Priority Habitats Inventory (England)

This dataset exceeds the size and feature limits of the Shapefile format, so is unavailable on the Natural England Open Data Geoportal in that format. Please select ESRI File Geodatabase or another format to download. The Priority Habitat Inventory is a spatial dataset that maps priority habitats identified in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan and listed as being of principal importance for the purpose of conserving or enhancing biodiversity, under Section 41 of the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act (2006). Habitats mapped in the PHI The PHI currently maps 27 terrestrial and freshwater priority habitats across England. Priority Habitat Name HabCode Blanket bog BLBOG Calaminarian grassland CALAM Coastal & floodplain grazing marsh CFPGM Coastal saltmarsh SALTM Coastal sand dunes CSDUN Coastal vegetated shingle CVSHI Deciduous woodland DWOOD Limestone pavements LPAVE Lowland calcareous grassland LCGRA Lowland dry acid grassland LDAGR Lowland fens LFENS Lowland heathland LHEAT Lowland meadows LMEAD Lowland raised bog LRBOG Maritime cliff & slope MCSLP Mountain heath & willow scrub MHWSC Mudflats MUDFL Purple moor grass & rush pastures PMGRP Reedbeds RBEDS Saline lagoons SLAGO Traditional orchards TORCH Upland calcareous grassland UCGRA Upland hay meadows UHMEA Upland heathland UHEAT Upland flushes, fens & swamps UFFSW Lakes LAKES Ponds PONDS Non Priority Habitats mapped in the PHI The PHI also includes four habitat classes which are not priority habitats, but which hold potential importance for conservation of biodiversity in England. These can indicate a mosaic of habitat which may contain priority habitats, have restoration potential and/or contribute to ecological networks. Where evidence indicates the presence of unmapped or fragmented priority habitats within such polygons, these are attributed as additional habitats. Non-Priority Habitat Name HabCode Description Fragmented heath FHEAT This refers to areas of degraded and relict upland heathland, typically in a mosaic with acid grassland that fails to meet the Upland Heathland priority habitat definition. Grass moorland GMOOR This includes large areas of upland grassland, which may contain mosaics of priority habitat, but tends to be species-poor, grass dominated acid grassland above the moorland line. Good quality semi-improved grassland GQSIG This includes grasslands with biodiversity value that do not meet priority grassland habitat definitions. No main habitat NMHAB In some cases, a priority habitat may be present within a polygon, but its extent may be less than the minimum mapping unit, or it may not be accurately mappable. Feature Descriptions and Codes For some polygons the PHI contains additional information about the main habitats in the form of feature descriptions and corresponding feature codes. These are new fields to the PHI and currently only sparsely populated. We expect the use of these fields to expand over coming updates with new features and codes. Feature Description Feature Code Priority ponds and lakes Oligotrophic lakes OLIGO Dystrophic lakes DYSTR Mesotrophic lakes MESOT Eutrophic standing waters EUTRO Ice age pond ICEAG Pond with floating mats PWFLM Deciduous woodland Upland oakwood UPOWD Lowland beech and yew woodland LBYWD Upland mixed ashwoods UMAWD Wet woodland WETWD Lowland mixed deciduous woodland LMDWD Upland birchwoods UPBWD Ancient semi natural woodland ASNWD Plantations on ancient woodland PAWDS Grassland Countryside Stewardship Option CSOPT Waxcap grassland WAXCP Heathland Dry heathland DRYHL Wet heathland WETHL Coastal sand dunes Dunes under coniferous woodland CWDUN Dunes under deciduous woodland DWDUN General Degraded DEGRD Spatial framework: Wherever possible habitats are mapped to polygons in OS Mastermap. These polygons are merged or split where necessary to create resulting habitat patches. Coverage: England Update Frequency: The PHI is updated twice a year. Metadata: Full metadata can be viewed on data.gov.uk. Uses include: National planning and targeting for nature recovery; agri-environment scheme targeting; local development planning; Local Nature Recovery Strategies. Contact: If you have any questions or feedback regarding the Priority Habitats’ Inventory, please contact the Habitats’ Inventory Project Team at the following email address. [e-mail] Attributes Alias Field name Example Value Description Main habitats MainHabs Lowland dry acid grassland, Lowland heathland Name(s) of habitat(s) present in the polygon. Habitat codes HabCodes LDAGR, LHEAT List of codes(s) representing main habitat(s) present in the polygon. Habitat feature descriptions FeatDesc Dry heathland Additional information about the nature of the habitat or features present. Habitat feature codes FeatCodes DRYHL List of code(s) corresponding to the habitat feature descriptions. Other habitat classifications OtherClass Phase1(D5) Additional habitat classification information relating to main habitats. Additional habitats present AddHabs GQSIG, LFENS List of code(s) for additional habitats that may be present within the polygon. Primary data sources PrimSource Natural England's SSSI database ENSIS (LDAGR), Northumberland County Council Phase 1 Survey 2003 (LHEAT) List of primary sources for the main habitats present in the polygon, with corresponding HabCode in brackets. Area in hectares AreaHa 0.14 Polygon area in hectares rounded to one decimal place. Publication version Version July_24 Date of publication for the current PHI update: Month_Year. Unique ID UID PHIDXXXXXXXXXX _YYYYYYYYYYY Unique ID for the polygon based on XY location coordinates.