Use constraints: Data can be used freely given that the source is cited (following creative commons license CC-BY). The source should be cited as: “HELCOM HOLAS 3 Dataset (2023)"

The dataset was created in order to update the information for the Baltic Sea Region for the HELCOM Assessments. Data was collected by the HELCOM Secretariat in 2022 and early 2023. The data was made available by HELCOM Contracting Parties in response to a data call. The data was reported by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Poland, Russia, and Sweden. The activity was declared as not relevant in Germany and Latvia.

National remarks:

Estonia: According to orthophotos by Maa-Amet (Estonian Land Board). During the HOLAS 3 reference period (2016-2021) only one land claim event took place - in Tallinn (construction of Reidi Street).

Finland: Data extracted from Vesistötyöt VESTY database. Construction and other activities conducted in water areas are reported to VESTY, mainly by ELY Centres. Includes land claim sites from before 2016.

Poland: The data comes from the location decisions for the construction or use of artificial islands 2016-2021, structures and devices, issued on the basis of the Act by the Director of the Maritime Office in Gdynia.

Sweden: This dataset is based on information from court decisions, the Swedish maritime administration and three different map providers: Lantmäteriet [1] and Google Earth [2]. Court decisions are used to identify places where land claims have occurred. There is a bias towards places where dredging has occurred since this type of information has been characterized in another dataset. This identification process has been complemented with notification from the Swedish maritime administration [1] and searching in the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management archives for cases related to land claims. However, these archives do not generally contain decisions on small land claims, such as small pier constructions, since these types of decisions are ruled by county administrative boards or municipalities. There are likely many more places where land claims have occurred in Sweden during this time period.

Please also note that some land claims also function as breakwaters. If the breakwater implies permanent change it has been included in this data set, if not, the breakwater has instead been included in the coastal defense dataset.

[1] https://kso.etjanster.lantmateriet.se/

[2] https://www.google.com/earth/desktop/

Denmark: The shapefiles (point/”punkt”, line/”linje” or area/”polygon”) contain data of approved projects from 2016-2021 regarding landfilling and seabed modification (deepening) regarding the Coastal Protection Act § 16 a. There are no distinct categories named land claim and watercourse modification, so the ones could involve land claim and/or watercourse modification were added to the shapefile. All records provided are included in the data.

National data provider:

Estonia: Estonian Land Board (Maa-Amet)

Finland: Finnish Environment Institute

Poland: Maritime Office in Gdynia

Sweden: Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management

Denmark: The Danish Environmental Protection Agency