Workshops laying the groundwork for field mapping were held in Hungary

A workshop on the categories to be used was participated by all project partners and associated strategic partners. This composition of the workshop allowed the identification of category system that both serves the final goal of supporting national, regional and local conservation and restoration planning as well as theoretically sound basis of the suitability modelling. ASPs reinforced the need to report in Natura2000 types as the main mean of national planning. From a conceptual point of view, it was also identified that understanding of Natura2000 categories may be country specific and bound by legal obligations. Therefore, the EUNIS category system was identified as categories serving mapping and modelling with a translation into Natura2000 categories. It was concluded that EUNIS categories need to be specific enough to be converted into Natura2000 categories. Thus the participants decided to carry out a systematic overview of EUNIS categories at level3 and level4, both regarding the version published in 2012 and 2021. Rossen Tzonev and Andraz Carni vegetation ecologists from porject partners accepted the role of coordinators of this task.

Another workshop on mapping methodology followed. At this workshop cornerstones of the mapping were reviewed, such as spatial domain, the need to cover spatial mapping units and representation of habitats.

The workshops were continued as field training, where colleagues participating in the field mapping could test the category system and mapping approach directly. The field training was set at the foot of the Bükk Mountains in a diverse landscape with a broad range of habitats on 23rd and in a forested landscape in the Pilis Mountain on the 24th. Many considerations were added to both the category system and the mapping guidelines stemming from the field experience and providing food for thoughts to finalize the category system and mapping guidelines.