Priority Habitats Inventory (England)

This is a spatial dataset that describes the geographic extent and location of Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act (2006) Section 41 habitats of principal importance. This dataset replaces the following three layer services with a new national single layer: Priority Habitat Inventory (North) (England) Priority Habitat Inventory (South) (England) Priority Habitat Inventory (Central) (England) This inventory replaces Natural England's previous separate BAP habitat inventories: blanket bog, coastal & floodplain grazing marsh, coastal sand dunes, coastal vegetated shingle, deciduous woodland, fens, lowland calcareous grassland, lowland dry acid grassland, lowland heathland, lowland meadows, lowland raised bog, limestone pavements, maritime cliff and slope, mudflats, purple moor grass & rush pastures, reedbeds, saline lagoons, traditional orchards, undetermined grassland, upland calcareous grassland, upland hay meadows and upland heathland. These earlier inventories were produced from 1999 onwards and derived from habitat datasets collated from across the country, prioritising areas outside of designated sites. The most recent version (3.0) allows us to map overlapping habitats and additional qualifying information to the habitat classes. Priority Habitats are those which have been deemed to be of principal importance for the purpose of conserving biodiversity, being listed in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan, and with maintenance and restoration of these habitats being promoted through agri-environment schemes. A number of datasets from different sources have been used to build the PHI. Candidate datasets are new datasets being used to update the previous PHI V2.3. The validation datasets were used to help resolve conflicts between the candidate datasets and the data already used in the PHI. Datasets used: Priority Habitats Inventory V2.3 Candidate Datasets: Alkaline Fen / Transition Mire / Quaking Bog Annex 1 Habitat Inventories in England - NE Arnside and Silverdale AONB Habitats - Arnside and Silverdale AONB/Lancaster City Council Border Mires in Northumberland - Forestry England Cumbria Haymeadows - Cumbria Wildlife Trust National Forest Inventory Woodland England 2020 - Forest Research National Trust Habitats - NT PHI Reported Omissions/Errors - NE Rye Harbour Nature Reserve Habitats - West Sussex Wildlife Trust Saltmarsh Extent & Zonation - EA Thursley Hankley and Frensham Common SSSI NVC Survey - NE Traditional Orchard HAP Inventory - NE Spatial framework: OS Mastermap - OS Validation datasets: SSSI Units - NE SSSI Unit Features and Condition Assessments - NE ES and CS Management Option Points - RPA Living England - NE