Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (UK)
An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) is land protected by the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 (CROW Act). It protects the land to conserve and enhance its natural beauty.[1]
An AONB is an area of countryside in England, Wales or Northern Ireland which has been designated for conservation due to its significant landscape value. Areas are designated in recognition of their national importance, by the relevant public body: Natural England, Natural Resources Wales, or the Northern Ireland Environment Agency. In place of AONB, Scotland uses the similar national scenic area (NSA) designation. Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty enjoy levels of protection from development similar to those of UK National Parks, but unlike with national parks the responsible bodies do not have their own planning powers. They also differ from National Parks in their more limited opportunities for extensive outdoor recreation.
Sources for Boundary Routes
2018
Natural England: locked up in ArgGIS Online? http://naturalengland-defra.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/areas-of-outstanding-natural-beauty-england
Natural Resources Wales: geojson and shpfile, copyright Natural Resources Wales and OS http://lle.gov.wales/catalogue/item/ProtectedSitesAreasOfOutstandingNaturalBeauty/?lang=en
Northern Ireland Environment Agency geojson and shpfile, OGL https://data.gov.uk/dataset/f803cb72-e3d2-44df-8a0c-19a496bd7a5d/areas-of-outstanding-natural-beauty
2012
 |
Natural England OGL data release On 1st April 2012 Natural England started to release data, including Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, under the OGL licence. Although it is always best to use ground-truthed data (i.e. by survey) this is difficult for AONB. It is therefore proposed that we use the Natural England data - please discuss. |
AONBs are created by a document known as Designation Order, which includes an OS map with the boundary marked on it. The boundaries may be amended by subsequent orders. We presumably can't use these maps where they are still in copyright, but the Crown Copyright only lasts for 50 years, so the designation orders for any AONBs that were created more than 50 years ago, and haven't been modified since are fine to use. Natural England probably holds copies of all the orders, so we should be able to request them using the Freedom of Information Act.
user:rjw62 successfully made a request for a copy of the Malvern Hills Designation Order [1]. It would appear that, at least in this case, the boundary tends to run along the side of roads, rather than down their centrelines.
List of AONBs
AONBs in bold are not yet mapped (or parts are not yet mapped)
| AONB | Country | Created | Boundary Relation | Complete | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arnside and Silverdale | England | 1972 | 9310559 9310559 |
||
| Blackdown Hills | England | 1991 | 7072146 7072146 |
||
| Cannock Chase | England | 1958 | 9335891 9335891 |
||
| Chichester Harbour | England | 1964 | 9336138 9336138 |
||
| Chilterns | England | 1964 | 7129946 7129946 |
||
| Cornwall | England | 1959 | 3126721 3126721 |
||
| Cotswolds | England | 1966 | 166570 166570 |
100% | Some sections guesswork |
| Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs | England | 1983 | 2664452 2664452 |
||
| Dedham Vale | England | 1970 | 9336585 9336585 |
||
| Dorset | England | 1959 | 9310601 9310601 |
||
| East Devon AONB | England | 1963 | 7527203 7527203 |
||
| Forest of Bowland | England | 1964 | 6402472 6402472 |
||
| High Weald | England | 1983 | 8815682 8815682 |
||
| Howardian Hills | England | 1987 | 383665 383665 |
||
| Isle of Wight | England | 1963 | 10097270 10097270 |
||
| Isles of Scilly | England | 1976 | 9336696 9336696 |
||
| Kent Downs | England | 1968 | 10601794 10601794 |
||
| Lincolnshire Wolds | England | 1973 | 3317398 3317398 |
||
| Malvern Hills | England | 1959 | 233879 233879 |
100% | Designation order used to determine route |
| Mendip Hills | England | 1989 | 3643754 3643754 |
||
| Nidderdale | England | 1994 | 6540319 6540319 |
||
| Norfolk Coast | England | 1968 | 9471593 9471593 |
||
| North Devon | England | 1960 | 9452837 9452837 |
||
| North Pennines | England | 1988 | 6576894 6576894 |
||
| North Wessex Downs | England | 1972 | 2904192 2904192 |
||
| Northumberland Coast | England | 1958 | 10037468 10037468 |
||
| Quantock Hills | England | 1956 | 1916427 1916427 |
100% | Designation Order used to determine route |
| Shropshire Hills | England | 1959 | 9447287 9447287 |
||
| Solway Coast | England | 1964 | 9346927 9346927 |
||
| South Devon | England | 1960 | 10796363 10796363 |
||
| Suffolk Coast and Heaths | England | 1970 | 9456324 9456324 |
Expansion (10782441 10782441) submitted for approval not yet given.[2]
| |
| Surrey Hills | England | 1958 | 7640939 7640939 |
||
| Tamar Valley | England | 1995 | 10773241 10773241 |
||
| Wye Valley | England and Wales | 1971 | 9629559 9629559 |
||
| Anglesey | Wales | 10676742 10676742 |
|||
| Clwydian Range and Dee Valley | Wales | 10757713 10757713 |
|||
| Gower Peninsula | Wales | 1956 | 10724536 10724536 |
||
| Llŷn Peninsula | Wales | 10724031 10724031 |
|||
| Antrim Coast and Glens | Northern Ireland | 1430481 1430481 |
|||
| Binevenagh | Northern Ireland | 1429007 1429007 |
|||
| Causeway Coast | Northern Ireland | 1430482 1430482 |
100% | ||
| Lagan Valley | Northern Ireland | 9814856 9814856 |
|||
| Mourne and Slieve Croob | Northern Ireland | 1426740 1426740 |
|||
| Ring of Gullion | Northern Ireland | 1426744 1426744 |
|||
| Sperrins | Northern Ireland | 1429005 1429005 |
100% | ||
| Strangford & Lecale | Northern Ireland | 1428604 1428604 |
100% |
National Scenic Areas (NSA) (Scotland only )
| NSA | Boundary Relation | Complete | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Assynt-Coigach | |||
| Ben Nevis and Glen Coe | |||
| Cairngorm Mountains | within Cairngorms National Park | ||
| Cuillin Hills | |||
| Deeside and Lochnagar | within Cairngorms National Park | ||
| Dornoch Firth | |||
| East Stewartry Coast | |||
| Eildon and Leaderfood | |||
| Fleet Valley | |||
| Glen Affric | |||
| Glen Strathfarrar | |||
| Hoy and West Mainland | |||
| Jura | |||
| Kintail | |||
| Knapdale | |||
| Knoydart | |||
| Kyle of Tongue | |||
| Kyles of Bute | |||
| Loch Lomond | within Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park | ||
| Loch na Keal, Isle of Mull | |||
| Loch Rannoch and Glen Lyon | |||
| Loch Shiel | |||
| Loch Tummel | |||
| Lynn of Lorn | |||
| Morar, Moidart and Ardnamurchan | |||
| North Arran | |||
| Nith Estuary | |||
| North West Sutherland | |||
| River Earn (Comrie to St Fillans) | |||
| River Tay (Dunkeld) | |||
| Scarba, Lunga and the Garvellachs | |||
| Shetland | |||
| Small Isles | 284135 284135 |
||
| South Lewis, Harris and North Uist | |||
| South Uist Machair | 9201859 9201859 |
||
| St Kilda | 9258472 9258472 |
||
| The Trossachs | within Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park | ||
| Trotternish | |||
| Upper Tweeddale | |||
| Wester Ross |
Wikipedia link: Category:National scenic areas of Scotland
Tagging
How to tag AONBs has been a source of some dispute. The Cotswold AONB was initially tagged as follows.
type=boundary + boundary=national_park + name=*
However this has been considered by some to be inappropriate as it fails to differentiate national parks from AONBs.
All AONBs now use boundary=protected_area, rather than boundary=national_park, with protect_class=5 as well as designation=area_of_outstanding_natural_beauty and protection_title=area_of_outstanding_natural_beauty
NSAs to be tagged similarly: boundary=protected_area, designation=national_scenic_area, protect_class=5 and protection_title=national_scenic_area
- ↑ “Areas of outstanding natural beauty (AONBs): designation and management - GOV.UK”. Retrieved 13 December 2018.