News
PBA Raises the Bar for Habitat Mapping
05th November 2008
Thames Habitat atlas wins top honours in British Cartographic Society awards
A landmark initiative by Peter Brett Associates LLP (PBA) on behalf of the Environment Agency to create the first comprehensive atlas of the tidal Thames Habitat and its indicative floodplain has triggered a fundamental re-think of how habitats may be classified.
The result could see a new system of habitat classifications adopted on a national scale to assist detailed forward planning.
The Environment Agency’s Thames Estuary 2100 project (TE2100), originally extended to include the Southern region and now expanded to include the South West region, was initiated to provide the factual habitat data necessary to support informed decisions in the wake of a changing climate and rising sea levels.
Recognising the need for a more detailed habitat classification, PBA extended the Integrated Habitat System (IHS) developed by the Somerset Environmental Records Centre primarily for mapping broad scale habitats defined by the UK Biodiversity Action Plans (BAP) or the European Annex One habitats. This completed the hierarchy from the broad scale through to the highly detailed National Vegetation Communities classification.
To ensure it adhered to the complex protocols that form the basis of the HIS, PBA developed a habitat capture tool based on a Geographic Information System (GIS). This tool, used in conjunction with the development of floristic species indicators for habitats, enabled the design of a new methodology for the validation of aerial photographic interpretation using field survey and tablet computers.
Christopher Blair-Myers, principle GIS consultant for PBA, explains: “We provided a neutral and pragmatic assessment of the value of the information already in hand, and the means to fill any gaps in the knowledge database to a high standard of quality.”
The detailed mapping, created by PBA to a 1:1250 scale by the interpretation of high resolution aerial photography, assists flood risk management planning and provides an inventory of UK coastal habitats. To date, it maps the habitats of the intertidal zone and the indicative tidal floodplain from the River Roach in Essex to the upper tidal limits of the Thames, and around the southern coastline through to the Solent and Isle of Wight. The Thames habitats are now published in atlas form at a scale of 1:10,000.
The completion of the South West region, scheduled for the end of 2009 will provide a continuous, consistent and comprehensive dataset stretching from Essex to the Welsh border.
The maps are used for baseline inventories of salt marsh as part of the UK response to the EU Water Framework Directive, and provide a benchmark against which the Environment Agency can measure the health of the UK’s estuaries.
PBA’s comprehensive atlas of the Thames Habitat has been awarded top honours in the British Cartographic Society awards, winning both the Avenza Award for Electronic Mapping Products and the overall British Cartographic Award.
The Thames Estuary Tidal Habitat Atlas will be more widely available when released as a supporting document to the Environment Agency TE2100 Management Plan in April 2009.