Account services

Update on CDDA data collection 2004

Released on 2004-03-17

*** Update 17 March 2004 ***

Validation of existing data

A *** new *** download file has been prepared for each country from the current CDDA data set. The reason for this action was the omission of the IUCN category field from the original file. Thank you to Sweden for pointing this out. The information should be verified and updated where necessary. The files for verification are available from the EIONET Nature Protection and Biodiversity Interest Group on CIRCLE. Access to the files requires an EIONET user-id and password.

 


  To: PCPs for Nature Protection and Biodiversity
Cc: NRC for Nature Protection
Cc: EIONET National Focal Points

From: Tor-Björn Larsson, EEA
Date: 27 February 2004

EIONET Priority Data Flows 2004:

Nationally designated areas for the Common Database on Designated Areas (CDDA)

I am writing to inform you of the detailed plans for the CDDA annual data collection that is, as you know, one of the agreed EIONET Priority Data Flows. The data flow will run from now until 15 May 2004. Guidance and background information about the data flow are provided in the technical guidelines. I would like to summarise the main points here for you.

Use of the nationally designated areas data provided to EEA

EEA is using the data collected from EIONET on nationally designated areas to support work towards the target of halting biodiversity loss by 2010. Designated areas have been proposed to the EEA Management Board in March 2004 as a candidate for the EEA core set of indicators. EEA is also using the data in EEA Environmental signals 2004, where the biodiversity chapter will focus on designated areas.
EEA makes the EIONET data on nationally designated areas available to the public and other international institutions as a European data set in the EEA Data Service and through EUNIS: the European Nature Information System. EUNIS also holds data from other sources on areas designated under European Community legislation, areas designated under international conventions and on Corine Biotopes.

Validation of existing data

A download file has been prepared for each country from the current CDDA data set. The information should be verified and updated where necessary.  The files for verification are available from the EIONET Nature Protection and Biodiversity Interest Group on CIRCLE.. Access to the files requires an EIONET user-id and password.

2004 data collection

The data request remains unchanged from the request in 2003, when altitude, habitats and relationships to other sites information were introduced. The MS Access data base structure has also remained stable. Guidance and background information about the data flow are provided in the technical guidelines document for 2004. File definitions and descriptions are now held in the Reportnet Data Dictionary. This allows us to generate the document: Definition of Common Database on Designated Areas (CDDA) dataset. All documents are available from EIONET Nature Protection and Biodiversity Interest Group on CIRCLE. Access to the files requires membership of this interest group.

Delivery of data

Data files should be uploaded, after consultation with the National Focal Point, either to the Central Data Repository or to your national EIONET server, depending on the choice of your country for delivering EIONET priority data.

Deadline for delivery

We hope that this letter will be useful for you when organising a programme of work with your NRCs in order to deliver the required data by the deadline of:
15 May 2004

Help

If you require any technical assistance regarding specific details of the data request please do not hesitate to contact the European Topic Centre Nature Protection and Biodiversity (ETC/NPB):
Marc Roekaerts ( marc.roekaerts@eureko.be) or Laurie Klein (klein@ic.envir.ee).
In case of any difficulties with accessing documents on CIRCLE or downloading data files from the Data Service, please contact the EIONET Helpdesk or Sheila Cryan at EEA (Sheila.Cryan@eea.eu.int).

 
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support and look forward to another successful CDDA annual data flow.

Tor-Björn Larsson
Project Manager for Forests and Biodiversity
European Environment Agency
E-mail Tor-Bjorn.Larsson@eea.eu.int