Posted by Choyster
Following consultation with expert users and the ACT Government we are happy to introduce our Species Richness Score (SRS) and Survey Effort Score (SES).
Species richness is the number of species in a given location.
The SRS assigns a weighting (ranging from 1-5) to each species, based on their conservation level within their ecological community (see table below). For each map these scores are summed together to give its SRS.
| Conservation level | Weighting |
|---|---|
| Critically endangered | 5 |
| Endangered, vulnerable, threatened, migratory, vagrant native | 4 |
| Rare native, local native, cosmopolitan | 3 |
| Non-local native | 2 |
| Exotic, locally extinct, unknown | 1 |
The SRS for a given location is calculated using the following equation:
SUM (weighting of each species recorded within map)
By inferring the number of species and assigning weightings to species respective conservation levels we can give users a general idea of the makeup and health of a reserve, property, etc.
This score is intended to be indicative of the biodiversity's health.
Each map’s SRS will be accompanied by a SES representing the number of sightings/hectare.
The SES will indicate if a map is 'data deficient' i.e., the boundary requires further surveys and sighting(s) so that its SRS is a fair representation of the biodiversity found within it. Then the SRS can be used as an approximate comparison for other maps.