Data shows the location of Priority Habitat Chalk rivers and Streams. Replaces the existing 1:50,000 scale data.Based on Environment Agency Detailed River Network (DRN) version 3. All fields from DRN have been retained. This subset of chalk rivers uses the old 1:50,000 Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) chalk river data, BGS geology, WWF report "The State of England’s Chalk Streams" and stakeholder knowledge to produce an updated chalk river network for England.Full metadata can be viewed on data.gov.uk (to follow).

This record is for Approval for Access product AfA429. This is a low resolution indicative trace of chalk rivers and streams created from OS maps. Chalk rivers are recognised as a priority habitat for protection under the UK Biodiversity Action Plan. Please note that this content contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right [2004] and you must ensure that a similar attribution statement is contained in any sub-licences of the Information that you grant together with a requirement that any further sub-licences do the same. Attribution statement: © Environment Agency copyright and/or database right 2015. All rights reserved. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2004

Joint BGS/Environment Agency dataset of aquifer designations for England and Wales at 1:50 000. The dataset identifies different types of aquifer - underground layers of water-bearing permeable rock or drift deposits from which groundwater can be extracted. These designations reflect the importance of aquifers in terms of groundwater as a resource (drinking water supply) but also their role in supporting surface water flows and wetland ecosystems. The maps are split into two different type of aquifer designation: superficial - permeable unconsolidated (loose) deposits (for example, sands and gravels), and bedrock - solid permeable formations e.g. sandstone, chalk and limestone.

The data consists of a matrix of twelve land cover classes by 20 stream sites with the area of each land cover class given in km^2. The areal coverage (km2) of each of twelve land cover classes was recorded for each of 20 chalkstream catchments in southern England. The 20 discrete chalkstream catchments are distributed along the white chalk geology extending from Dorset in the south west, through Wiltshire, to Hampshire in the north east, to cover a gradient of catchment land cover intensification from extensive calcareous grassland and woodland through to arable and improved grasslands. These data were acquired in July 2012. This dataset was created as part of work package 3.1 of the Wessex Biodiversity & Ecosystem Service Sustainability (BESS) project.

The Sussex coast was mapped during several visits to the area using AGDS, and drop down video. On interest was the location of reef areas and chalk outcrops thoughout the area in addtion to general biological mapping for conservation.

The BGS Seabed Geology: Offshore East Anglia digital map provides detailed and accurate characterisation of the seabed geology, based on seabed and shallow-subsurface data. This dataset incorporates three complementary map components (Substrate Geology, Structural Geology, and Geomorphology), provided as discrete layers for viewing within a Geographic Information System (GIS). The bedrock geology of the mapped area comprises Cretaceous age Chalk Group sedimentary rocks. These rocks crop out extensively at seabed across the southern and central parts of the dataset forming an extensive bedrock platform and Europe’s largest known offshore chalk reef. This reef has been designated the Cromer Shoal Chalk Beds Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ) owing to the range of unique floral and faunal habitats that it supports. The Chalk Group is covered across the central (partly) and southern parts of the dataset by natural superficial deposits that accreted during the Quaternary. These include preglacial delta bottom-set (Westkapelle Ground Formation) and delta top-set (Yarmouth Roads Formation); and glacial sediments and landforms that were deposited and formed during at least two separate phases of glaciation that inundated parts of the southern North Sea and adjacent East Anglia during the Middle Pleistocene (Anglian / Elsterian) and Late Pleistocene (Late Devensian / Late Weichselian). Collective geological evidence includes extensive areas of out-cropping subglacial till; the presence of largely concealed and infilled over-deepened (>100 m deep) subglacial tunnel valleys, ice-marginal moraines, and a glacially disrupted chalk surface that includes the development of incised meltwater channels, detached and transported glacitectonic bedrock rafts and megablocks. Post-glacial environments from the Late-Pleistocene – Holocene (prior to marine inundation) included fluvial and estuarine deposition, that together with variable infill of late-glacial valleys are included within the Botney Cut Formation. Holocene marine transgression flooded the region, with shallow marine sedimentation active through modern times resulting in the variable cover of unconsolidated marine sediments, as well as the distribution of extensive current-induced bedforms, e.g., sediment banks, sediment waves and fields of mega ripples which are recorded within the Seabed Geomorphology dataset. Each theme is provided as distinct layers for viewing within a Geographic Information System (GIS). The “Substrate Geology” layer shows the distribution of bedrock and unlithified superficial deposits present at the seabed (below a thin veneer of seabed sediments, ‘one-metre principle’ described below) as a series of polygons; The “Structural Geology” layer represents the structural features observed at rockhead as a polylines layer, and “Geomorphology” theme consists of points, polylines, and polygons layers to portray the main seabed morphological and geomorphological features.

These records all relate to "Powell (ed) (1995) - Ross Coral Mapping Project 1995". A copy of the report is held at English Nature (Dorset Team). Following on from the survey work carried out in 1994, thirteen survey dives were undertaken in 1995 to provide further information on the extent of the Ross Coral colonies between Handfast Point and Ballard Point. Drift dives were used to make transects of the area. GPS/Decca navigation on the charter vessel Sea Ranger was used to pinpoint the position of divers at the start, during and at the end of the dive (following the diver's Surface Marker Buoy). The majority of dives were made at a working depth of 15-20m. Ross coral was found to be in the greatest abundance at 50'37.90N 01'55.00W. The largest colonies seen (50cm diameter) were in the area of more extensive chalk outcrops and ridges. The cobbles, small boulder and chalk ridges, that provide the most suitable substrate for attachment, change to gravel and sand, both unsuitable for the attachment of Ross coral, to the north (Poole Bay) and to the south (Swanage Bay) of the main survey area. The deeper water (>20m) to the west of the survey area has not yet been explored but its likely that Ross coral should occur if there is suitable substrate. Underwater photography was used extensively.