Grassland Habitat Networks for Northern Ireland Restoration Planning

Habitat network maps for Northern Ireland's grassland priority habitats, produced in 2020 using a methodology from Natural England. Ulster Wildlife, National Trust NI, RSPB NI, and Woodland Trust NI created these vector datasets to support Nature Recovery Networks. The maps categorize land based on its potential for habitat restoration and its role in enhancing ecological connectivity.

Use Cases

• Prioritizing land for grassland restoration based on network categories indicating favorability.
• Modeling ecological connectivity for grassland habitats based on proximity to existing patches.
• Supporting strategic conservation decisions by integrating these maps with on-site survey data.

Strengths

• Based on a published methodology (Edwards et al., 2020) from Natural England.
• Created by a consortium of major conservation organizations (Ulster Wildlife, National Trust NI, RSPB NI, Woodland Trust NI).
• Provides a decision-support tool for habitat connectivity enhancement.

Limitations

• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The maps are explicitly noted as not a comprehensive depiction of land cover and not a replacement for on-site surveys.

Provenance

Source

Ulster Wildlife, National Trust NI, RSPB NI, Woodland Trust NI

Collection Method

Mapping based on the Natural England (Edwards et al., 2020) methodology for habitat networks.

Time Range

Project started in 2020.

Freshness

Last updated date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Geography

Northern Ireland