The monitoring and assessment of three EU Habitats Directive Annex I grassland habitats

The monitoring and assessment of three EU Habitats Directive Annex I grassland habitats, referred to as the Grassland Monitoring Survey (GMS), was a three-year survey conducted from 2015 to 2017 by BEC Consultants on behalf of NPWS. One hundred and ten EU Annex I grassland sites were monitored, 55 sites were monitored for the 6210/*6210 habitat, 33 sites for the 6410 habitat, and 22 sites for 6510. The number of GMS survey sites surveyed for each of the grassland habitats reflected their relative abundance and the110 sites were selected to represent the range of the three habitats. The study involved mapping the Annex I grassland habitats and collecting botanical and structural data from each site. Impact and activity data were also collected at each site. Surveying was by a combination of monitoring stops and full releves. Survey data have been stored in an Access database, monitoring stop and releve data are in a Turboveg database, and two ArcMap shapefiles hold habitat polygon and monitoring stop/releve point data.