Habitat Impact Assessment (upland protected areas)

This dataset combines all available field data for upland habitat impact assessment (HIA) survey work commissioned by SNH between 2004 and 2018 using the methods described in (Macdonald et al 1998). Data collation was carried out by Edward Wilson as part of the review of deer data Project 017079 managed by Jenny Bryce of the Wildlife Management Activity Team. The aim was to bring together all the available into a corporate dataset, standardise and clean the data and make it accessible for internal and external use. It should be used as the primary source of HIA data as it supersedes (through data cleansing) the data held in spreadsheets.

Data refer to small-scale field indicators for grazing and trampling impacts by ungulates - most notably deer and sheep. NB not all indicators are appropriate to a given location, and where this is the case, data are referred to as not applicable (NA), adjacent to the relevant indicator. Additional field data include quantitative and trend measures. Attribute data, including Deer Management Unit, Deer Management Group, designated sites, and - where field-based observations are missing - NVC data, have been obtained from available SNH GIS data. Feature(s) of interest data has been determined based on survey Statements of Requirements and site-level designations (NB where both Natura and SSSI designations overlap, the former is prioritised unless otherwise stated in survey objectives), NVC descriptions and SNH specialised knowledge. Some apparent localised location discrepancies (e.g., points lying outside designated boundaries) do occur occasionally with this data, owing to GPS and human error from the time of survey.

The method for producing summary grazing and trampling impact classes for each point have been standardised using a median value (or an intermediate class where there are equal numbers) and hence the summary descriptions (L, ML, M, MH, H) presented in this dataset may vary from those in the original surveyors spreadsheets.

Indicator attribute names are coded to state the field guide habitat, as prefix (e.g. SG, for smooth grassland indicators); followed by the type of indicator or measure assessed (i.e., ’Q’, ’I’, ’T’ for quantitative, indicator and trend measures, respectively); the number of the measure, in order; and whether the measure is associated with grazing (‘GR’), trampling (‘TR’) or dunging (‘DU’) by ungulates. The order of the specific measures are taken from MacDonald et al. (1998) small-scale indicators for grazing and tramping impacts (only); the ordering of quantitative measures, which came into being after the guide publication, are determined from SNH document ‘DRAFT HIA Indicator tables 2017 v0.1.docx’ (A2479946).

Survey data split into 8 separate layers based on the contents of the field forms used for collection:

Blanket bog

Dwarf shrub and heath

Flushes

U7 - U13 Snowbeds

Scrub

Smooth grassland

Tall herbs

Wind-clipped heath

Explanation of attributes can be found in the HIA_attributes spreadsheet.

Additional surveys will be added at irrgeular intervals.

 
Citation proposal
Jenny Bryce (Scottish Natural Heritage) (2019) . Habitat Impact Assessment (upland protected areas). https://services.mspdata.eu:/geonetwork/srv/api/records/15798e01-a246-468e-bacd-43f99cf6b70d

Simple

Alternate title
HIA
Date ( Creation )
2018-10-01
Date ( Publication )
2019-09-09
Identifier
HIA
Presentation form
mapDigital Digital map
Collective title
Habitat Impact Assessment

  Custodian

Maintenance and update frequency
irregular Irregular
Keywords ( Theme )
  • biodiversity, plants, animals, deer, Wildlife Management, protected sites
GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0 ( Theme )
  • Bio-geographical regions , Protected sites , Species distribution , Habitats and biotopes , Natural risk zones
Use limitation
Archive data to monitor habitat impacts on protected sites
Access constraints
otherRestrictions Other restrictions
Other constraints
Available under an Open Government Licence
Spatial representation type
vector Vector
Metadata language
eng English
Character set
utf8 UTF8
Topic category
  • Biota
  • Environment
  • Farming
N
S
E
W


Reference system identifier
EPSG / 27700 / 8.6.2
Reference system identifier
EPSG / 4258 / 8.6.2
Distribution format
  • ESRI Shapefile (- )

  • GML (3.2.1 )

OnLine resource
SNH Natural Spaces download page  
OnLine resource
HIA_SCOTLAND_ESRI  

ESRI Shapefile format - EPSG:27700

OnLine resource
HIA_SCOTLAND_GML  

GML 3.1.1 - EPSG:4258

Hierarchy level
dataset Dataset
Statement

Point dataset(s) for all Field Guide habitats collated together from 71 separate commissioned habitat impact assessment surveys, for upland designated sites. This includes repeat surveys for many sites. More often than not, surveys were performed by certified ecological consultancies, with the assistance of SNH (or formerly the Deer Commission for Scotland staff). Some field work was performed in-house. All data was collated into 1 of 8 different datasets, depending on a given habitat, due the differing nature of the measures taken. All data was cleaned in MS Excel and, where necessary, standardised for plot identifiers (i.e., for repeat survey measurements), with all data Quality Assured.

Additional attribute values were calculated using Spatial joins from SSSI, SAC, DMU, DMG and NVC survey polygons.

Metadata

File identifier
15798e01-a246-468e-bacd-43f99cf6b70d   XML
Metadata language
eng English
Character set
utf8 UTF8
Hierarchy level
dataset Dataset
Hierarchy level name
dataset
Date stamp
2019-09-05
Metadata standard name
ISO 19115:2003/19139
Metadata standard version
1.0

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