NICS 2007 Results

Northern Ireland Countryside Survey 2007 results are available at NICS2007: Broad Habitat Change 1998-2007 (.PDF 3.81Mb) The companion report, NICS2007: Field methods and technical Manual (.PDF 7.53Mb) provides additional methodological detail. Habitat changes between 1998 and 2007 are presented along with any trends from earlier surveys carried out in the late eighties early nineties.
Changes are presented at the Primary Habitat level as well as Broad Habitat.
Whilst Broad Habitat reporting is a useful classification of habitats for reporting purposes, more detailed exploration of the results is possible using the Primary Habitat infomation, which is the classification used in the field recording.

Interesting results include:  

• the rate of loss of seminatutral habitats had slowed from 1998
• continued loss of species-rich dry grassland was reported; due to woodland/scrub succession and agricultural conversion
• increase in area of rural buidlings was nearly twice that reported in 2000. Such building was primarily in agricultural grasslands, highlighting a loss of agricultural land use.
• the rate of increase of woodland/scrub succession increased from 1998. Succession was associated with species-rich grasslands and other grasslands with agricultural constraints, fragmented heath and bog edge.
• an increased rate of broadleaved tree planting was recorded, and is related to policy initiatives for tree planting

More detailed analyses of the NICS2007 data are currently being carried out, including boundaries and condition of habitats.

Further reports will follow.

An independent exercise to investigate the reliability of Northern Ireland Countryside Survey methods was carried out by Dr Bob Bunce (Alterra). This revealed that there were no significant issues and a high level of methodological consistency. The report detailing the results can be found at NICS QA report (.PDF 268kb)

UK Countryside Survey Results were published on 18 November 2008. These incorporated Broad Habitat results from the Northern Ireland Countryside Survey.

Key findings for Northern Ireland at the Broad Habitat Level include:

1. an increase in broadleaf/mixed and Yew woodland, this is a continuation of this trend reported in Countryside Survey 2000
2. a decrease in neutral grassland
3. an increase in builtup areas and garden
4. an increase in roads and hard verges

Results of previous surveys can be found in the archived reports page.