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Radon Potential for Great Britain version 3

Radon is a natural radioactive gas, which enters buildings from the ground. The joint UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) - British Geological Survey (BGS) Radon Potential for Great Britain digital dataset provides the current definitive map of Radon Affected Areas in Great Britain. Exposure to high concentrations of radon increases the risk of lung cancer. The UK Health Security Agency (formerly Public Health England, PHE) recommends that radon levels should be reduced in homes where the annual average is at or above 200 becquerels per cubic metre (200 Bq m-3). This is termed the Action Level. The UKHSA defines Radon Affected Areas as those with 1% chance or more of a house having a radon concentration at or above the Action Level of 200 Bq m-3. This dataset allows an estimate to be made of the probability that an individual property is at or above the Action Level for radon. This information provides an answer to one of the standard legal enquiries on house purchase in England and Wales, known as CON29 standard Enquiry of Local Authority; 3.13 Radon Gas: Location of the Property in a Radon Affected Area. Radon Potential for Great Britain also provides information on the level of protection required for new buildings, as described in the latest Building Research Establishment guidance on radon protective measures for new buildings (Radon: guidance on protective measures for new dwellings; BR 211, 2015 in Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland). This radon potential hazard information for Great Britain is based on UKHSA indoor radon measurements and BGS digital geology information. This product was derived from BGS Geology 50k (formerly known as DiGMapGB-50k) version 8 and UKHSA in-house radon measurement data. The indoor radon data are used with the agreement of the UKHSA. Confidentiality of measurement locations is maintained through data management practices. The data may be accessed under licence.

Simple

Date (Creation)
2021-07-01
Identifier
http://data.bgs.ac.uk/id/dataHolding/13607974
Distributor
  British Geological Survey - Enquiries
Environmental Science Centre, Nicker Hill, Keyworth , NOTTINGHAM , NOTTINGHAMSHIRE , NG12 5GG , United Kingdom
0115 936 3143
0115 936 3276
Point of contact
  British Geological Survey - Enquiries
Environmental Science Centre, Nicker Hill, Keyworth , NOTTINGHAM , NOTTINGHAMSHIRE , NG12 5GG , United Kingdom
0115 936 3143
0115 936 3276
Distributor
  British Geological Survey - Enquiries
Point of contact
  British Geological Survey - Enquiries
Maintenance and update frequency
notPlanned Not planned
GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0
  • Geology
BGS Thesaurus of Geosciences
  • Geochemistry
  • Geohazards
  • UK Location (INSPIRE)
  • Radon protection
  • Radon potential
  • Natural hazards
dataCentre
  • UK Location (INSPIRE)
Keywords
  • NERC_DDC
Access constraints
otherRestrictions Other restrictions
Other constraints
restricted
Other constraints
The dataset has been formally approved by BGS for access by external clients under a BGS Digital Data Licence, issued via BGS's IPR Section. The dataset must not be provided to, or be accessible by, an external client until the IPR Section confirms that signed licence documentation is in place. Refer to the IPR Section (DigitalLE@bgs.ac.) if further advice is required.
Use constraints
otherRestrictions 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
The dataset is made available to external clients under BGS Digital Data Licence terms and conditions. Revert to the IPR Section (iprdigital@bgs.ac.uk ) if further advice is required with regard to permitted usage.
Spatial representation type
vector Vector
Denominator
50000
Metadata language
EnglishEnglish
Topic category
  • Geoscientific information
Geographic identifier
GBN

Date (Revision)
2009

Geographic identifier
GREAT BRITAIN [id=139600]

Date (Creation)
1979

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End date
2021-07
Unique resource identifier
WGS 84 (EPSG::4326)
Distribution format
  • ESRI Shapefile (.shp) ()

  • GeoPackage (.gpkg) ()

Distributor
  British Geological Survey - Enquiries
Environmental Science Centre, Nicker Hill, Keyworth , NOTTINGHAM , NOTTINGHAMSHIRE , NG12 5GG , United Kingdom
0115 936 3143
0115 936 3276
Distributor
  British Geological Survey - Enquiries
OnLine resource
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
OnLine resource
BGS Datasets - Radon potential Homepage
Hierarchy level
dataset Dataset
Other
dataset

Conformance result

Date (Publication)
2011
Explanation
See the referenced specification
Pass
No

Conformance result

Date (Publication)
2010-12-08
Explanation
See http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2010:323:0011:0102:EN:PDF
Pass
No
Statement
The Radon Potential dataset is derived by combining a simplified version of the geology of Great Britain (BGS Geology 50k version 8) with indoor radon measurement data collected by UK Health Security Agency (previously Public Health England, PHE). The land area is first divided up into simplified geologies, a combination of bedrock and superficial geological characteristics, derived from BGS Geology 50k (1:50 000 scale) digital geological map data. A bedrock /superficial (BS) code is assigned to each of them. Each different simplified geology may appear at the land surface in many discontinuous locations across the country. Each simplified geology is then divided into 1 km squares using the OS British National Grid. From this division results a list of spatially referenced KMBS (a simplification of 1 km2 / BS) polygons containing information about both the simplified geology and the BNG 1 km square. The UK Health Security Agency has a database of houses in which long-term (3 to 6 months) measurements of radon concentration have been made, and whose locations are accurately known. Each of these measurements is allocated to the underlying geological polygon and the actual coordinates of each radon concentration measurement is removed. This procedure ensures anonymization of house data. Taking each simplified geology in turn, the spatial variation of radon potential is mapped, treating the geology as if it were continuous over the land area. Bedrock, stratigraphic (order in which rock layers are laid down) or lithological (rock characteristics) generalisations of the simplified geologies may be required to ensure that the number of radon measurements is sufficient to estimate the radon potential. All the maps of radon potential within different simplified geologies are then combined to produce a map of variation in radon potential over the whole land surface. This dataset formed the raw data on which processing was carried out to ensure all end-users would achieve consistent results. All data processing was carried out using ESRI ArcGIS 10.7 software.
File identifier
e943ecb2-c82e-240b-e053-0937940ac5ca XML
Metadata language
EnglishEnglish
Hierarchy level
dataset Dataset
Date stamp
2025-11-13
Metadata standard name
UK GEMINI
Metadata standard version
2.3
Point of contact
  British Geological Survey
Environmental Science Centre,Keyworth , NOTTINGHAM , NOTTINGHAMSHIRE , NG12 5GG , United Kingdom
+44 115 936 3100
Dataset URI
http://data.bgs.ac.uk/id/dataHolding/13607974
 
 

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