 |
|
Site recording guidelines
Back
to Species Audit
This note provides
the London Biodiversity Partnership's guidance on dealing
with the geographic location of Biological records. Because
of the variety of taxa, methods for recording them, and uses
for the records there is no single ideal recipe for describing
locations. However, records are more useful the smaller and
more homogeneous is the 'site' from which they come.
For many purposes, especially for rare or unusual occurrences
and surveys of private gardens, a full six-figure grid reference
is encouraged. This identifies the location to within the
nearest 50 metres. Such precise locations can be readily associated
with larger areas (such as grid squares or 'sites' and 'sub-sites'),
but the converse is not the case.
For postal surveys and other records associated with the address,
e.g. private garden surveys, the full postcode can be used
as a location that is nearly as precise as a full grid reference,
and more likely to be known. Postcodes do not cover anything
other than residential areas, and are therefore not relevant
for recording in open spaces. Postcode sectors are not satisfactory,
as on average, there are only 26 per borough.
There are occasions when lists of species are obtained for
wider areas. These larger sites should be appropriate for
the purpose. For example, the sensible size for higher plants
may be smaller than that for birds. When adopting such larger
sites it is desirable, where possible, to reach a local agreement.
The aim is to prevent inadvertent disagreement on site and
sub-site boundaries where agreement can meet the purposes.
As a default, where there is no more sensible local decision,
the Partnership has recommended that the present Greater London
Authority's (GLA) wildlife sites are used. This involves using
their site names, codes, grid references and boundaries. The
site details and boundaries will soon be available, on completion
of the contract between the GLA and London Wildlife Trust.
As Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINCs) are
recommended for protection in statutory planning, it is important
that they are kept up to date. For this reason, the present
sites will not necessarily remain unchanged.
For recording on rivers, the default will be based on the
Environment Agency's river corridor sites. These will probably
be split into reaches or 500m stretches for each bank.
For other features, where they fall outside of wildlife sites,
the default will be the GLA's wildlife habitat survey parcels,
grid references, boundaries and codes. These parcels may also
sometimes serve as sub-sites of the GLA wildlife sites.
So, locations should follow this hierarchy, in order of preference:
| Order |
Location |
Description |
| 1 |
Six-figure grid reference |
e.g. St Paul's Cathedral is 320811 |
| 2 |
Full postcodes |
Only for information
related to the postal area, such as private garden and
stag beetle surveys, e.g. SW19 7HR |
| 3 |
Locally
decided small, homogeneous site |
e.g. Management
parcel 1 of Sydenham Hill Wood, or Leg of Mutton Pond
Richmond Park |
| 4 |
GLA Site of Importance for Nature Conservation |
The site name,
site code, grid reference and boundary, e.g. Mitcham Common,
M093, 290680. Habitat parcels within these sites may become
sub-sites, e.g. Wimbledon Park Lake is parcel 22xxx/y |
| 5 |
Other designated site boundaries |
May become a subsite
of the GLA SNCI. For example, SSSI and LNR boundaries,
where they are smaller than the Site of Importance for
Nature Conservation, e.g. Richmond Park SSSI is smaller
than the SNCI |
Written by Dr Dave Dawson, Greater London Authority, and Mandy
Rudd, London Wildlife Trust.
Back to Species Audit
Back to top of page
|
|
