Today, as part of the #OpenDefra campaign, the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) published its data inventory. This details the data sources that JNCC intend to publish under the Open Government Licence.
JNCC was formed in 1990 when nature conservation was devolved to the four countries. The purpose of the organisation was to maintain any required co-ordination and standardisation but also to provide functions which are most efficiently delivered at the UK scale. One of these UK scale functions has been the provision of evidence. This includes supporting the collection of new data as well as collating evidence from existing sources and standardising to support application within the countries and more broadly. As a result JNCC now holds a significant volume of material.
The JNCC data inventory provides an initial index of the data holding within JNCC. It is dynamic and will be regularly updated as publication progresses. JNCC also has a range of holdings which it does not own and will be working with the owners of these sources to encourage greater openness and access to them.
Highlights of the data sources that will be published include:
- Inshore marine survey data – range of inshore surveys collected as part of the Marine Nature Conservation Review
- Offshore survey data – collected and collated to support the selection of protected areas in offshore waters (beyond 12 nautical miles)
- European reporting data – supporting the periodic assessment of the long-term status of the UK’s key biodiversity assets
- Biodiversity indicators – a suite of official statistics summarising trends in the environment; published annually since 2007
- Seabed habitat maps – a range of local data sources which are standardised and collated into national maps
- Protected areas data – useful UK collations of some site types; particularly those of European importance
- Seabirds data – significant holdings on monitoring of seabird colonies plus a range of data collected at sea
- Earth observation data – through the utilisation of Earth Observation techniques to identifying habitats and features on the ground
At JNCC we are committed to ensuring as much of our information as possible is available as Open Data. We hope that by improving access we will encourage novel and innovative approaches to its application that will benefit the environment.
Updated 16/12/15 11:35 to add link to JNCC data inventory and make minor corrections
2 comments
Comment by Ulric Wilson posted on
stray 'e' in second last bullet point
Comment by Andrew Newman posted on
Fixed, Thanks 🙂