Glossary: B

Acronyms

• BMA - Belfast Metropolitan Area
• BNMAP - Banbridge / Newry and Mourne Area Plan
• BMTP - Belfast Metropolitan Transport Plan
• BUA - Belfast Urban Area

• Bandwidth - The physical characteristic of a telecommunications system that indicates the speed at which information can be transferred. In analogue systems, it is measured in cycles per second (Hertz) and in digital systems in binary bits per second (Bit/s).
• Base Station - A fixed radio transmitter/receiver which electronically relays signals to and from handsets and other data terminals. Generally taken to include all the component of the development - the antenna, mast or supporting structure, equipment housing, cable runs, fencing, planting, landscaping, access, power supply and land lines.
• Beam of Greatest Radio Frequency Intensity - (Referred to in this PPS in terms of a concentration of radio waves). For an explanation please refer to the leaflet ‘Mobile Phone Base Stations and Health’ issued by the Department of Health/Northern Ireland Executive.
• The Belfast Metropolitan Area, BMA and Metropolitan Area - The Plan Area including the six Council areas of Belfast, Castlereagh, Newtownabbey, North Down, Lisburn and Carrickfergus.
• Best Practicable Environmental option (BPEO) - Summarised by the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution as “the outcome of a systematic consultative and decision making procedure which emphasises the protection and conservation of the environment across land, air and water. The BPEO procedure establishes, for a given set of objectives, the option that provides themost benefits or least damage to the environment, as a whole, at acceptable cost, in the long term as well as the short term.”
• Biodegradable Municipal Waste (BMW) - The portion of the municipal waste stream [see definition of municipal] that is capable of undergoing anaerobic or aerobic decomposition, such as food and garden waste, and paper and paperboard.
• Biodiversity - Biodiversity is the total variety of all-living plants and animals. In 1994 the UK Government produced a biodiversity action plan to address national and global issues, but in order to meet the particular needs of Northern Ireland a local strategy was issued in draft form in June 1999, “The Northern Ireland Biodiversity Strategy”. Biodiversity forms an integral part of the drive to sustainability and is therefore a matter to be addressed in the plan process.
• Biodiversity Strategy - Recommendations made by the Northern Ireland Biodiversity Group and ratified by Government.
• Broadband Services - Services in which the bandwidth is sufficient to carry largevolumes of data.
• Brownfield Sites - For the purposes of this Plan these are sites within the existing urban fabric which may provide development opportunities closer to existing infrastructure and facilities as an alternative, in part, to further outward greenfield expansion.