Portfolio

Supply of Green Infrastructure monitoring

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMT

One of Natural England’s functions is to work with partner organisations to secure Green Infrastructure (GI). GI can be succinctly defined as semi-natural or designed green areas that are planned to provide ecosystem services, economic growth and quality of life benefits. Natural England has a particular interest in GI that also advances Biodiversity 2020 and the Natural Environment White Paper’s priorities including reconnecting people and nature.

exeGesIS developed a methodology for monitoring GI delivery, making an assessment of the delivery agreement against the GI delivered. This was based upon Natural England's existing Integrated Site Assessment methodology and encompassed ecology, access, green roofs and other aspects of GI delivery. It also allowed users to create bespoke targets against which to assess the site, to allow site-specific features to be considered.

The methodology was tested on four sites in the vicinity of Hull in March 2013 that included a range of features. Targets were established based upon the delivery agreements for each site, against which the sites were assessed. Any targets that were not met were identified and discussed.

This work was further developed in a second contract. We facilitated a workshop to focus Natural England's requirements for the survey methodology and, using consensus building techniques, agreed a reduction in the number of assessed features to make the methodology more user friendly. We then redeveloped the survey form, consulting further with Natural England to ensure the survey was suitable to the target audience and easy to use. We also wrote a comprehensive survey handbook to be used alongside the survey form.

The work was documented in a report to Natural England that covered the methodology development, selection of survey sites, results, redevelopment of the methodology, an assessment of the appropriateness of the methodology and recommendations for further development.

Further information from Crispin Flower.

Mike Lush

Feasibility study for the development of a Connectivity Assessment Tool for Kent and Nord-Pas de Calais

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Kent County Council and Nord-Pas de Calais were working on a project that aimed to set up cross-border tools and methods to assess and monitor biodiversity, and to improve the way that habitats and species are mapped in both regions. exeGesIS were contracted to undertake a feasibility study on the development of a tool to assess functional ecological connectivity. This involved an assessment of user needs, a review of the available methods and approaches, a stakeholder workshop to identify the preferred options and the development of a functional specification.

The assessment of user needs involved a workshop with the project steering group and a questionnaire to wider stakeholders that aimed to explore the requirements for the tool. This guided the review of approaches and the most appropriate options were presented to the stakeholders at a workshop. Stakeholders were then asked to vote for the preferred options, the results of which were used to write a functional specification for the tool.

Further information from Crispin Flower.

Mike Lush

Water recreation

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Exegesis provided data collation, analysis and reporting services for a national project researching access to water-based recreation facilities across the UK. A number of new, large-scale datasets of water resources had to be compiled for the project and extensive workshop style consultation undertaken to ensure that the compiled maps were complete and accurate. National or regional transport infrastructure, population and settlement datasets were also compiled and along with the resources datasets were subjected to network analysis to determine accessibility of water resources to population.

Click on the map to the right for a larger image.

Further information from Kathryn Steemson.

Mike Lush

Management plans for sites in Northern Ireland

Sat, 03 Mar 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Exegesis SDM produced a set of 20 management plans for some of Northern Ireland's top sites, such as the Giant's Causeway, for the National Trust and in conjunction with Allen Mellon Environmental. This was done through a series of workshops with wardening staff in which the following was identified:

The features of the site
The factors affecting the features
The monitoring required
The management projects required.

The final plans were handed over in CMS7 (the product now called 'CMSi'), giving the managers a working tool to record planned activities and data collected. CMS training was also provided to the site managers to allow future update of the plans.

Regional Conservation Advisor, Phil Davidson, said that “working with Exegesis has proved an effective way to get our management plans up and going and their approach of working alongside our staff has made the whole process more inclusive and stimulating”

Further information from the CMSi team.

Mike Lush

Topla Landscape Park Management Plan

Thu, 12 Oct 2006 23:00:00 GMT

In a joint project with Eurosite and the Slovenian Institute for Nature Conservation, we facilitated a management planning workshop to prepare a CMS plan for the Topla Landscape Park. Topla is a small alpine valley in northern Slovenia and has many SAC and SPA features including beech forests, capercaillie, black grouse and pygmy owls. Working out how to manage the interplay of these features made for a challenging but very productive workshop.

John Harvey, the Eurosite representative for the project writes, “The use of the CMS software was of great value in developing the plan, providing a structure within which decisions could be recorded, modified and manipulated with ease and speed. The skills of the exeGesIS representative enabled the software to be used to its maximum value.”

Further information from David Mitchel.

Mike Lush