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The five broad monitoring targets identified at the start of the NILS program
were: (1) Landscape patterns, (2) Amount and status of sensitive or threatened habitats, (3) Land use and disturbances, (4) Structural indicators and substrates, and (5)
Indicative or sensitive species. Data from the NILS program is also intended to
provide Swedish input to the international (including European Union) databases.
Increasingly remote sensing is providing the basis for reporting and monitoring in
the EU (Zlinszky et al. 2015; Van den Borre et al. 2011).
Design of Monitoring in NILS
NILS encompasses all terrestrial habitats in Sweden, and includes land cover, land
use (including historical land use), characterizing the tree, shrub, field and ground
vegetation and surfaces. The inventory is designed to collect data both in the field
and using remote sensing, in the same areas, as close in time as possible, enabling
the capture of different resolutions of landscape. Data are collected on a total of 356
variables, 269 of which are collected during the field inventory. Definitions and
instructions can be found in the manuals (NILS 2017a; Allard et al. 2010) and the
program is further described in Ståhl et al. (2011).
Both the field and the remote sensing (using stereo near-infrared imagery) inventories use a rigorous set of rules and decision trees to determine the variables, and
both are carried out by trained staff. In a five-year rotation, all of the 631 sample
squares are sampled at both resolutions, thus capturing the “Everyday landscape”
(Fig. 1). In the stratified sampling system, each sample contains a landscape square
of 5 × 5 km, with an inner square of 1 × 1 km where the main inventory is carried
out: this makes it possible to scale up to the national level, and estimate cover,
occurrences or changes in the variables. The landscape square creates the contextual
basis for the inventory.
It was important for the Swedish EPA to conform to the European standards of
reporting in 2003, so the NILS program was required to describe the variables or
possible groupings into the context the DPSIR Framework (Driving forces, Pressure,
State, Impact, Response) used by the European Environment Agency in its reporting
activities (Smeets and Weterings 1999). Table 1 shows a grouping of these variables
also described by Ståhl et al. (2011). Currently, the issue of Ecological Indicators is
addressed at the national level, and work is ongoing to describe the NILS data in this
context, to be of use for policy and planning purposes.
To alleviate the lack of official coordinates, the program has adopted a number of
Flagship squares outside of the statistical sample, subjectively chosen in discussion
with governmental entities such as County Boards and Municipalities. The selection
is an ‘ongoing list’ of add-on inventories or collaborations, and squares are added as
the need occurs: the most recent being a collaboration with Swedish and Sami
Authorities to establish how to use NILS data for integrated landscape planning
(Hedblom et al. 2014).
NILS – A Nationwide Inventory Program for Monitoring the Conditions and Changes…
The five broad monitoring targets identified at the start of the NILS program
were: (1) Landscape patterns, (2) Amount and status of sensitive or threatened habitats, (3) Land use and disturbances, (4) Structural indicators and substrates, and (5)
Indicative or sensitive species. Data from the NILS program is also intended to
provide Swedish input to the international (including European Union) databases.
Increasingly remote sensing is providing the basis for reporting and monitoring in
the EU (Zlinszky et al. 2015; Van den Borre et al. 2011).
Design of Monitoring in NILS
NILS encompasses all terrestrial habitats in Sweden, and includes land cover, land
use (including historical land use), characterizing the tree, shrub, field and ground
vegetation and surfaces. The inventory is designed to collect data both in the field
and using remote sensing, in the same areas, as close in time as possible, enabling
the capture of different resolutions of landscape. Data are collected on a total of 356
variables, 269 of which are collected during the field inventory. Definitions and
instructions can be found in the manuals (NILS 2017a; Allard et al. 2010) and the
program is further described in Ståhl et al. (2011).
Both the field and the remote sensing (using stereo near-infrared imagery) inventories use a rigorous set of rules and decision trees to determine the variables, and
both are carried out by trained staff. In a five-year rotation, all of the 631 sample
squares are sampled at both resolutions, thus capturing the “Everyday landscape”
(Fig. 1). In the stratified sampling system, each sample contains a landscape square
of 5 × 5 km, with an inner square of 1 × 1 km where the main inventory is carried
out: this makes it possible to scale up to the national level, and estimate cover,
occurrences or changes in the variables. The landscape square creates the contextual
basis for the inventory.
It was important for the Swedish EPA to conform to the European standards of
reporting in 2003, so the NILS program was required to describe the variables or
possible groupings into the context the DPSIR Framework (Driving forces, Pressure,
State, Impact, Response) used by the European Environment Agency in its reporting
activities (Smeets and Weterings 1999). Table 1 shows a grouping of these variables
also described by Ståhl et al. (2011). Currently, the issue of Ecological Indicators is
addressed at the national level, and work is ongoing to describe the NILS data in this
context, to be of use for policy and planning purposes.
To alleviate the lack of official coordinates, the program has adopted a number of
Flagship squares outside of the statistical sample, subjectively chosen in discussion
with governmental entities such as County Boards and Municipalities. The selection
is an ‘ongoing list’ of add-on inventories or collaborations, and squares are added as
the need occurs: the most recent being a collaboration with Swedish and Sami
Authorities to establish how to use NILS data for integrated landscape planning
(Hedblom et al. 2014).
NILS – A Nationwide Inventory Program for Monitoring the Conditions and Changes…