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personnel are experienced ecologists employed by RSK and are members of the Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (IEEM).
2.3.3 Scoping Surveys
All water bodies were visited by an ecologist in order to determine their current status i.e. extant, dried up, polluted etc. If the water bodies were potentially suitable for Great Crested Newts then a Habitat Suitability Index (HSI) was carried out. A subjective assessment was also made based on the experience of the surveyor.
For the ditches identified at this stage a subjective recommendation for survey was made. This assessment was made using the experience of the surveyor. The main factor used to determine suitability was the amount of flow present. This is because Great Crested Newts are not known to use water bodies with significant flow (JNCC, 2003). Therefore any ditches with significant flow were discounted at this stage.
2.3.4 Habitat Suitability Index
Potentially suitable water bodies identified within 250m of the Preferred Onshore Cable Corridor were assessed to determine whether they were suitable for Great Crested Newt using a Habitat Suitability Index (HSI) developed by Oldham et al. (2000). Raw data for HSI scores are provided in Appendix B.
This is derived from assessment systems developed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. It is a numerical index, between 0 and 1, where 0 indicates unsuitable habitat and 1 represents optimal habitat. The HSI for the Great Crested Newt uses ten factors (suitability indices (SI) 1 to 10), which are thought to affect Great Crested Newts as follows: