Condatis bottlenecks data is published
Condatis data to support connectivity in Local Nature Recovery Strategies
Do you need guidance on the best places to propose for habitat restoration? The Condatis project has produced data that will be helpful for informing Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRS; maps below). These strategies need to identify areas that could become of particular importance for biodiversity, i.e. areas where ecological restoration should be focussed. Practitioners have not had to make such concrete restoration suggestions in the past. Since one of the key goals of restoration is to increase connectivity between existing habitat areas, evidence from Condatis can support these decisions, as part of the LNRS mapping process.
Condatis bottlenecks data – what is it?
- Bottlenecks are significant gaps between habitat patches, that limit the movement of species through landscapes, affecting species’ ability to respond to environmental changes, such as climate change.
- Around a bottleneck is an important ‘search area’ for restoration opportunities (see maps below). If on the ground factors allow for restoration in these areas, local restoration could have a nationally significant effect on connectivity.
- Condatis is the only tool available that can highlight gaps in this way.
- The data layers were produced in collaboration with Natural England, and we used practitioner focus groups to get feedback on their usability.
Data access and further reading
The spatial data, and an in-depth user guide, are published on Harvard Dataverse, and are free to use under an Open Government License (Crediting Hodgson et al 2024, follow DOI https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/VI7HXP). If possible we will also add them to the official LNRS data viewer.
A full discussion of our approach, together with some local case studies, is published in a Natural England Commissioned Report.
The data we’ve published for broad habitat networks is designed to be useful across England. However, Condatis could be run by LNRS teams with different settings, specific to priority species, or habitats in the local area. A GIS literate person is required, and training can be taken in less than 1 day (start with training materials here).
This project was funded by Natural England (commissioned by Humphrey Crick, Humphrey.crick@naturalengland.org.uk). Dr Jenny Hodson created Condatis and led this project, and is available to contact for more information (jenny.hodgson@liverpool.ac.uk).