BGS offshore survey data Web service

This Web service provides layers which show data relating to offshore survey activities undertaken by the British Geological Survey (BGS) and its predecessors. The layers are polygon, line and point layers which indicate the spatial areas of survey activities. The survey overview layer shows the location and basic information for coastal and marine surveys. It includes information about the survey, including the types of equipment deployed during the survey. For some surveys, a zip file of additional data can be downloaded using the URL link provided where available. The geophysical surveys layers show survey lines and shot points along those lines, where applicable. Geophysical surveys include shallow seismic reflection (e.g. airgun, boomer, pinger, sparker and water gun) and sonar (e.g. echo sounder, sidescan sonar and transit sonar). There may be several types of equipment deployed on a single survey line. Survey lines are uniquely named with a survey and line identifier (name or number). For example, 1985/6#16 is line 16 of survey 1985/6. The lines layer includes seismic reflection (sub seabed imaging which provides information about structures below the seabed) and sonar (seabed imaging which provides information about the roughness of the seabed or simple bathymetric data). Links to scanned images of geophysical records are provided (where available) for openly available survey lines where terms of use are known. The backscatter layer shows the location and basic information for bathymetric surveys containing backscatter data. A zip file of the backscatter image files for the survey can be downloaded using the URL link provided. Note that there can be more than one polygon per survey and these will link to the same zip file for the entire survey. The majority of the data were collected and processed for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) under the Civil Hydrography Programme. To download the related bathymetry data go to the Admiralty Marine Data Portal ( https://datahub.admiralty.co.uk/portal/apps/sites/#/marine-data-portal). The oil and gas industry site surveys layer shows the geographic location of oil and gas industry site surveys. The metadata for these surveys were collated via the BGS MEDIN Data Archive Centre (DAC). BGS do not hold the data. For further information contact the custodian of the data. For more information, contact BGS Marine Enquiries ( offshoredata@bgs.ac.uk).

Identification info

Date (Creation): 2025

Citation identifier: http://data.bgs.ac.uk/id/dataHolding/13608511

Point of contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
British Geological Survey	Enquiries	enquiries@bgs.ac.uk	Distributor
British Geological Survey	Enquiries	enquiries@bgs.ac.uk	Point of contact
British Geological Survey	Enquiries	enquiries@bgs.ac.uk	Distributor
British Geological Survey	Enquiries	enquiries@bgs.ac.uk	Point of contact

Maintenance and update frequency: As needed

GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0

Geology

BGS Thesaurus of Geosciences

Drilling
Sea floor
Shot point maps
Backscatter
Bathymetry
Geological data
Offshore drilling
Side scan sonar
Data
Geology
Marine geology
Marine geotechnical assessment
Marine surveys
Petroleum exploration
Seismic data
UK Location (INSPIRE)

dataCentre

UK Location (INSPIRE)

COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 1205/2008 of 3 December 2008 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards metadata, Part D 4, Classification of Spatial Data Services

200-Geographic model/information management service

Keywords

NERC_DDC

Access constraints: Other restrictions

Other constraints: no limitations

Other constraints: The dataset is made freely available for access, e.g. via the Internet. Either no third party data / information is contained in the dataset or BGS has secured written permission from the owner(s) of any third party data / information contained in the dataset to make the dataset freely accessible.

Use constraints: Other restrictions

Other constraints: The copyright of materials derived from the British Geological Survey's work is vested in the Natural Environment Research Council [NERC]. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a retrieval system of any nature, without the prior permission of the copyright holder, via the BGS Intellectual Property Rights Manager. Use by customers of information provided by the BGS, is at the customer's own risk. In view of the disparate sources of information at BGS's disposal, including such material donated to BGS, that BGS accepts in good faith as being accurate, the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) gives no warranty, expressed or implied, as to the quality or accuracy of the information supplied, or to the information's suitability for any use. NERC/BGS accepts no liability whatever in respect of loss, damage, injury or other occurence however caused.

Other constraints: Available under the Open Government Licence subject to the following acknowledgement accompanying the reproduced NERC materials "Contains NERC materials ©NERC [year]"

Service Type: view

Geographic identifier: UK CONTINENTAL SHELF [id=121701]
British Geological Survey Gazetteer: Geographical hierarchy from Geosaurus 1979 creation

Begin date: 1969

Coupling Type: Tight

Contains Operations

No information provided.

Operates On

Unique resource identifier: WGS 84 (EPSG::4326)

Distribution format

Name	Version

Distributor contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
British Geological Survey	Enquiries	enquiries@bgs.ac.uk	Distributor

Distributor contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
British Geological Survey	Enquiries	enquiries@bgs.ac.uk	Distributor

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
OGC:WMS-1.3.0-http-get-capabilities	https://arcgis.bgs.ac.uk/arcgis/services/SDDS/BGS_Offshore_Surveys/MapServer/WMSServer?service=WMS&request=GetCapabilities&	BGS offshore surveys Web Map Service

Hierarchy level: Service

Other: service

Conformance result

Title: INSPIRE Implementing rules laying down technical arrangements for the interoperability and harmonisation of Geology

Date (Publication): 2011

Explanation: See the referenced specification

Pass: No

Conformance result

Title: 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