Assess habitat quality for key species for environmental baseline and/or impact assessment

Challenge ID:

HCP-4108

Originator:

Onshore: Hatfield

Title:

Assess habitat quality for key species for environmental baseline and/or impact assessment.

Theme:

ON 4.1: Environmental monitoring - Baseline historic mapping of environment and ecosystems

Consortium Lead:

Hatfield

Interviewed Company:

Hatfield

Geography:

ON.REG.00 - Generic onshore

Challenge Description

What is not possible / not adequately addressed at present?

Flagship species may be present in an area, which increases environmental risks of a project.

Areas that need to be mapped can be very large making it difficult to synthesize and understand regional habitat and species distributions. Baseline mapping costs can be very high depending on extent and detail required.

What effect does this challenge have on operations?

Uncertainty regarding presence of important habitat for key species. High costs related to obtaining quality data.

Thematic information requirements:

Distribution of habitat and biodiversity

What do you currently do to address this challenge? 

How is this challenge conventionally addressed?

Habitat mapping is performed using vegetation and bio-geoclimatic information, soils, aspect and elevation data. 

Known species ranges are incorporated and key species may be indicated and mapped by specified lists (red or blue listed species etc.).

What kind of solutions do you envisage could address this challenge?

Land cover classification at a relatively coarse level could be used to screen large land areas whereas detailed habitat assessment would follow during later development phase.

What is your view on the capability of technology to meet this need?

Are you currently using EO tech? If not, why not?

Technology is sufficiently mature for coarse level habitat classification. Methods may be under-utilised at present.

Challenge Classification

Impact on Lifecycle (0=none, 4=high):

Climate / Topography / Urgency:

Pre-license:

2

Climate class:

Generic climate

Exploration:

3

Topographic class:

Not specific

Development:

4

Seasonal variations:

Warmer weather focus

Production:

1

Impact area:

Environmental, Cost reduction

Decommissioning:

1

Technology urgency:

2 - Short term (2-5 years)

Challenge Information Requirements

Update frequency:

Snapshot

Data currently used:

High resolution imagery

Aerial imagery

Spatial resolution:

Regional

Thematic accuracy:

Not specific

Required formats:

Not Specific

Timeliness (Vintage):

Within six months

Geographic extents:

Regional

Existing standards:

None