Visit the new-look Scotland's Environment Web

"The website has revolutionised the way people access and work with environmental data"

The team behind Scotland’s Environment Web, a James Hutton Institute-supported website aiming to be a ‘one-stop’ resource to access a variety of information resources on the Scottish environment, have launched a newly redesigned format which incorporates significant user feedback.

The website, designed to bring together information from a wide range of institutions involved in monitoring Scotland’s environment, has revolutionised the way people access and work with environmental data, attracting a new audience who are hungry to learn about their surroundings and are eager to make a difference. New website features include:

• New user-focused design and mobile first: The whole website has a new up-to-date look that has been informed by user feedback. The new design has been conceived with mobile devices in mind, meaning the website and data will be more accessible on mobile devices. There will be an enhanced experience for desktop web users too.
• Easier to find resources: New navigation at the top of each page; an enhanced search that allows users to employ key words to search web pages, map data layers, data analysis tools, blogs, PDFs and documents; and regularly refreshed links on the home page highlighting data, tools and information, and providing suggestions for information of interest.
• Our environment: Topics covering many important issues facing Scotland’s environment, with key messages on why they are important, data to help understand current status, policy and legislation that drive action, further information on what is being done, and details of organisations active on the topic that can provide more detailed guidance and expertise. Each topic also has links to relevant data and information elsewhere on the website and to a wide range of other information published by SEWeb partners.
• Map tool: Users will see big changes on Map tool, the website's most popular data viewing tool. It's now possible to search for data by title, publishing organisation, theme and keyword, and view any combination of spatial data from different sources on the one map. Scotland’s Environment website is the only place that allows such functionality.
• Useful data sources and map tools: The website is a rich source of information and data published by SEWeb partners. It’s now much clearer to see who publishes the data accessible throughout our website, and the website now provides users with recommended useful data sources and other map tools developed by SEWeb partners.

Through partnerships and collaboration, Scotland’s environment web is a growing network of interconnected, trusted and authoritative sources of data and information. These websites are branded as ‘Part of Scotland’s environment’ and contain more detailed and specialised environmental data on certain topics. This currently includes:

• Scotland’s soils – data and information on Scotland’s soils
• Scotland’s noise – view maps of noise from road, rail, air traffic and industry
• Scotland’s aquaculture – data about the aquaculture industry in Scotland
• NBN Atlas Scotland – submit and view data about plants, animals and habitats in Scotland

The SEWeb team are already working on a new and improved version of the Land Information Search tool, and a data catalogue that will help users search and discover all the data resources accesible through the website. Users can expect to see new Our environment topics, map data layers and projects on Project Finder being added as the team develop new topics.

Please note the URL (address) of the website has changed; be sure to update any bookmarks with the new URL: www.environment.gov.scot.

For updates on the different features of the Scotland’s environment website and on actions by SEWeb partners to address some of the big environmental issues facing Scotland, users can sign up to the SEWeb newsletter and follow the team on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.