Special Areas for Conservation (SAC) basic site details

Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) are strictly protected sites designated under the EC Habitats Directive. This dataset is derived from the UK wide data submitted to the EU Commmission in cumulative batches known as Tranches. A substantial update to these data was done as part of the Standard Data Form updating exercise on 22 December 2015 (Tranche 50) . It contains basic site details for each and every SAC - there is one row in the dataset for each individual site. The data here are for the following sections of the standard data form. Sections 1, 2 (except 2.5) + sections 4.2 (quality and importance) and 4.1 - site characteristics. Notes on specific columns: IS_MARINE This indicates that the site contains marine habitat (below high water) AND supports one or more qualifying marine species. The definitions of marine components are shown on the JNCC website. 0 = Not considered to be a Marine Protected Area 1= Marine Protected Area. DESIGNATION_STATUS_CODE cSAC = submitted to the EU as a candidate site but not yet adopted by the EU as an SCI SCI= Site of Community Importance - a status conferred by the EU Commission. SAC = Designated SAC. The final stage in the process SITE_COMP_DATE compilation data of original Standard Data Form SITE_SCI_PROP_DATE Date submitted to the EU as a candidate SAC. SITE_QUALITY this is extracted from Section 4.2 of the Standard Data Form. It is a statement of the qualify and importance of the site. All qualifying interest features are listed, with a qualifying phrase to justify the inclusion of each feature. Archived versions of this dataset are also available as part of a time series. These may be useful in determining how many sites there were at a given point of time, and also how some of the detailed information might have changed over time. Note that the data columns in this series of datasets were revised slightly in December 2015. Each archived version corresponds to a European submission. A record of the changes made at each submisison is shown here. http://jncc.defra.gov.uk/page-1488