exeGesIS was approached by Swansea Council to create an aerial photograph interpreted hedgerow map for the Gower. The data would be used to target volunteer surveys and hedgerow management to improve connectivity.
The dataset was based upon Ordnance Survey MasterMap data, filtered to remove features that were unlikely to be hedges and excluding built up areas as garden hedges were not being targeted. These were then reviewed on the aerial imagery and assigned to one of the following types:
- Not a hedge
- Intensively managed
- Trimmed & dense
- Overgrown
- Line of trees
- Defunct
- Newly planted
- Recently coppiced
- Recently laid
- Woodland
- Uncertain
Hedges not included in the MasterMap data were also added, leading to a dataset of 22,370 features of which 17,013 were thought to be hedges. This was all undertaken in an incredibly short timescale, with data attribution starting on the 15th and finishing on the 27th December 2016.
Further information from Mike Lush.