SpatialData.gov.scot
Environmentally Sensitive Areas - Scotland
Environmentally Sensitive Areas (ESAs) were identified as areas of the countryside where the landscape, wildlife or historic interest is of national importance and where these environmental features can be affected by farming operations. Features such as hedges, walls, ditches, field barns, hay meadows, heather moorland and river valley grasslands have been created by traditional farming methods over hundreds of years and are highly valued, both for their scenic beauty and for the habitats they provide for plants and wildlife. The ESA Scheme was designed to promote agriculture practices which have helped create these distinctive landscapes and have contributed to the maintenance of wildlife habitats or historic features. Introduced in 1987, the scheme formed part of the Scottish Agri-Environment Programme which was required to meet the UK Government's obligations under the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP). The scheme allowed farmers and crofters within designated areas to have access to payments to sustain or adopt environmentally-friendly farming practices. Participation by farmers and crofters in the Scheme was voluntary. The scheme is no longer active and has been superseded by the Agri-Environment Climate Scheme (AECS) of the Scottish Rural Development Programme. It should be noted that ESAs are not a national landscape and/or nature conservation designation. ESAs have no planning status and therefore cannot be used as a reason for refusing planning applications.
Default
Identification info
- Alternative title
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ESAs
- Metadata Language
- English
- Character set
- UTF8
- Dataset Reference Date (Creation)
- 1996-01-01
- Identifier
- www.gov.scot / SG_EnvironmentallySensitiveAreas
- Presentation form
- Digital map
- Purpose
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Environmentally Sensitive Areas (ESAs) are areas of the countryside where the landscape, wildlife or historic interest is of national importance and where these environmental features can be impacted by farming operations. The 10 ESAs designated in Scotland formed the basis of the ESA Scheme wherein farmers and crofters could access payments to sustain or adopt environmentally friendly farming practices. As the scheme is now closed (superseded by the Agri-Environment Climate Scheme (AECS) of the Scottish Rural Development Programme) boundaries are for illustrative purposes only.
- Maintenance and update frequency
- Not planned
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GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0
-
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Protected sites
-
-
GEMET - Concepts, version 2.4
-
-
environmental management
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-
IPSV Subjects List
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-
Environmentally Sensitive Areas
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- Limitations on Public Access
- Other restrictions
- Other constraints
- No limitations to public access
- Use constraints
- Other restrictions
- Other constraints
- Open Government Licence
- Other constraints
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Available under the terms of the Open Government Licence. The following attribution statement must be used to acknowledge the source of the information: © Scottish Government, contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right [insert year].
- Spatial representation type
- Vector
- Denominator
- 50000
- Topic category
-
- Environment
- Farming
- Extent
-
GB-SCT
ISO 3166-2 2007-12-13
))
Temporal reference
Temporal extent
Temporal extent
- Code
- EPSG:4258
- Code
- EPSG:27700
Distribution Information
Data format
- Data format
-
Name Version WMS
1.3.0
WFS
2.0.0
ESRI REST
1.0
ESRI Shapefile
1.0
Transfer options
- Resource Locator
-
Protocol Resource Locator Name OGC:WMS
https://maps.gov.scot/server/services/ScotGov/ProtectedSites/MapServer/WMSServer? EnvironmentallySensitiveAreas
OGC:WFS
https://maps.gov.scot/server/services/ScotGov/ProtectedSites/MapServer/WFSServer? PS:EnvironmentallySensitiveAreas
WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link
https://maps.gov.scot/server/rest/services/ScotGov/ProtectedSites/MapServer/2 Environmentally Sensitive Areas
WWW:DOWNLOAD-1.0-http--download
https://maps.gov.scot/ATOM/shapefiles/SG_EnvironmentallySensitiveAreas_1996.zip
Data quality info
- Quality Scope
- Dataset
- Statement
-
ESAs were introduced under Section 18 of the 1986 Agriculture Act (UK Public General Act 1986/49) to help safeguard areas where the landscape, wildlife or historic interest is of national importance; and because it was recognised that agriculture can have a major influence on the conservation and enhancement of the landscape, wildlife and historical features. ESAs in Scotland were designated under powers given to the Secretary of State through the Act, while individual Statutory Instruments set out the terms and conditions for each designated area.
The lineage of this digital dataset is unknown, however, it is believed the boundaries were digitised from maps included in a report produced by Scottish Natural Heritage (precursor to NatureScot) around 1996.
Metadata
- File identifier
- 89a2f20f-8592-4e8c-b6ad-34cf2d4fad06 XML
- Metadata Language
- English
- Resource type
- Dataset
- Metadata Date
- 2023-02-03T11:30:07
- Metadata standard name
-
UK GEMINI
- Metadata standard version
-
2.3
Point of contact
- Organisation name
-
Scottish Government
- Position name
-
GIS Analyst
- Delivery point
-
Victoria Quay
- City
-
Edinburgh
- Postal code
-
EH6 6QQ
- Country
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United Kingdom
- Electronic mail address
-
GI-SAT@gov.scot SAT@gov.sco GI-SAT@gov.scot
- Role
- Point of contact
