Natural England

Natural England Open Data

Geospatial conservation data from Natural England via ArcGIS Open Data Hub. No auth required.

Data Model

• SSSI — Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Fields: REF_CODE, NAME, MEASURE (hectares), LABEL, HYPERLINK, CONTACT_NO.
• NNR — National Nature Reserves. Same field structure as SSSI.
• AONB — Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Fields: CODE, NAME, DESIG_DATE, HOTLINK, STAT_AREA (sq km).
• National Parks — Fields: CODE, NAME, MEASURE (sq km), DESIG_DATE (epoch ms), HOTLINK, STATUS.

Query Patterns

• Name searches use ArcGIS SQL LIKE with % wildcards (case-insensitive by default on ArcGIS).
• returnGeometry=false is always set to keep responses lightweight.
• resultRecordCount controls pagination (max 2000 per request).
• Use resultOffset for subsequent pages.

Gotchas

• AONB DESIG_DATE is a string like "Sep-63". National Parks DESIG_DATE is epoch milliseconds.
• MEASURE units differ: SSSI/NNR = hectares, National Parks = sq km, AONB uses STAT_AREA in sq km.
• The generic query tool can access any of 200+ services on this ArcGIS org.