Coastal monitoring frameworks to map coastal and terrestrial habitats along the English coastline were established in 2012. The maps are used by Local Authorities, the Environment Agency and Natural England as part of a long term program for operational and strategic shoreline management and also contribute to reporting and monitoring requirements for Natura 2000 sites. Specifically they contribute to:

• Identification and quantification of regional coastal change
• The assessment of losses and gains for the Environment Agency’s Regional Habitat Creation Programme
• Identification and strategic consideration of coastal flood and erosion risks

Since becoming a preferred supplier in 2012 Environment Systems has carried out projects in the North West (2014), the South West (2015-16) and the South East (2017). In 2018/19 we are delivering re-surveys of the South West including the Isles of Scilly. More recently we have won the contract for the terrestrial and intertidal ecological mapping of a section of the North East coast running from the Scottish border to Flamborough Head. The project covers the mapping of all coastal and terrestrial priority habitats from aerial photography captured in 2017 and aerial photography due to be captured in 2019. In addition we will be creating a new habitat map of the same area from a dataset of black and white orthorectified photography created in the late 1940s by the RAF. This will enable the authority to assess the change that has taken place over the last seventy years.