GCV Green Network
Connecting Our Quality Spaces

Decades of development and land use changes have led to fragmentation of habitats which impacts negatively on biodiversity. 

The Integrated Habitat Network (IHN) Model offers a powerful tool for planners, greenspace managers and others to help make decisions which will counter the effects of habitat fragmentation. 

Completed in 2008, the Partnership’s IHN modelling project created a detailed habitat map of the Glasgow & Clyde Valley (GCV) region from which habitat networks for woodland, grassland and wetland can be modelled. At that time it was the largest and most complex project of its kind ever attempted in Scotland. The model can be interpreted to identify the location and types of habitat which need to be protected, enhanced or created.

The IHN model is an important step forward in putting biodiversity on an equal footing with other development considerations and offers a powerful decision support tool for the planning process.  It allows decisions to be made which are:

• quicker;
• better;
• structured;
• supported; and,
• defensible.

 

The GCV Green Network Partnership is actively prompting the model's use to planners and land managers with the aim of mainstreaming it in the planning process.  The model is already being used to:

• Inform the development of Green Network Strategies
• Assist with Development Planning
• Prioritise resources and interventions
• Inform masterplanning exercises and planning decisions

 

For information on further studies on IHN click the document below:
IHN Dissemination
Riparian Planting (EDC)
IHN & River Basin Management Planning