The aim of the project was to establish the suitability of aerial imagery taken from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) to investigate the spatial and temporal extent of bait digging at selected sites in Wales.

Sites were flown at low tides and ortho-rectified seamless mosaics produced. Shore survey and ground truthing was also undertaken, and control holes dug to investigate the persistence of bait digging evidence on different shores. The shores were revisited to assess whether the control holes were still visible, to give an indication of the persistence of damage. The ortho-rectified imagery was used to create bait digging intensity maps on a variety of shore types.

Further information from Crispin Flower.

NRW contracted Exegesis to establish a vegetation monitoring programme that would allow the development of the saltmarsh to be assessed and better understood. This involved:

• Collection of high-resolution aerial photography using out fixed-wing drone.
• The generation of an accurate height model.
• Capture of vegetation communities based on species dominance from the aerial photography and data collected in the field. The resolution of the aerial photography made sub-metre precision mapping possible.
• The selection of three transects across the main site.
• Detailed survey of a series of randomly located 2×2 metre quadrats along the transects, located using a high precision GPS.
• Photographs of transects, quadrats and features of interest.
• A full technical report detailing the methodology and results.

The report recommended repeat monitoring surveys following the same methodology and using the same quadrat locations, so that future vegetation change could be quantified and characterised.

Further information from Crispin Flower.

Exegesis, working in partnership with NatureBureau, were contracted to undertake an EU LIFE+ supported review of S. anglica as part of Natural England's Improvement Programme for England’s Natura 2000 Sites.

S. anglica has been implicated in a number of impacts on saltmarsh habitats, including increased accretion rates, changed to erosion patterns, reductions in eelgrass Zostera beds and glasswort Salicornia communities, and reduction of areas suitable for bird feeding. We conducted a review of these impacts, which led us to conclude that the overall impact of S. anglica could not clearly be regarded as either positive or negative, as it is hard to separate the impacts caused by S. anglica from those resulting from other processes. For example, causal links between S. anglica and reduction in bird feeding areas were not identified. There is also evidence of S. anglica co-dominating with Salicornia in mixed communities where only S. anglica was known previously, possibly due to a decrease in accretion rates.

We collated recent survey data and species records to assess the extent and distribution of S. anglica. Unfortunately, due the limited coverage of recent survey data very few areas of S. anglica dominated communities could be identified, so the estimate of extent was considered to be a gross underestimate. Recommendations were made to gain a more complete knowledge of the extent of S. anglica using remote sensing and field survey. In contrast, data showing the distribution of S. anglica were more readily available than previously, allowing detailed distribution maps to be created. These showed that the distribution of S. anglica appears to have been relatively stable, having changed little since 1970.

We developed a S. anglica monitoring protocol that aimed to collect information that could be used to determine the extent of S. anglica and to help decide whether management was required. Draft survey forms were tested on sites in the Severn Estuary, Essex coast and North Northumberland Coast, following which improvements were made.

A review of S. anglica control techniques was undertaken, covering physical removal, cutting, grazing, smothering, rotoburying, treatment with herbicides and biological control. This allowed the most effective methods of controlling S. anglica to be identified, but it was noted that any control should be undertaken cautiously and based upon sound evidence, as its removal was likely to result in sediment discharge and potential impacts on designated features. A management decision flow chart was created that aims to help managers of Natura 2000 sites decide where management is most appropriate.

Read the report.

We subsequently undertook a similar review of common cord-grass in Ireland.

Further information from Claire Lush.

Because of the biodiversity importance of OMH the habitat was identified as a Biodiversity Action Plan habitat in 2007. However, such sites are threatened by redevelopment (due to their usual status as brownfield sites), inappropriate ‘restoration’, inappropriate management or natural succession. There is very little knowledge of the distribution of OMH, as there is no data that identifies OMH sites at a national level.

exeGesIS were awarded this project in 2011, which has increased understanding of OMH in England and Wales by identifying the key features that are found within such habitats and enhancing knowledge of the distribution of such sites. This involved the development of a new survey methodology and a survey of 98 survey sites to identify OMH habitat, as well as a survey of invertebrates on 50 of the sites - the largest single survey of its kind in the UK. These surveys provided invaluable information on the importance of OMH sites to conservation and the recognition of important sites remotely and in the field.

The results of this work were:

• A handbook for the identification and survey of OMH sites.
• A provisional national inventory of OMH sites in England and Wales, along with an inventory data capture rule base.
• An integrated OMH survey website, including a map of OMH sites and survey data entry forms.
• Field survey data supplied to the NBN Gateway.

Further information from Crispin Flower.

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.

Support is provided for entering data as CMSi monitoring projects associated with a site and for incidental records collected by volunteers. The module features a range of input forms that can be customised to suit a variety of recording needs. Data can be browsed from an intuitive tree interface, filtered, and viewed in the standard map window alongside other CMSi layers.

In addition, sophisticated reports can be specified using a wizard, which are then generated within the module and exported to GIS.

The system includes a mobile app (iOS, Android and Windows) and an API to communicate with the backend CMSi system. The mobile app is used by field surveyors throughout the GBNL consortium on iPads and a range of Android tablets. The surveyors record observations and sync these with the backend CMSi database. They typically deal with many thousands of observations and species dictionaries and data volumes are quite large.

The mobile app is map-centric and uses the device GPS and offline mapping for the entire country. The app also provides more advanced control over the map layers and allows additional KML and ESRI shape files to be imported and overlaid by the end user.

• The development of a survey methodology that can rapidly and effectively assess the status and condition of non-statutory woodland habitats in England and Wales.
• The development of a sampling strategy, to identify a representative sample of woodland sites upon which to test the survey methodology.
• An assessment of landscape change in woodland cover in the immediate vicinity of the survey sites, making use of modern aerial photographs and historic data.

The survey methodology was tested on 100 sample sites spread across England and Wales and from a range of size classes. The main outputs from the work were a woodland condition assessment manual along with a bespoke survey database, a full project report and baseline data on the condition of non-statutory woodlands in England and Wales. The report included an extensive regression analysis of woodland attributes against condition, which enabled surrogates for favourable condition to be suggested.

The project report and woodland survey methodology can be downloaded from Defra's website. Further information from Crispin Flower.

In order to create the indicative map we combined all relevant datasets into a single ArcGIS personal geodatabase containing over 1.8 million polygons. This geodatabase was linked to an Access database application that assessed the likely habitat based upon the reliability of each source dataset and suggested the most likely habitat for each input polygon. The assessment was made based upon an agreed rule base. Using this assessment the application generated a new personal geodatabase that incorporated the classification of each polygon by likely habitat and an indication of the reliability of the assessment. In this way we were able to incorporate all available data in the assessment of each polygon, rather than prioritising the data contained in certain datasets over others.

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

Further information from Crispin Flower.