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GIS Digital Boundary Datasets
Natural Areas
Definitions
In 1996 English Nature and the Countryside Commission, with help from English Heritage, produced a map of England that depicts the natural and cultural dimensions of the landscape. Digital boundary data is available for Natural Areas and Character Areas.
Natural Areas
Natural Areas are biogeographic zones that reflect the geological foundation, the natural systems and processes and the wildlife in different parts of England. There are 120 Natural Areas, many of which are coincident with Character Areas; the remainder comprise one or more Character Area. Natural Areas are a sensible scale at which to view the wildlife resource, from both a national and local perspective, and they were used by English Nature as an ecologically coherent framework for setting objectives for nature conservation. Natural Areas are not a designation.
Character Areas
There are 159 Character Areas, each of which is distinctive with a unique 'sense of place'. These broad divisions of landscape form the basic units of cohesive countryside character, on which strategies for both ecological and landscape issues can be based. The Character Area framework is used extensively by the Countryside Agency to describe and shape objectives for the countryside, its planning and management.
Boundaries
These areas are not derived from administrative boundaries, but follow variations in the character of the landscape. As they are based upon the distribution of wildlife and natural features, the land use pattern and human history of each area, the boundaries are difficult to define precisely because of the gradation from one area to another. Consequently, the boundaries should be regarded as the approximate limits of the areas involved, for example the transition between some Natural Areas can be several kilometres wide.
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