What are the costs and benefits of using aerial photography to survey habitats in 1km squares?

Undertaking a field survey, such as the Countryside Survey (Carey et al., 2008) or the Welsh Glastir Monitoring and Evaluation Programme (GMEP) (Emmett and GMEP team, 2014), is a relatively expensive and time consuming way of collecting habitat data in comparison with remotely sensed techniques. In order to assess the information gained from a field survey in relation to the information that can be gained from aerial photography, a short project has been undertaken with the following objectives: • To measure the time taken to survey a 1km square using aerial photography (for a range of different and UK representative landscape types) • To measure the accuracy and level of detail of data derived using this method relative to data collected using field survey • To provide an idea of time costs associated with each of the methods • To determine the extent to which Priority Habitats can be assessed using remotely sensed methods in addition to Broad Habitats.