Tranquillity and Place: Dark Skies
Dark skies can affect our experience of nature, landscapes and greenspaces and can benefit our health and wellbeing and local wildlife.
The Dark Sky and Light Pollution Dataset for Wales has been created to identify the strategic and local resource in remote, rural, peri-urban and urban areas for use as an evidence base to inform policy intent, practice and provision for benefits to benefits to wellbeing.
The dataset is based upon satellite imagery taken at 1:30 A.M in December 2019 by the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Suomi National Polar-orbiting satellite with the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) capturing visible and infrared imagery used in this dataset and later processed in 2021.
A set of maps have been created to display the dark skies data against the following geographical boundaries:
- Local Authority areas
- Future Wales boundaries
- Designated landscapes (AONBs and National Parks)
- NRW Operational Areas
- National Landscape Character Areas
- LANDMAP Visual & Sensory aspect areas
- Identification
- Extent
- Distribution
- Quality
- Keywords
- Spatial Reference System
- Content
- Constraints
- Maintenance
- Metadata
Identification
- Identifier
- NRW_DS124913
- Alternative Title
-
- Night Lights (Nanowatts/cm2/sr)
- Dark Skies and Light Pollution 2019-2021
- Metadata Language
- English
- Lineage
-
Data was captured by the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Suomi National Polar-orbiting satellite with the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) capturing visible and infrared imagery used in this dataset.
- Additional Information
-
Green C, Manson D, Chamberlain K 2021. Tranquillity and Place – Dark Skies. NRW Report No: 514, 70pp
- Dataset Reference Date (Publication)
- 2025-04-04
Extent
Extent
- Geographic Extent
- Wales (WLS)
))
Distribution
Distribution
- Format Type and Description
-
-
Geographic Information System
(
Unknown
)
- Specification
-
ESRI Feature Class
-
Geographic Information System
(
Unknown
)
- Resource Locator
- Download Data ( WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link )
- Resource Locator
- View Data ( WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link )
- Resource Locator
- View Data ( WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link )
Quality
Data quality
- Quality Scope
- Dataset
- Conformity
- Commission Regulation (EU) No 1089/2010 of 23 November 2010 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards interoperability of spatial data sets and services
- Explanation
-
This dataset has not been assessed for conformance to the referenced INSPIRE regulation.
- Degree
- false
- Lineage
-
Data was captured by the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Suomi National Polar-orbiting satellite with the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) capturing visible and infrared imagery used in this dataset.
Keywords
Keywords
-
NRW Thesaurus
-
- pollution (see also specific types of pollution eg. oil pollution)
- Type
- Theme
Citation
- Date (Publication)
- 2026-07-07
Keywords
- Type
- Theme
Citation
- Date (Publication)
- 2008-06-01
Spatial Reference System
Content
Content Information
NRW Profile
Custom Elements
- NRW Related Title
-
Tranquillity and Place – Dark Skies
Constraints
Constraints
Limitations on Public Access and Use
- Restriction type
- Other restrictions
Access Constraints Directive
- Limitations
- no limitations
Access Constraints Text
- Other constraints
-
There are no access restrictions on this data. NRW may release, publish or disseminate it freely.
Use Constraints
- Use constraints type
- Other restrictions
- Other constraints
-
© CNC/NRW All rights Reserved. © Earth Observation Group, Payne Institute for Public Policy. Data may be re-used under the terms of the Open Government Licence providing it is done so, acknowledging both the source and copyright of the owners. It is the recipient's responsibility to ensure the data is fit for the intended purpose.
Attribution Statement
- Other constraints
-
Contains Natural Resources Wales information © Natural Resources Wales and Database Right. All rights Reserved. Contains Earth Observation Group information © Earth Observation Group, Payne Institute for Public Policy.
Licence
- Other constraints
- Open Government Licence
Metadata
Metadata
- File Identifier
- 4f4c4942-4343-5764-6473-313234393133 XML
- Metadata Language
- English
- Resource type
- Dataset
- Metadata Date
- 2026-07-16T09:23:50.349Z
- Metadata Standard Name
- NRW
- Metadata Standard Version
-
1.0