Designation boundaries Concept and status quo Christopher Philipsen (ETC-BD / space4environment, LU)

What are designation boundaries? Two types of protected areas: sites protected by national legislation (mapped for specific extent)  protected sites (currently part of the site information) protected areas not mapped specifically in its geographical extent often only covering parts of the real extent with vague outlines (e.g. complete distribution of a certain habitat) may not be covered by national legislation (but by private statutes instead)  protected boundaries (currently designation boundaries) Both can be linked to corresponding designations Further information and details for sites & boundaries National designation type category Two types: Sites protected by national legislation (mapped geographically explicit)  protected sites (CDDA sites) Areas not mapped explicitly in its extent Often only partially covering areas / vague outlines May not be covered by national legislation  protected boundaries (currently designation boundaries) Habitat s or environments not designated individually as site or network of site and which may not be covered by national legislation can be reported as designation boundary Linked to corresponding designations Type of designation (Nature reserve / national park) Legislation references if applicable  often not available for boundaries Area of designation Further information National designation type category Designation boundaries

National designation type category Three protection status at national and regional level Category A: very strict protection provided for flora, fauna and habitats Category B: sectorial protection under administrative acts Category C: permanent protection by private statutes Only a rough guideline assignment very much depending on actual character of protection Management of the area All three types provide protection but for different strictness and management restrictions  NATURA 2000 STANDARD DATA FORM EXPLANATORY NOTES Cat A: mostly constituted in national legislation Cat B: providing strict sectorial protection mostly administrative legislation Cat C: private statutes regarding management (often by NGOs)  not that strict management practices General concept to relate designation boundaries: Category B or C as this in most cases means protected areas are only covered in parts and may be by private acts As very strict protection will require knowledge on where the protected areas precisely are, Cat A will in most cases not match the definition of designation boundaries which are mostly not mapped site specifically Private protection status normally represents no particular national protection. By that areas covered by this designation will unlikely fall under the designated CDDA sites definition  as a result protected areas related to designation type category C will generally be parts of designation boundaries. BUT there is no straight decision tree saying “all areas related to a designation cat A have to be a site” or “all areas belonging to a designation with type category C must be boundaries”. Especially for Cat B the designation might cover one of both, sites or boundaries. Most boundaries fall into C or B, while most protected sites are A or B Designation boundaries

Designation boundaries Netherlands only country which have delivered correct designation boundaries Lelystad / Almere Designation boundaries

Designation boundaries Description by the Netherlands for the NL21 feature (designation boundaries): “…these areas are not truly protected under any kind of national law (they have no legal status) and do not represent actual sites with consistent additional data as “Name”, “Year of establishment”, “Management”, etc. …” “These sites have some kind of protection, being owned or managed by a national, regional or local nature protection organisation, such as the Dutch State Forestry, but no legal status.” Netherlands only country which have delivered correct designation boundaries NL21 – in former reportings included in CDDA sites, but now taken out as Spatial coverage of Protected Areas not defined as Sites Cat C Law not applicable as there is no legislation behind these areas  BUT there is a protection oriented management – e.g. by the Dutch State Forestry Many attributes requested for the sites CANNOT be reported or filled out for the boundaries, but to show that there is nevertheless a protection for these the areas have been reported Designation boundaries contain protected areas for which parts of the information requested for protected sites cannot be defined due to managerial, spatial or administrative reasons. Designation boundaries

Designation boundaries Form of delivery Two parts of the reporting (in current form) Tabular data (MS Access database – table designation_boundaries plus corresponding designation in table designation)  relationship via the National designation type code (field DESIG_ABBR) Spatial data (common format .shp / .sqlite)  related to the corresponding designation boundary entry in the table by clear link (e.g. file naming) Only designation boundaries described for both parts are acceptable and can be used! Two parts: Tabular: Designation_boundaries (ISO, National designation type code like NL21 and three specifications) Designations (related by national designation type code with the corresponding information) Spatial Shape or sqlite CLEAR link by name or something comparable (maybe in the attributes) to ensure designation boundaries are identified as such!!! Other countries (9) have delivered only tabular data  cannot be used! Designation boundaries must be reported both in tabular as well as ins spatial form! Its possible to report designations without any spatial data  protection for which not extent (neither sites nor boundary) can be defined Designation boundaries

INSPIRE-adapted way of delivery Concept behind designation boundaries stays the same Reporting will be combined into one data file (.gml) containing Tabular information Geometries All areas will be stored in one database Differentiation by new introduced field protectedAreaType: protectedSite protectedBoundary Designation boundaries will be assigned a unique identifier (SITE_CODE) which is defined per boundary reported (not per polygon) Simplification of the reporting process No longer two separated sources (sites vs. boundaries) required All information in one database To differentiate sites from boundaries new field will be introduced: protectedAreaType protectedSite protectedBoundary Designation boundaries will be assigned a unique identified like the Site_code in the current DB Each protected area can be identified by this Attributes not applicable for boundaries will be voidable, so they don’t have to be filled out Designation boundaries