Prototyping a System for Habitat Survey Analysis on the Water of Leith

The Water of Leith is a river that flows through the city of Edinburgh. This river is home to a wide variety of species, including the brown trout (Salmo trutta). The Water of Leith Conservation Trust is a non-governmental organisation which performs conservation work on the Water of Leith. The Trust is performing wildlife habitat surveys along the length of the river to determine the location of potential spawning beds for Salmo trutta. The results of habitat surveys are stored by the Water of Leith Conservation Trust as hard copies, which is not conducive to analysis or visualisation of the data. This project set out to produce a database to contain the habitat survey data and tools for analysis and display. In addition, the project demonstrated the potential of this data by assessing the suitability of the river for spawning by Salmo trutta. Based on presently complete surveys, the Water of Leith was found to be mostly well suited for spawning by Salmo trutta. Particularly suitable locations include ones where development is planned in the near future. This information is important to making management decisions that avoid habitat disruption. A database capable of storing some data has been created and a prototype visualisation of some of the data it contains has been produced. The database and prototype will both require further development. They will be improved as an ongoing project and further tools will be created based on input from the Trust