in the “SPA site details” tab on
this spreadsheet in the column “site quality”. This indicates the
date of the counts used for the compiling the assemblage count
figure.
- Maps - offers a simple
mapping facility. If a particular feature or site is selected in
the above worksheets using the Autofilter function, a dot map will
be displayed showing the location of the site(s).
- Habitat classes - indicates
the percentage of certain broad habitat types in each SPA. These
are intended to give a general impression of the character of the
SPA. The habitat types are defined by the Natura 2000 Data
Form.
- Threats and pressures lists
the positive and negative factors that impact on the site. These
data were collated for the first time in the UK as part of the
December 2015 submission to the EU.
- Management Body – indicates
the appropriate Statutory Nature Conservation Bodies
- Management plan – indicates
whether or not a management plan exists for the site.
- Designation type – this
refers to a very limited range of National Designations,
specifically SSSI, (ASSI in Northern Ireland), Marine Nature
Reserves and National Nature Reserves.
Within each worksheet additional explanatory
information is provided for many columns - to read this, hover your
mouse cursor over the column heading.
The spreadsheet has been compressed into a ZIP archive to reduce
download size - you will need compression software such WinZip or
StuffIt to expand the file. The spreadsheet is updated after any
new SPA information is submitted to the EC, so if you have
previously saved it to your own disk, please check that you are
still using the latest version. The naming convention is
UK_Natura 2000_yyyy-mm-dd.xlsx where yy
is year, mm is month and dd is day.
Last updated 30 June 2017. Previous
update 24 October 2016.
Please note that from the January 2016 release
onwards, SAC and SPA information has been combined together into a
single spreadsheet. Some of the tabs are however specific to SACs –
this is indicated by the title of the tab. Where a tab contains
both SAC and SPA data there is always a column for designation
type.
In some cases JNCC has been able to convert
codes into meaningful text whereas in some places the codes
are retained so as to not take up too much space in the
spreadsheet.
The official guidance (and explanation of
codes) for the SDFs is available on
European Topic Centre on Biological Diversity website. (follow
the link at the top of the page to the Standard Data form reference
document).
This spreadsheet is included with the
GIS
data download of SPAs.
Important note: although the data presented
in this spreadsheet are derived both from legal and published
sources the spreadsheet is not a legal document. For legal uses we
recommend that copies of legal documents are requested directly
from the relevant country agency.