Data guidelines

1. Shared environmental information system

Scotland’s environment web demonstrates the concept of a Shared Environment Information System (SEIS).  An online system has been created with services and applications that make information and data available from multiple sources for multiple users.  Scotland’s environment web follows the seven SEIS principles – data is:

1. managed as close as possible to its source;
2. collected once and shared with others for many purposes;
3. readily available to easily fulfil reporting obligations;
4. easily accessible to all users;
5. accessible to enable comparisons at the appropriate geographical scale and the participation of citizens;
6. fully available to the general public and at national level; and
7. supported through common, free, open software standards.

2. Public bodies and open data

Scotland’s environment web supports the requirements on public bodies to publish data, under:

• EU INSPIRE Directive,
• EU Directive on the re-use of Public Sector Information (PSI Directive),
• Freedom of Information Scotland Act (FOISA)
• Environmental Information Regulation
• Scottish Government Open Data Strategy (2015)

3. Sharing and re-using partner data

Scotland’s environment website is not a data repository – it does not own, hold or publish data. 

Data accessed on Scotland’s environment website is the responsibility of the data owner and users must adhere to the stated terms and conditions of data use.

If any data maps, graphs or charts viewed on Scotland’s environment website are replicated, all relevant data sources and © acknowledgements must be appropriately referenced, data terms and conditions of use must be adhered to.

The data tools on Scotland’s environment website present data owned and published by partners. The website has developed tools that transform partner data into formats that make it easy for users to access, view, analyse and interpret.

All data presented on the website is open data unless otherwise identified.

A high proportion of data tools on Scotland’s environment website rely on live data services published by our partners, and being available at the point of query.  In some instances, for reasons beyond our control, these services might not be available or might take longer than expected to load.

4. For more information about Scotland’s environment and data – read our blogs

• Open data to accessible information

• Mapvember 1 – use of Linked Data - a new data management structure

• Mapvember 2 – managing Scotland’s environment web data

• Mapvember 3 – developing Scotland’s environment map

• Data from our partners