National Vegetation Survey Databank (NVS) and NVS Express

The National Vegetation Survey Databank (NVS) is a Nationally Significant Database hosted by Landcare Research that serves as a major information source for understanding and reporting on the status and trends in New Zealand's biodiversity. The databank comprises both a physical archive and computer databank containing records from approximately 94,000 vegetation survey plots--including data from over 21,000 permanent plots. NVS provides a unique record, spanning more than 50 years, of indigenous and exotic plants in New Zealand's terrestrial ecosystems, from Northland to Stewart Island and the Kermadec and Chatham islands. A broad range of habitats are covered, with special emphasis on indigenous forests and grasslands.

The data can be used to describe plant species occurrence and abundance, vegetation structure, and environmental variables over a broad range of habitats and represent over 4 million records across 2,700 separate datasets. The strategic goals for NVS include a strong emphasis on effective and secure data management, databank growth and increase uptake, and increased effectiveness in use. Fulfilling these goals requires state-of-the-art data management of a continually growing resource, leadership in data integration and synthesis, and, anticipating and meeting the needs of end-users.

NVS Express

NVS Express is a free tool for entering, summarising and analysing vegetation data compatible with the NVS databank. It can be downloaded free and run on a Windows PC. NVS Express accepts data collected using the NVS standard forest monitoring and vegetation inventory methods, and allows data to be entered directly by the person who undertook the data collection. It includes a range of point-of-entry and post-entry validation checks that ensure that the data conform to the NVS databank standard. Data can then be exported for upload into the primary NVS databank via the website. Following this upload data can be retrieved in a variety of formats and can also subsequently be summarised and analysed using the NVS Express tool.

A presentation about NVS and NVS Express by Hazel Broadbent can be accessed as part of the 2010 National Workshop resources.

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