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CHAPTER 6 10.2 – 10.4 10.2 Countryside Survey

The Countryside Survey (http://www.countrysidesurvey.
org.uk/) monitors the natural resources of the UK’s
countryside and has been undertaken periodically since
1978. It is funded by the Natural Environment Research
Council (NERC) and the Department for Environment, Food
and Rural Affairs (Defra) and it is co-ordinated by the UK
Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH), who also undertook
the most recent survey in 2007 (https://www.ceh.ac.uk/
our-science/projects/countryside-survey).

The field survey is a very detailed study of more than
591 x 1 km squares located over England, Scotland and
Wales. The squares are chosen so that they represent
all major habitat types in the UK. Enough squares are
selected for each type to make sure that the statistical
analysis for that habitat is robust and reliable. The location
of the study squares is kept confidential to avoid any
deliberate influences that could affect them or the features
within them. In this way the sample squares will remain a
true reflection of changes in the wider countryside; they
will continue to provide a reliable comparison for future
surveys. However, lack of location data usually makes it
unsuitable for other investigations or for combining with
data for other surveys.
The countryside survey covers both terrestrial and
freshwater environments. The freshwater surveys
encompass both standing and running waters within each
surveyed grid square. Because they are the most common
type of water bodies, headwater streams and ponds
predominated the freshwater surveys and separate reports
were produced after the 2007 survey for these habitats
(Dunbar et al. 2010 (154) and Williams et al. 2010). (155)

Standard methods are used to allow the results to be
compared with those from previous surveys and therefore
to enable changes in the quantity and quality of the
UK’s countryside to be detected. Freshwater methods
are described in Murphy & Weatherby (2008). (156)
Macroinvertebrate, aquatic macrophyte and river habitat
surveys are undertaken.

Data from the Countryside Survey is available from
https://countrysidesurvey.org.uk/data

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