Strategy Development for Woodland
Description
Customers
Falkirk Council and Callendar Estate
Challenge
Analysis and improvement of woodland audit.
Solution
Woodland audit database, data maintenance plan and accessibility analysis.
Benefits
Successful application for funding to carry out an Urban Woodland Strategy.
Services:
Consultancy: data management and spatial analysis.
“There is a lot of work to do in delivering the emerging Falkirk Urban Woodland Strategy, particularly on targeting work to address the quality and accessibility of these woods. This GIS project gives a fantastic base line to review future progress against.”
Richard Broadley, Environment Co-ordinator, Falkirk Council
Challenge
Managing woodlands can bring many benefits, ranging from biodiversity to increased investment.The development of an urban woodland strategy is seen as the first step in bringing together an agreed, co-ordinated approach to woodland management. This project supported a successful application to the Forestry Commission for funds to develop and implement a strategy for urban woodlands in the Falkirk area. Funding was available through the Woodland In and Around Town Initiative (WIAT) which aims to increase the development of urban woodlands close to where people live and work.
To support their application, Falkirk Council undertook an initial audit of local woodlands and asked Forth Valley GIS to act as consultants on the GIS elements of the project.
Solution
Falkirk Council and Callendar Estate had already completed a woodland audit. This included information on woodland boundaries, vehicle routes, woodland paths, access points and other site characteristics. A number of different data sources were used to improve the quality of the data, including aerial photography to refine woodland boundary limits. This information was then compiled to create a spatial database for the project.To ensure the ongoing integrity of the data, a comprehensive data maintenance plan was developed. This identified roles and responsibilities for ensuring that the data remains up to date and fit for purpose.
The woodland database provides an important starting point for further analysis. Forth Valley GIS also carried out an accessibility analysis, calculating distances to woodlands from local neighbourhoods and schools within the Falkirk Council area.
Results
The woodlands database provides a valuable resource that will support woodland management across the Falkirk Council area for many years to come. Benefits include:
Information Quality
- Provision of previously unavailable information on woodland sites within the area.
- Accurate baseline against which to assess ongoing woodland management over years to come.
- Flexible resource for the council and local community to assess the value of woodlands.
- Detailed route information relating to schools and specific neighbourhood access to woodlands.
Value for Money
- Significant additional funding from the Forestry Commission was secured based on the outcomes of this project.
- Audit, and resulting strategy, will enable the council, and others, to plan, and hopefully invest resources, in these woodland areas for long-term sustainable management.
Strategy Development
- Information supports key elements of the Falkirk Council 2020 Development Plan and a number of other strategies relating to social inclusion, biodiversity and open space.
Service Delivery
- Information supports plans to increase the amount of urban fringe woodland brought into active management, targeting those woodlands in planning and regeneration priority areas.
- The new strategy will encourage community involvement, for example, improving links between schools and woodland managers.
Prize Winner
- “The project won first prize at the Ordnance Survey Innovation Awards which aim to celebrate and reward customers for the innovative ways in which data is being used”.