Technical Guidance: Terrestrial Vertebrate Fauna Surveys for Environmental Impact Assesment

The content of this Guidance has been updated to reflect the EPA’s framework for environmental considerations in Environmental Impact Assessment.

This guidance replaces two former Technical Guidance documents: ‘Technical Guidance – Sampling methods for terrestrial vertebrate fauna’ and ‘Technical Guidance – Terrestrial fauna surveys’.

The purpose of this technical guidance is to ensure that terrestrial vertebrate fauna data of an appropriate standard are obtained and used for Environmental Impact Assessment. This guidance applies to terrestrial vertebrate fauna only and should be applied in conjunction with the EPA’s Environmental Factor Guideline: Terrestrial Fauna.

The Technical Guidance provides advice on:

• desktop studies;
• survey preparation and determining survey type and design;
• habitat assessment, survey techniques and specimen handling; and
• data analysis, mapping and reporting.

Link to page:Technical Guidance - Terrestrial vertebrate fauna surveys for Environmental Impact Assessment