In response to a request from the Cabinet Office, as part of its work on hosting the Open Government Partnership Summit, the Environment Agency has committed to the publication of a further 15 datasets as Open Data, i.e. release of data essentially without any restrictions on subsequent use, over the next six months.
The EA Data Mapping Modelling and Information, Data Sharing Team arranged for five of these datasets to be published on the first day of the summit via EA's DataShare service. The others will be recorded on data.gov.uk and will be progressively published over the next few months. On 31 October, the following datasets went live for download:
1. Angling Guide Database
2. Priority Habitat Creation and Restoration
3. UK Water Quality Sampling Harmonised Monitoring Scheme Detailed Data
4. UK Water Quality Sampling Harmonised Monitoring Scheme Summary Data
5. Shoreline Management Plan Extents
Being able to respond to such initiatives so positively is an example of the results the EA is gaining from investments made in its data sharing systems and processes in recent years.
EA collects records for a wide range of species, mostly as part of its routine macro invertebrate and salmonid sample programs.
There are nine datasets on the NBN Gateway submitted from EA, but those with a national coverage, which will be regularly updated are: Environment Agency Rare and Protected Species records and Environment Agency Non-native Species records.
The next update is due early in the new year.
Between them these contain all protected and invasive non native species that EA collects. The data will be available to view as 100m squares, is downloadable and has no restrictions on the use made of it.
The licence, available to read with the dataset attributes in full, says:
‘You are free to: – copy, publish, distribute and transmit the Information – adapt the Information – exploit the Information commercially, for example, by combining it with other Information, or by including it in your own product or application’