Alpine mountain inventory

NILS (Nationella inventeringar av landskapet i Sverige, National Inventories of Landscapes in Sweden) basic inventory aims to collect vegetation data in the field, and to analyse and present estimates of current status and changes in the landscape. The inventory contributes to the follow-up of the environmental objective ‘A magnificent mountain environment’, the EU reporting on biodiversity (Article 17 of the Species and Habitats Directive) and to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency's nationwide mapping National Land Cover Data.

The basic inventory sample consists of 639 squares of 5x5 km each distributed over all land environments in Sweden: forests, agricultural land, mountains, marshes, beaches and urban centres. The plots are systematically distributed throughout the country. The inventory consists of three integrated inventories: a plot inventory, line inventory and aerial photo interpretation.

In the plot inventory, 12 circular sample plots are field-inventoried in each 5x5 km square, totalling 7,668 sample plots. In the plots, vegetation data, species and Annex 1 habitats are recorded. In the line inventory, vegetation etc. is recorded in and around fences, transport routes, vegetation strips, forest edges, shores and watercourses along 12 lines in each grid, totalling 7,668 lines. In the aerial photo interpretation, homogeneous areas are delineated and land cover parameters are recorded within a 1x1 km grid.

Data can ben downloaded from datavärdskap Naturdata:Landskap (In Swedish).