What information is gathered during management operations?
A great deal of information is gathered about a site during management operations (including maintenance and up-keep, land management, staff management, community outreach and project/partnership working). When collected appropriately this information is monitoring data, useful for evaluating the greenspace. In particular, this data may be used to:
- Assess performance against site aims and objectives
- Promote efficiency and effectiveness in site management
- Demonstrate success
- Promote the site
- Anticipate change.
The site management questionnaire
To help identify the extent of management operations that may be used in support of a local monitoring strategy, a site management questionnaire (PDF-357K) has been developed within Methuselah. The questionnaire serves as an aide memoir to the many operations that may be active on a site that could be used as a source of monitoring data, directly or after some refinement. The questionnaire has been created with Forestry Commission managed greenspaces in mind, but can be used, more generically, at a wide variety of greenspaces. Following completion of the site management questionnaire, answers are referred to the logic root model for the particular greenspace (or greenspace initiative) to identify gaps in current monitoring activity.
The Methuselah site management questionnaire considers management records in five main areas:
- Land management
- Economic/business development
- Biodiversity/environmental
- Social and community
- Heritage/archaeology.
The site management plan
A site management plan may be used in support of the site management questionnaire. Use of a site management plan is typical for greenspaces. A site management plan documents all the activities related to site management including details of operations to be carried, when and how. A site management plan details how an activity relates to achieving the site aims and objectives, progress expected over time and when a review of management operations is required. It can, therefore, be used to support evaluation of the overall impacts of a greenspace.
Practical and process-based, the Site Management Section of Methuselah aims to:
- Reinforce the monitoring requirements of the site management plan
- Utilise existing work practices
- Prevent any un-necessary repetition of work.
The activities and events database
An example of how Methuselah builds upon existing site management practices to reinforce monitoring is the activities and events database. Forestry Commission woodlands are managed as open public space, encouraging access. The sites welcome individual and group users, both formally (via organised events) and in-formally (activities not organised by the Forestry Commission). The Activities and Events Database has been developed to record attendance and feedback at Ranger led events, and at self-led activities.
The activities and events database records a wide range of information, including on:
- Numbers of activities and events
- Diversity of event aims and objectives
- Ranger time allocation to events
- Activity and event finances
- Ranger assessment of events
- Organiser and visitor assessment of site and events
- Quality of experience.
Site management within the Methuselah strategy
In summary, the Site Management section of Methuselah incorporates monitoring data collected via the site management plan and other routine management practices, as identified through using the site management questionnaire.
In the diagram ‘Opportunities for monitoring and evaluation of greenspace’ below the inter-relationship between the different opportunities and how they can be utilized is shown:
The opportunities for monitoring and evaluation of greenspace and how these interlink.
Shows the inter-relationship between the distinct monitoring opportunities that exist in greenspace establishment and management. Data collected during routine operational site management, community engagement and environmental conservation work practices is useful for evaluating the success of the regeneration project, site management effectiveness, and the wider impacts of the greenspace.
Following evaluation, information gathered in the Site Manangement section of Methuselah is appended to the Project Portfolio, which is the co-ordinating document for the monitoring process, and disseminated to wider stakeholders as described in the Project Portfolio section of Methuselah.
This information may also be used in the evaluation of the function and impacts of a greenspace and its contribution to policy objectives in the Impacts Appraisal section of Methuselah.
