Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs) are designated areas where protection is afforded to protect and manage the areas for visitors and local residents. AONBs are also known as National Landscapes.Under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, Natural England has the power to designate AONBs in England that are outside national parks and that are considered to have such natural beauty it is desirable they are conserved and enhanced; issue a variation order to change an existing AONB boundary. It also holds a duty to give advice on developments taking place in an AONB; take into account the conservation and enhancement of AONBs in its work.National Landscapes are living places. Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is not a nature designation, and caring for the natural beauty of these places involves more than habitat restoration.There are 46 National Landscapes in the UK. These are places with national importance, protected for the nation's benefit, but cared for by local teams with a deep understanding of the distinctive web of interconnecting factors that make these places special.The physical geography in a National Landscape: the unique combination of landform, climate and geology determines which species thrive, which industries grow, and therefore the heritage, language and culture of the individual place.For more information visit https://national-landscapes.org.uk/.Full metadata can be viewed on data.gov.uk.

In County Louth large areas of landscape of distinctive character and special scenic value have been designated Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. To identify and map specific areas of distinctive character and special scenic value. To assist in-house planning decisions.Metadata: https://www.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/b6a2a717bd4c437389d48701205b9c43/data Link: https://www.louthcoco.ie/en/Services/Heritage/Resource_Centre/Heritage-Designation-Advice/Landscape-and-Amenity/

🇬🇧 영국 English The Causeway Coast and Glens is an area of breathtaking beauty where the rugged coastline merges with a romantic landscape of deep, silent glens and lust forest parks and boasts three Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is a must see destination whether you're a local or come from further afield. The area features picturesque rural and fishing villages, bustling seaside resorts, golden, Blue Flag beaches and Northern Ireland's only UNESCO World Heritage Site at the Giant's Causeway. The Causeway Coast and Glens promises a warm welcome for visitors and an unforgettable experience.This story map showcases the most popular visitor attractions within Causeway Coast and Glens.To find out more visit - www.visitcausewaycoastandglens.com/

AONBs, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council

Abstract: This dataset maps the Ulster Way, a 1000km circular walking route in Northern Ireland. Purpose: To map the Ulster Way and promote use of this recreational amenity. The Quality Sections, as the name suggests, provide a truly quality walking experience. They are mainly on the already established Waymarked Ways which are predominantly off road, pass through Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and waymarked throughout their length. The Link Sections are not waymarked and mainly on public roads some of which can be very busy. Walkers are actively encouraged to make use of public transport along these sections so they can make best use of their time on the more attractive Quality Sections.Metadata: https://www.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/33be29dba02c4046b2395b08b889bc27/data Link: https://walkni.com/ulsterway/

The CRoW Act provides for public access on foot to certain types of land, amends the law relating to public rights of way, increases measures for the management and protection for Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and strengthens wildlife enforcement legislation, and provides for better management of Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).

Under Section 4 of the CRoW Act it states the following: It shall be the duty of the Countryside Council for Wales (CCW now forms part of Natural Resources Wales (NRW)) to prepare, in respect of Wales, maps which together show; (a) all registered common land, and (b) all open country.

This dataset contains all Common Land with a higher right of access (Urban Commons, Commons with Deeds for Access, 1899 Commons Act) for areas of Wales, and Elan Valley Estate. This dataset does not include the Registered Common Land dataset.

Digitisation took place in 2014 for all Wales.

When using this data for Open Access, it should be used in conjunction with Open Country, Registered Common Land and Public Forests from the same years. Contact your local authority for access to and information about Registers of Common Land.

The protected areas include National Parks, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and National Scenic Areas. The original datasets used to create this are listed and linked below: National Parks (England)Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (England)Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (Wales)Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (Northern Ireland)National Scenic AreasOtter Data filtered to the relevant years and then to only include open recordsLand Cover Map 2019 (25m rasterised land parcels, GB)Citation: Morton, R. D.; Marston, C.G.; O’Neil, A. W.; Rowland, C. S. (2020). Land Cover Map 2019 (25m rasterised land parcels, GB). NERC Environmental Information Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/f15289da-6424-4a5e-bd92-48c4d9c830ccLand Cover Map 2019 (25m rasterised land parcels, N. Ireland)Citation: Morton, R. D.; Marston, C.G.; O’Neil, A. W.; Rowland, C. S. (2020). Land Cover Map 2019 (25m rasterised land parcels, N. Ireland). NERC Environmental Information Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/2f711e25-8043-4a12-ab66-a52d4e649532OS Open RiversData was processed in ArcGIS Pro before being shared to ArcGIS Online before being used in Report Builder for ArcGIS.

Areas in which special protection of nature and landscape is necessary for scientific, natural history, regional or cultural reasons or for the conservation of communities or biotopes of certain species of wild fauna and flora shall be protected as nature reserves. According to § 23 of the Baden-Württemberg Nature Conservation Act (NatSchG), nature reserves can also be designated because of the rarity, special character or outstanding beauty of nature and landscape. In this way, the most valuable and important biotopes of a natural area are to be preserved. In particular, endangered animal and plant species find refuges in protected areas for as undisturbed a development as possible. The responsibility for the expulsion lies with the higher nature conservation authorities. These designate nature reserves by statutory instrument. Some UIS tools offer the following geometries: - DST Local: automated property map (ALKIS) as the basis for recording. This layer contains only the spatial data that are processed by the competent authority and are in the monthly data exchange. - Service nationwide: The complete geodata of the country are available as a Web Map Service (WMS), ALKIS-compliant. In this layer, the data are merged nationally, but cannot be processed by the services. The stock is updated monthly. This data offer has been created and maintained with care. Nevertheless, defects, for example in completeness, correctness and timeliness, cannot be completely excluded.

These maps will help to indicate to landowners whether there is likely to be potential to establish new woodland on their land, and where there may be sensitivities that would preclude woodland creation. The maps do not indicate that, where there is a low sensitivity to new woodland being created, planting will be agreed by the Forestry Commission, the regulator for woodland and forestry projects in England. However, the low sensitivity areas do not have clear constraints to address on the basis of national datasets, and it should be easier to agree creating new woodland here than in other areas. Likewise, creation of new woodland, particularly of native woodland, may be appropriate outside ‘low sensitivity’ areas, but the appropriateness of proposals in these areas will again be determined by the Forestry Commission, including through responding to the views of Natural England, Environment Agency, Historic England, the Local Authority and other stakeholders, where relevant. The Sensitivity Maps exclude all land that is unsuitable for planting, including urban areas, existing (and assumed) woodland and habitats that are considered too wet, too rocky, and too salty to support the growth of trees. This is achieved through restricting the Sensitivity Maps to the following land covers, based on the most recent update of Landcover Map: Acid grassland, Arable and horticulture, Calcareous grassland, Heather, Heather grassland, Improved grassland, and Neutral grassland The spatial datasets and individual layers of those datasets that define land as unsuitable and low, medium, or high sensitivity for woodland creation in the Full Sensitivity Map version 4.0, the Low Sensitivity Map and their variants are set out in the document here:www.gov.uk/guidance/a-guide-to-forestry-commissions-sensitivity-maps-for-woodland-creationEngland Woodland Creation Full Sensitivity Map v4.0 - variant 1

This is the England Woodland Creation Full Sensitivity Map v4.0 plus areas of land that have different sensitivities assigned compared to the core England woodland creation Full sensitivity map 4.0:

• Agricultural Land Classification 3a (ALC 3a) assigned as low sensitivity

• Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs) assigned as low sensitivity

• National Parks (NPs) assigned as low sensitivity

These maps will help to indicate to landowners whether there is likely to be potential to establish new woodland on their land, and where there may be sensitivities that would preclude woodland creation. The maps do not indicate that, where there is a low sensitivity to new woodland being created, planting will be agreed by the Forestry Commission, the regulator for woodland and forestry projects in England. However, the low sensitivity areas do not have clear constraints to address on the basis of national datasets, and it should be easier to agree creating new woodland here than in other areas. Likewise, creation of new woodland, particularly of native woodland, may be appropriate outside ‘low sensitivity’ areas, but the appropriateness of proposals in these areas will again be determined by the Forestry Commission, including through responding to the views of Natural England, Environment Agency, Historic England, the Local Authority and other stakeholders, where relevant. The Sensitivity Maps exclude all land that is unsuitable for planting, including urban areas, existing (and assumed) woodland and habitats that are considered too wet, too rocky, and too salty to support the growth of trees. This is achieved through restricting the Sensitivity Maps to the following land covers, based on the most recent update of Landcover Map: Acid grassland, Arable and horticulture, Calcareous grassland, Heather, Heather grassland, Improved grassland, and Neutral grassland The spatial datasets and individual layers of those datasets that define land as unsuitable and low, medium, or high sensitivity for woodland creation in the Full Sensitivity Map version 4.0, the Low Sensitivity Map and their variants are set out in the document here: www.gov.uk/guidance/a-guide-to-forestry-commissions-sensitivity-maps-for-woodland-creationEngland Woodland Creation Low Sensitivity Map v4.0 - variant 2

This is the England Woodland Creation Low Sensitivity Map v4.0 plus areas of land that have different sensitivities assigned compared to the core England woodland creation Low sensitivity map 4.0:

• Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) assigned as low sensitivity

• National Parks (NPs) assigned as low sensitivity

World Heritage Sites are places of cultural and natural value the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) considers to be of “outstanding value to humanity”. To encourage identification and protection of these important places, UNESCO adds them to the World Heritage List.

The idea for the World Heritage List began in 1959 when the creation of Aswan High Dam threatened to sink ancient sites and monuments of Egyptian Nubia below the lake. UNESCO conducted numerous archaeological aerial surveys and survey and photographic expeditions in the region. International efforts combined to document, fund-raise, and move many of the sites out of the regions to be flooded. This massive operation made it clear that an international process was needed to protect global cultural treasures. It took time and a catastrophic flood in Venice, Italy, but eventually support for the idea grew. On November 16, 1972, UNESCO adopted the treaty the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage.

There are several steps to add a place to this list. First, a country must sign the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. Once a country has signed the Convention, they can nominate places in their country for inclusion on the list. Each site is then evaluated by UNESCO and several committees to ensure it meets at least one of ten selection criteria. These criteria include:

representation of a masterpiece of human creative geniusan important interchange of human values in architecture, technology, or built environmentpreserves a cultural tradition of a current or past civilizationoutstanding example of a type of building, architectural or technological ensemble or landscape from an important stage in history;outstanding example of a traditional interaction with the environmentassociated with important events, traditions, ideas, beliefs, or artistic and literary works areas of exceptional natural beauty and importanceexamples representing major stages of earth's history, including fossil beds and places with ongoing geological processesplaces with significant on-going ecological and biological processes in the evolution and development of terrestrial, freshwater, coastal and marine ecosystems and communities of plants and animalsplaces with significant natural habitats for conservation of biological diversity, including those containing threatened species of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science or conservation.

UNESCO places each site into one of three categories; natural, cultural, or mixed (cultural and natural). Cultural heritage sites are places that have historic buildings, are archaeological sites, or have monumental works of art. Natural sites are places that show an outstanding example of:

(1) geologic processes or preserved records of life,

(2) current sites of ecologic importance or evolutionary processes,

(3) natural phenomena, or

(4) habitats for rare or endangered plants or animals or habits with high biodiversity.

For example, the Taj Mahal in India is listed as a cultural site, the Okavango Delta of Botswana is listed as a natural site, and Tikal National Park in Guatemala, which contains both protected jungle and ruins from the Mayan Civilization is considered both a cultural and natural site.

Once a site has been added to the list, UNESCO provides tools to help the country preserve the site.

The World Heritage Site points on this map were provided by UNESCO. The points are categorized by type cultural, natural, or mixed. Each point has a pop-up with the name of the site, a little bit of information about it, a photograph of the place, the year it was made a World Heritage Site, and a link to the UNESCO page on that site where you can learn more about the location.