UNITED KINGDOM · ENGLAND · DESIGNATIONS · STATUTORY
SSSI
What this layer shows
Site of Special Scientific Interest: the core statutory designation for England's best wildlife and geological sites.
Where the data comes from
ARCGIS · services.arcgis.com
Merestone asks this service live for the area on screen. Nothing is copied or stored beyond a short cache.
Facts shown for each feature
Area (ha)
In these presets
Essentials
What is protected here: the statutory designations, across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, plus ancient woodland. This is what the map opens with, and what Default puts back. It is a starting point, not a limit: every other layer is one tap away in the list below.
Desk study
The statutory designations an ecologist checks first: SSSI, SAC, SPA, Ramsar, National and Local Nature Reserves across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, plus ancient woodland and priority habitat. This is the opening move of a Preliminary Ecological Appraisal, what is protected on or near the site. Statutory sites are commonly scoped to 10 km and habitat inventories to 2 km, guidance sets no fixed distances, so set the radius to suit the project.
Botanical
Built for a botanical survey or NVC walkover: every priority grassland, heathland and the Botanical Value Map, with SSSI and ancient woodland for context. These are the habitats where the species list is the point: unimproved calcareous and acid grassland, lowland meadows, upland hay meadows, purple moor grass and rush pasture, and the heaths. Turn it on before a site visit to see which compartments deserve the most time on the ground.
Species
Protected species and licensing context: great crested newt licence survey returns and eDNA pond results, priority ponds, the Botanical Value Map, SSSI units with their condition assessments, and SSSI Impact Risk Zones: the layer that tells you whether Natural England must be consulted on a planning application. Note that these are records of where people have looked, not a map of where the species are: an empty area may only mean nobody has surveyed it.
Planning
The constraints that shape a red line: SSSI Impact Risk Zones, Green Belt, the Flood Map for Planning zones and storage areas with present-day rivers-and-sea risk, Agricultural Land Classification (both the provisional national map and the more reliable post-1988 surveys), nutrient neutrality catchments, National Parks, National Landscapes and Local Nature Recovery Strategy areas. Useful for a constraints plan or an early feasibility check before any ecology is commissioned.
Forestry
The checks behind a felling licence or a woodland creation application: ancient woodland and its revision, the National Forest Inventory, the live felling licence register, EWCO low-sensitivity land, the 1891–1914 historic woodland maps, wood pasture, deciduous priority habitat, and the statutory designations that constrain felling and planting: SSSI, SAC, SPA and Ramsar.
Farm & land
Land grade, soils, nitrate rules and agreement land. England and Wales; Scotland has land capability and AECS that are not published as open services, and Northern Ireland has neither.