Dr Roger Catchpole

Ecological Networks

I led on the development and implementation of the first national ecological network for
England. This was originally published in 2006 and subsequently revised by me in 2009. Although
the pattern of functional connectivity that the England Habitat Network (EHN) indicates should
be an important consideration in conservation planning, it is unlikely that any future updates
will be made available by Natural England. In order to ensure that this information remains in
the public domain the revised layers will continue to be available through this website.

Among other things, the England Habitat Network (EHN) has helped to inform regional spatial
strategies; green infrastructure planning; a number of living landscapes initiatives; a national
wetland vision; a national climate change vulnerability assessment; and a governmental policy
review by Sir John Lawton on the development of a coherent approach to halting biodiversity
loss beyond protected areas in England that was published in 2010 (Making Space for Nature).

I have served as the UK government representative on the Council of Europe Expert Committee
for the Pan European Ecological Network (PEEN) for three years; edited a conference
symposium on ecological networks in 2009; and contributed to an ECNC research project on
ecological network implementation in 2008. I have also contributed to a Parliamentary Office
of Science and Technology review of ecological networks that was published in 2008.

Climate Change Vulnerability

I completed and published the first national climate change vulnerability assessment for
England in 2011. An outline of the methodology and initial results can be found on the
downloads section of this website. Although this work has now come to an end in Natural
England it will remain an active, personal research project.

The assessment has not only provided a spatially explicit evaluation of the vulnerability of a
number of sensitive, terrestrial habitats but also an evaluation of the adaptive capacity of
whole landscapes in England. It has led to the capture of projected climate change data
which has, in toto, provided Natural England with access to three completely new
geographical information sources to help support their descision making.

I was a member of the MONARCH (Modelling Natural Resource Responses to Climate Change)
steering group for three years; provided a ministerial briefing to the UK government on climate
change adaptation in 2007; provided expert advice to the Irish Environmental Protection
Agency on climate change vulnerability assessment in 2011; and provided expert advice to the
German federal nature conservation agency (BfN) on climate vulnerability and ecological
networks in 2008.