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

2. 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

3. 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

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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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