Using BWARS data from the NBN Gateway at Sussex BRC
Sussex Biodiversity Record Centre has recently been in touch requesting the Sussex records from the Bees, Wasps and Ants Recording Society, from the NBN Gateway, in order to utilise the data in its every day work.
The Centre will be importing the BWARS dataset into Recorder and using the data on a daily basis in its desktop biodiversity reports which are requested by local naturalists, students and partners through to ecological consultants. For a lot of the rarer species which appear on its Sussex Rare Species Inventory there will be Sussex contextual statements, which helps put the data in to perspective on a local level. Having access to this data will aid decision making whether about development, habitat management or a focus for local recording. The Centre supplies its data in a digital format to its partner organisations so that they can view it in their in-house GIS systems also. It separates the data it holds into different inventories to flag up whether it is a BAP species, protected species, Sussex rare species, invasive alien species etc.
Sussex BRC is the centre of reference for authoritative information on the biodiversity of Sussex, working with data users and data providers for public benefit. It aims to provide a comprehensive biodiversity information service to its partner organisations and the general public. Data from East Sussex, West Sussex and Brighton and Hove is collected and collated at the Centre, which works with hundreds of data providers each year. This could come as species, habitat or survey data. It also increasingly holds a wide range of data on non-biodiversity environmental parameters that have become increasingly relevant in our enquiries and analysis.
Through the year 2011-12 Sussex BRC uploaded 3.6 million records to the NBN Gateway