Abstract
The National Inventory of Landscapes in Sweden (NILS) was established by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency to provide data for policy-makers in the country. Its main role is to determine the status of (and changes in) the Swedish landscape, either as a consequence of natural and/or anthropogenic disturbances, or because of ecological processes. In 2017, data from NILS will become available on the NILS data portal for analysis by researchers and other interested parties, such as governmental bodies. NILS’s data collection covers all terrestrial areas and identifies variables such as land cover, land use (including historical land use), tree, shrub, field and ground vegetation and surfaces. The program consists of two parallel inventories, a field inventory and a remote sensing inventory, with both covering the nation in five-year rotations. The field inventory employs a large group of field-workers, and all sample squares are also inventoried using aerial near-infrared stereo imagery provided by the Swedish Land Survey. The first rotations of field data will soon be available, and the data from the first rotation of the remote sensing component (2003–2007) is already available. As part of the EU, Sweden is currently updating the mapping of land cover data, using the national coverage of airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) and the European satellites of the Sentinel series. While at the same time strengthening the statistical estimates made from the NILS data. The principal role of the NILS program is to provide the reference data for both the classification of chosen vegetation types and for the validation of the results. The data collection for this mapping will start in 2017, using remote sensing and modelling, and sampling additional inventory areas for reference data.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Allard A.: Variables in Environmental Monitoring Enables a Multitude of Classifications – A Way to Incorporate Inventory Data from National Programs into Harmonization Efforts. Abstract, In Proceedings of Planet Under Pressure 2012, London, England (2012a)
Allard, A. (ed.): Instruktion för flygbildsinventeringen vid Nationell Inventering av Landskapet i Sverige, NILS 2007, (in Swedish, an English version of the first year, 2003, is available at: http://www.slu.se/sv/centrumbildningar-och-projekt/nils/publikationer) (2012b)
Allard, A., Glimskär, A., Svensson, J., Christensen, P.: Monitoring landscape and vegetation in the Swedish NILS-program. In: Bryn, A., Dramstad, W. and Fjellstad, W, (red.) Mapping and Monitoring of Nordic Landscapes, Conference Proceedings, Viten fra Skog og landskab, 2010:1: 5–8 (2010)
Barr, C.J., Bunce, R.G.H., Clarke, R.T., Firbank, L.G., Gillespie, M.K., Howard, D.C., Petit, S., Smart, S.M., Stuart, R.C., Watkins, J.W.: Methodology of Countryside Survey 2000 Module 1: Survey of Broad Habitats and Landscape Features, Final Report. Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, England (2003)
Berglund, H., Sundberg, S., Adler, S.: Art- & naturtypsstatistik – frågeställningar, indikatorer och presentationer för våtmarker. Swedish Species Information Centre, Artdatabanken (2016.) (In Swedish)
Brandt, J.J.E., Bunce, R.G.H., Howard, D.C., Petit, S.: General principles of monitoring land cover change based on two case studies in Britain and Denmark. Landsc. Urban Plan. 62, 37–51 (2002)
Christensen, P., Eriksson, Å., Sandring, S.: Jordbrukslandskapet – Tillstånds- och förändringsanalyser baserade på data från NILS. SLU, Department of Forest Resource Management, Work report No. 445. (2015) (In Swedish)
Davies, C.E., Moss, D., Hill M.O.: EUNIS habitat classification revised 2004, European Environmental Agency, European Topic Centre for Nature Protection and Biodiversity. Retrieved from http://eunis.eea.europa.eu/upload/EUNIS_2004_report.pdf (2004)
Di Gregorio, A., Janssen, L.J.M.: Land Cover Classification System (LCCS), version 2, Classification concepts and user manual, FAO, Environmental and Natural Resources Series, No. 8. Rome (2005)
Dramstad, W.E., Fjellstad, W.J., Strand, G.H., Mathiesen, H.F., Engan, G., Stokland, J.N.: Development and implementation of the Norwegian monitoring programme for agricultural landscapes. J. Environ. Manag. 64, 49–63 (2002)
Glimskär, A., Arlt, D., Grandin, U., Kindström, M., Kindström, S., Wikberg, S., Gunnarsson, U., Hedenbo, P., Rygne, H., Göthlin, E.: Results for Small biotopes, Grasslands and Mires in Regional Environmental Monitoring, (in Swedish). The County Board of Örebro, Report 2016:35. Can be accessed at: http://www.remiil.se/Sv/publikationer/Pages/default.aspx (2016)
Granholm, A.-H., Olsson, H., Nilsson, M., Allard, A., Holmgren, J.: The potential of digital surface models based on aerial images for automated vegetation mapping. Int. J. Remote Sens. 36, 1855–1870 (2015). doi:10.1080/01431161.2015.1029094
Granholm, A.-H., Lindgren, N., Olsson, K., Nyström, M., Allard, A., Olsson, H.: Estimating vertical canopy cover using dense image-based point cloud data in four vegetation types in southern Sweden. Int. J. Remote Sens. 38, 1820–1838 (2017). doi:10.1080/01431161.2015.1029094
Hedblom, M., Hedenås, H., Allard, A., Svensson, J., Jougda, L. Methods and possibilities to apply NILS data for applied integrated landscape planning: Reindeer Husbandry Plans, UAV low altitude aerial photos and dialogue. Baltic Landscape Project, Report No 27, Work Package 4 (2014)
Hedenås, H., Christensen, P., Svensson, J.: Evaluation of NILS data in the Scandinavian Mountain Range. SLU, Department of Forest Resource Management Work report No. 427 (2014) (In Swedish)
Hedenås, H., Christensen, P., Svensson, J.: Changes in vegetation cover and composition in the Swedish mountain region. Environ. Monit. Assess. 188, 452 (2016)
Ihse, M.: Colour infrared aerial photography as a tool for vegetation mapping and change detection in environmental studies of Nordic ecosystems: a review. Nor. J. Geogr. 61(4), 170–191 (2007). doi:10.1080/00291950701709317
Jeglum, J., Sandring, S., Christensen, P., Glimskär, A., Allard, A., Nilsson, L., Svensson, J. Main Ecosystem Characteristics and Distribution of Wetlands in Boreal and Alpine Landscapes in Northern Sweden Under Climate Change, Ecosystems Biodiversity, Oscar Grillo and Gianfranco Venora (Ed), ISBN: 978–953–307-417-7 (2011). InTech, Available from: http://www.intechopen.com/articles/show/title/main-ecosystem-characteristics-and-distribution-of-wetlands-in-boreal-and-alpine-landscapes-in-north
Köhler, R., Olschofsky, K., Gerard, F. (eds.): Land Cover Change in Europe from the 1950’ies to 2000 –Aerial photo interpretation and derived statistics from 59 samples distributed across Europe. Institute for World Forestry, University of Hamburg. ISBN: 80-89088-46-5 (2006)
Lestander, R., Löfgren, S., Henrikson, L., Ågren, A.M.: Relationship between structural features and water chemistry in boreal headwater streams—evaluation based on results from two water management survey tools suggested for Swedish forestry. Environ. Monit. Assess. 187, 190 (2015). doi:10.1007/s10661-015-4385-x
Lindgren, N., Christensen, P., Nilsson, B., Åkerholm, M., Allard, A., Reese, H., Olsson, H.: Using optical satellite data and airborne Lidar data for a Nationwide sampling survey. Remote Sens. 7, 4253–4267 (2015). doi:10.3390/rs70404253
Mattisson, A., Sullivan, G.: Trial mapping of upland Annex I and EUNIS habitats using stereo colour near-infrared aerial imagery. Scottish Natural Heritage Commissioned Report No. 767 (2017)
Metria: The CadasterENV project. http://www.cadasterenv.se/. Accessed 20 Apr 2017 (2017)
Metria & SLU: Slutrapport: Metodutveckling inom kartering av markslag i Fjällen. Report to Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (2017) [In Swedish]
MOTH: Demonstration of an Integrated North-European System for Monitoring Terrestrial Habitats; www.slu.se/centrumbildningar-och-projekt/moth. Accessed 30 Mar 2017 (2017)
NILS: National Inventory of Landscapes in Sweden. http://www.slu.se/nils. Accessed 30 Mar 2017 (2017a)
NILS: Online Data portal: http://akka.srh.slu.se/datavardskap/ (2017b)
Ortega, M., Metzger, M.J., Bunce, R.G.H., Wrbka, T., Allard, A., Jongman, R.H.G., Elena-Rosselló, R.: The potential for integration of environmental data from regional stratifications into a European monitoring framework. J. Environ. Plan. Manag. 5, 39–57 (2012)
Reese, H., Allard, A., Nilsson, M., Olsson, H.: Varying training data set size for supervised classification of alpine vegetation, manuscript in Reese, H., Classification of Sweden’s Forest and Alpine Vegetation Using Optical Satellite and Inventory Data, Doctoral Thesis No 2011:86, Faculty of Forest Sciences, SLU, Umeå (2011)
Roose, A., Sepp, K., Saluveer, E., Kaasik, A., Oja, T.: Neighbourhood-defined approaches for integrating and designing landscape monitoring in Estonia. Landsc. Urban Plan. 79, 177–189 (2007)
Rose, R.A., Byler, D.J., Eastman, R., Fleishman, E., Geller, G., Goetz, S., Guild, L., Hamilton, H., Hansen, M., Headley, R., Hewson, J., Horning, N., Kaplin, B.A., Laporte, N., Leidner, A., Leimgruber, P., Morisette, J., Musnski, J., Pintea, L., Prados, A., Radeloff, V.C., Rowen, M., Saatchi, S., Schill, S., Tabor, K., Turner, W., Vodacek, A., Vogelmann, J., Wegmann, M., Wilkie, D., Ten, W.C.: Ways remote sensing can contribute to conservation. Conserv. Biol. 29, 350–359 (2014)
Smeets, E., Weterings, R. Environmental indicators: Typology and overview. European Environmental Agency, Copenhagen, Technical Report No 25 (1999)
Ståhl, G., Allard, A., Esseen, P.-A., Glimskär, A., Ringvall, A., Svensson, J., Sundquist, S., Christensen, P., Gallegos Torell, Å., Högström, M., Lagerqvist, K., Marklund, L., Nilsson, B., Inghe, O.: National Inventory of landscapes in Sweden (NILS) – scope, design, and experiences from establishing a multiscale biodiversity monitoring system. Environ. Monit. Assess. 173, 579–595 (2011)
Statistics Sweden: Land Use in Sweden, 6th edn. Official Statistics of Sweden, Statistics Swede, regions and Environment Department, Stockholm (2013.) (In Swedish)
Svensson, J., Allard, A., Christensen, P., Eriksson, Å., Esseen, P.-A., Glimskär, A., Sandring, S.: Landscape Biodiversity Monitoring in the Swedish NILS Program. XIII World Forestry Congress, Buenos Aires (2009)
Svensson, J., Christensen, P., Hedenås, H.: NILS för miljömålet Levande skogar. SLU, Department of Forest Resource Management Work report No. 450 (2016a) (In Swedish)
Svensson, J., Mikusinski, G., Esselin, A., Adler, S., Blicharska, M., Hedblom, M., Hedenås, H., Sandström, P., Sandström, S., Wardle, D.: National Monitoring for Assessing Ecosystem Services in Fennoscandian Alpine and Boreal Landscapes, NILS ESS. Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, Report 6754 (2016b) (In Swedish, with summary in English). http://naturvardsverket.se/Om-Naturvardsverket/Publikationer/ISBN/6700/978-91-620-6754-0/
Swedish Board of Agriculture: The TUVA Database. http://www.jordbruksverket.se/. Accessed 30 Mar 2017 (2017)
Swedish Environmental Protection Agency: Environmental Objectives Portal. http://www.swedishepa.se/Environmental-objectives-and-cooperation/Swedens-environmental-objectives/ Accessed 30 Mar 2017 (2017)
Van den Borre, J., Paelinckx, D., Mücher, C.A., Kooistra, L., Haest, B., De Blust, G., Schmidt, A.M.: Integrating remote sensing in Natura 2000 habitat monitoring: prospects on the way forward. J. Nat. Conserv. 19, 116–125 (2011). doi:10.1016/j.jnc.2010.07.003
Zlinszky, A., Heilmeier, H., Balzter, H., Czúcz, B., Pfeifer, N.: Remote sensing and GIS for habitat quality monitoring: new approaches and future research. Remote Sens. 7, 7987–7994 (2015)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Allard, A. (2017). NILS – A Nationwide Inventory Program for Monitoring the Conditions and Changes of the Swedish Landscape. In: Díaz-Delgado, R., Lucas, R., Hurford, C. (eds) The Roles of Remote Sensing in Nature Conservation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64332-8_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64332-8_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-64330-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-64332-8
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)