Gloucestershire Centre
for Environmental Records

The GCER database

Habitats

Local Sites

recorded species

species records

Incoming data

GCER is one of a national network of Local Environmental Records Centres (LERCs). LERCs exist in order to encourage, collate, curate and share information about the natural environment. As with other natural sciences, a lot of information is generated by "amateurs" - some of whom are experts in their field, but not necessarily taking part in a formally-structured survey.

Other information comes from national recording schemes, e.g. Atlas projects and Citizen Science surveys. This is in addition to data collected by professional ecologists, NGOs and government agencies - although all of the above may collaborate on recording for specific projects. Any of these sources can provide high-quality biological records and maps. In Gloucestershire, collating such diverse information, validating data and producing useful, combined outputs is the speciality of GCER.

Outgoing data

Once collated and validated, a good dataset is likely to be used many times. In addition to exchanging data with contributing recorders, GCER outputs information for a range of purposes:

  • At its most straightforward, our raw data is used for species inventories and monitoring, for example for nature reserve management plans, and publicly-available species information on the National Biodiversity Network.
  • Processed information with extra details such as species status, population analysis and comparison with other factors makes up the bulk of what we provide for Local Authority partnership work, Neighbourhood Development Plan mapping and commercial data searches.
  • Our most detailed outputs take the data a step further, for example in data visualisations, infographics, interpretation maps and advanced GIS mapping.

Hover over or touch the boxes below for more information about key outputs and services.

The National
Biodiversity Network
and NBN Atlas

The NBN Atlas

  • Huge range of records
  • Free to view
  • National data standards
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Data searches

Most-frequent requests:

  • Species distribution maps
  • Parish Plan maps
  • Commercial data searches
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Interpretation
and
Insight

Examples:

  • Baseline Reports
  • Habitat change analysis
  • Interpretation maps
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