Chapter 5: Productive

Ports are a key part of the maritime infrastructure, providing the transport infrastructure between land and sea. Ports are critical in the effective movement of cargo and people especially in the context of today’s global economy and ever increasing demands of the customer. The 11 major ports are defined by Department for Transport (DfT) as regularly handling over 1M tonnes per year.

Ports and harbours are shown were a location is a statutory harbour authority, recorded on the UN LOCODE list, recorded on the World Port Index, or recorded on NaPTAN as a ferry terminal. Additional harbours may be shown where the operators demonstrated the importance of a harbour.
 

Locations of lighthouses maintained by Northern Lighthouse Board (NLB).

This layer shows Marine Environmental High Risk Areas (MEHRAs). MEHRAs are "... to inform [ships'] Masters of areas where there is a real prospect of a problem arising. This prime purpose stands alone and regardless of any consequential defensive measures", and resulted from the Safer Ships, Cleaner Sea recommendations of the Donaldson inquiry. The areas are noted in Notice to Mariners (NtM) 26 and the 2006 Report "Establishment of Marine Environmental High Risk Areas (MEHRAs) - Protection of United Kingdom Waters from Pollution from Ships".

Traffic separation schemes and other ship routing systems have now been established in most of the major congested, shipping areas of the world, and the number of collisions and groundings has often been dramatically reduced. The IMO's responsibility for ships' routing is enshrined in SOLAS Chapter V, which recognizes the Organization as the only international body for establishing such systems. This layer shows IMO traffic routing measures in Scottish waters including Traffic Separation Schemes (TSS), recommended routes, deep water routes, area(s) to be avoided (ATBA) and precautionary area.

This layer was created from IMO documentation (sources named in layer).