Modelled gridded data of aquaculture suitability in the Dorset & East Devon Fisheries Local Action Group area, 2018-2019

notPlanned

The gridded layers were derived by modelling a suitability score based on environmental requirements for each specific combination of species and culture method. The purpose of the project was to identify and map areas best suited (and with least conflict) to specific types of sustainable marine aquaculture, within the boundaries of the Dorset and East Devon Fisheries Local Action Group (FLAG) area. The aquaculture suitability layers were derived by considering environmental requirements for various combinations of aquaculture species and growing system, to identify areas of suitability for each species/system combination. Suitability is modelled solely from the perspective of physical environmental requirements, and does not take conservation and legislative boundaries, human infrastructure and activity constraints, into consideration. The filenames of layers representing unique species/system combinations are in the format: ‘Dorset-EDevon-FLAG_[**species_name**]_[**growing_system** ]_AquaSuitability.tif’ The data layers represent a broad overview of aquaculture suitability in the Dorset and East Devon FLAG area, but detailed site-specific investigations would be required for local planning applications and licensing purposes.