The NILS (National Inventory of Landscapes in Sweden) approach to spatiotemporal landscape conditions and habitat biodiversity

• Climate change, changing views on land use priorities and other current events has created extraordinary challenges for strategic and operational approaches to landscape use, management and governance. The demand is increasing for up-to-date, applicable and timely data regarding landscape-level biodiversity, as is the need to integrate long-term data series with cause-and-effect oriented research. The NILS-program (National Inventory of Landscapes in Sweden, Swedish Environmental Protection Agency) is developed to monitor conditions and changes in landscape biodiversity and land use, as basic input to national and international reporting frameworks and applied research. NILS has been in operation since 2003 with two combined inventory routes, field inventory and interpretation of color infrared aerial photos, both using quantitative variables in a context-dependent flow that captures spatial information on species, habitats, structures and processes. The design is a stratified grid of 631 study units covering all terrestrial habitats in Sweden, where each unit includes plots from 0.25 m2 to 25 000 m2 to allow overlay of information on configuration on various scales and resolution. Experiences indicate that the NILS monitoring infrastructure allows for inclusion of supplementary inventories on other geographical scales or thematic directions, e.g., for assessing ecosystem services and green infrastructure for evaluating favorable conservation status according to the EU Habitats Directive. Data from the NILS-program can add to our understanding of the role and function of landscapes with respect to ecological integrity and long-term maintenance of biodiversity hotspots, and, thus, to contribute to advancing the Swedish model for sustainable forest management

Subject headings

LANTBRUKSVETENSKAPER  -- Annan lantbruksvetenskap -- Miljö- och naturvårdsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES  -- Other Agricultural Sciences -- Environmental Sciences related to Agriculture and Land-use (hsv//eng)

LANTBRUKSVETENSKAPER  -- Lantbruksvetenskap, skogsbruk och fiske -- Skogsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES  -- Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries -- Forest Science (hsv//eng)

LANTBRUKSVETENSKAPER  -- Lantbruksvetenskap, skogsbruk och fiske -- Landskapsarkitektur (hsv//swe)

AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES  -- Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries -- Landscape Architecture (hsv//eng)

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

kon (subject category)