Useful data sources

Increasing amounts of data are being published and shared to improve our understanding, inform decision making, and underpin research. Here are links to recommended sources of trusted and authoritative data.

Topic sections

Air
Climate
Habitats and species
Land
People and the environment
Water
Other

Air

Air quality data

Options to retrieve data relating to air quality in Scotland from the present day back to 1986.

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Climate

Data point

Provides access to the Met Office’s Public Sector Information (PSI) data sets using an Application Program Interface (API).

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Habitats and species

	Natural Spaces Natural Spaces allows you to download a wide range of the spatial data held by NatureScot. You can browse through the data available, and use your NatureScot account to access the data in several GIS formats. Go to the data
	Forestry Commission Open Data This is the Forestry Commission’s Open Data Site for spatial data that can be used in Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Go to the data
	Scottish Forestry Open Data This is Scottish Forestry's Open Data portal. You can view, query and download a wide variety of geospatial data that can be used in Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Go to the data
	NBN Atlas Scotland The NBN Atlas Scotland is a portal of the NBN Atlas, a collaborative project that aggregates biodiversity data from multiple sources and makes it available and usable online. It is the country’s largest collection of freely available biodiversity data. Go to the data

Land

Scotland’s soils data

Soils data available for download, split into the following categories of soil maps (including 1:25,000 Soil Map (partial cover), 1:250,000 Soil Map (national cover)); point data (including National Soils Inventory for Scotland); thematic data and capability maps.

Go to the data

Scottish Remote Sensing Portal

Find, share and reuse remote sensed data provided by Scottish public sector organisations. The site currently serves as hub for Scottish Public Sector LiDAR data which you can download by 10km tiles and web services.

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People and the environment

Heritage portal – spatial downloads

Datasets that are available for download and links to additional resources.

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Scottish Public Health Observatory

Easy access to information about the range of data sources available to help those working to improve population health in Scotland

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Water

Scotland’s aquaculture data

Provides access to a range of information about aquaculture in Scotland

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Marine Scotland INFORMATION

A central location where users can search, view and download various maps and data.

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Marine Scotland DATA

a platform for publishing datasets with associated digital object identifiers (DOI's)

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Other

	Environmental data A range of datasets related to the environment, published by SEPA Go to the data
	Statistics Access a range of official statistics about Scotland Go to the data
	Scottish spatial data infrastructure Scotland’s catalogue of spatial data where you can find, share and reuse spatial data provided by Scottish public sector organisations Go to the data
	Local authority spatial data hub Web portal for the upload, download and consumption of spatial data from Scotland’s local and national park authorities. Go to the data
	Data.gov.uk Find data published by UK government departments and agencies, public bodies and local authorities. Go to the data
	European open data portal The single point of access to a growing range of data from the institutions and other bodies of the European Union (EU). Go to the data
	Natural Asset Register A Natural Asset Register Data Portal, funded by Scottish Government. Go to the data