Bryological assessment for hydroelectric schemes in the West Highlands

Published by:
Scottish Government SpatialData.gov.scot
Last updated:
09 January 2025
Topic:
Not added
Licence:
None

Summary

This dataset provides assessment of over 5600 watercourse along the west coast of Scotland for their nationally/internationally important water-loving oceanic bryophyte (moss and liverwort) communities. The approach is applied in line with Scottish Natural Heritage’s 'Planning for Development - Service Statement'. The aim of the database is therefore to help users take account of Europe's most important watercourses for these species before selecting sites for potential hydro development. Individual watercourses, or sites that contain multiple watercourses, have been assessed for either their known (categories A-C) or potential (categories D-E) importance.

The category descriptions provide clear guidance as to whether a watercourse is known to hold bryophytes or likely to be of low bryological importance, and whether further survey is recommended. This assessment only considers the impact of water abstraction on water-loving oceanic bryophytes and additional consideration should be given to direct impacts of construction on important bryophyte habitats (e.g. springs/flushes, ancient woodland, deadwood, bogs).

The full methodology is described in SNH Commissioned Report 449b: Bryological assessment for hydroelectric schemes in the West Highlands (2nd edition) - https://www.nature.scot/doc/naturescot-commissioned-report-449b-bryological-assessment-hydroelectric-schemes-west-highlands-2nd.

For more information visit https://www.nature.scot/professional-advice/planning-and-development/planning-and-development-advice/renewable-energy/hydroelectric-power/hydroelectric-development-planning

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Data links

Link to the data Format File added Data preview
NatureScot OpenData Hub N/A 09 January 2025 Not available
GeoJSON (EPSG:4326) ZIP 09 January 2025 Not available
Geopackage (EPSG:27700) ZIP 09 January 2025 Not available
GML (EPSG:4258) ZIP 09 January 2025 Not available
ESRI File geodatabase (EPSG:27700) ZIP 09 January 2025 Not available

Additional information

View additional metadata
Added to data.gov.uk
2025-01-08
Access contraints
When these data are used in publications and lectures, the British Bryological Society (BBS) and Biological Records Centre (BRC) should be acknowledged. When the data are used by ecological consultants, statutory agencies or record centres other than BRC, then BBS and BRC should be acknowledged. If ecological consultants or record centres other than BRC supply the data to third parties, the source of the data should be made clear, along with an acknowledgement to BBS and BRC.
Harvest GUID
b196c08f-4489-4755-bbbd-8d67160d46cc
Extent
Latitude: 60.87° to °
Longitude: -8.80° to -0.71°
Spatial reference system
Dataset reference date
2011-02-08 (creation)
2015-01-26 (revision)
Frequency of update
asNeeded
Responsible party
NatureScot (pointOfContact)
ISO 19139 resource type
dataset
Metadata language
eng
Source Metadata
XML
HTML

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