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context, local authorities, government agencies and conservation charities are
working together to prevent biodiversity loss by 2020 and move to net gain in
biodiversity as set out in Biodiversity 2020: A Strategy for England’s Wildlife and
‘Ecosystem Services’ objectives (Defra 2011). The regional scale mapping carried
out in Norfolk was a significant step towards realising these aspirations as it:
• Increased knowledge of the presence and extent of habitats in the wider
countryside;
• Generated habitat maps and data to meet a wide range of landscape scale
approaches to biodiversity delivery;
• Generated map layers to support the analysis of ecosystem goods and services,
ecological networks, ecological restoration, pollution modeling, species distribution modeling and threat maps for non-native species and plant and animal health
issues.
Subsequent activity that has utilised the regional and sub regional mapped outputs and data includes bat habitat suitability modelling by Norfolk Bat Survey and
pollution and sediment modelling by the Broadland Catchment Partnership. The
Norfolk Wildlife Trust have used the map within their Living Landscape plans, and
as a tool to help local parish groups to produce a Phase 1 Map of their parishes: this
will contribute to the development of neighbourhood plans linked to the NPPF.
Site Level Mapping
The site level mapping achieved in Norfolk demonstrated the potential for:
• Improving the spatial definition of habitats within some designated sites;
• Producing evidence for management plans for larger sites or discrete areas to
inform local planning;
• Identifying threats to habitats and ways of mitigating against and monitoring
these (e.g. projects mapping the presence and extent of alien species).
Site managers in Norfolk identified one of the main benefits of the maps being a
reduction in survey time: this enables targeted follow-up surveys and increases the
time available for planning and site management. Site managers in Breckland, especially at East Wretham Heath, found the maps useful for showing bare ground and
scrub, thus assisting with the management of the rabbit population and providing
information on the quality and nutrient levels of the Breckland grass-heath. The
Himalayan Balsam mapping was exceptionally useful for planning eradication,
especially for the large areas of inaccessible broads for which the NBIS had only
very limited records of the location of this invasive species.
Integrated Monitoring for Biodiversity Using Remote Sensing: From Local…
context, local authorities, government agencies and conservation charities are
working together to prevent biodiversity loss by 2020 and move to net gain in
biodiversity as set out in Biodiversity 2020: A Strategy for England’s Wildlife and
‘Ecosystem Services’ objectives (Defra 2011). The regional scale mapping carried
out in Norfolk was a significant step towards realising these aspirations as it:
• Increased knowledge of the presence and extent of habitats in the wider
countryside;
• Generated habitat maps and data to meet a wide range of landscape scale
approaches to biodiversity delivery;
• Generated map layers to support the analysis of ecosystem goods and services,
ecological networks, ecological restoration, pollution modeling, species distribution modeling and threat maps for non-native species and plant and animal health
issues.
Subsequent activity that has utilised the regional and sub regional mapped outputs and data includes bat habitat suitability modelling by Norfolk Bat Survey and
pollution and sediment modelling by the Broadland Catchment Partnership. The
Norfolk Wildlife Trust have used the map within their Living Landscape plans, and
as a tool to help local parish groups to produce a Phase 1 Map of their parishes: this
will contribute to the development of neighbourhood plans linked to the NPPF.
Site Level Mapping
The site level mapping achieved in Norfolk demonstrated the potential for:
• Improving the spatial definition of habitats within some designated sites;
• Producing evidence for management plans for larger sites or discrete areas to
inform local planning;
• Identifying threats to habitats and ways of mitigating against and monitoring
these (e.g. projects mapping the presence and extent of alien species).
Site managers in Norfolk identified one of the main benefits of the maps being a
reduction in survey time: this enables targeted follow-up surveys and increases the
time available for planning and site management. Site managers in Breckland, especially at East Wretham Heath, found the maps useful for showing bare ground and
scrub, thus assisting with the management of the rabbit population and providing
information on the quality and nutrient levels of the Breckland grass-heath. The
Himalayan Balsam mapping was exceptionally useful for planning eradication,
especially for the large areas of inaccessible broads for which the NBIS had only
very limited records of the location of this invasive species.
Integrated Monitoring for Biodiversity Using Remote Sensing: From Local…