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General

HABITAT is a spatial analysis tool to support the development of management plans. The tool is especially designed for ecological assessment to analyse the availability and quality of habitats for individual or groups of species, but it is also useful for other spatial analysis where grid operations are needed like flood risk maps or damages to agriculture or urban areas in case of floods and droughts. HABITAT is developed by WL Delft Hydraulics, Ministry of Transport, Public works and Water management and Delft Cluster. HABITATs current developer is Deltares. HABITAT has been built around PCRaster, a software package responsible for making the map-calculations and incorporated in the user interface of DelftShell

Sections

The Ecological and Damage toolbox include factsheets on effect relations for ecological impact and damage assessment. Recent version of HABITAT can be obtained at Downloads, as well as articles and project descriptions. Tutorials, demos and user manual can be found at the Manual section. For sharing your knowledge rules look at the HABITAT Community. If you have questions or problems see the Support section.

The ecological knowledge base of HABITAT includes all kinds of effect relations on the occurrence of (indicator) species, groups species, ecotopes and habitat types in relation to environmental conditions and land use. The information can be used for habitat studies.

At the moment the database is mainly in Dutch and exists of factsheets on species related to EU Directives and other ecological indicators. Each factsheets gives general information like name, water system, occurrence and the ecological quality element of one of the EU Directives. Furthermore, a description of the habitat use and reproduction strategy is given. The effect relations indicating the boundaries of environmental conditions for the presence of species are presented either in formulas, tables or graphs. The application area and information on validation and uncertainties of the knowledge rules are given as well. Each factsheet finishes with information on example applications and references. This knowledge base is only visible for members of the HABITAT community. To join this community see the community wiki.

For questions contact the helpdesk. See user manual on how to design your own Toolbox in de HABITAT tool. Additional literature on measures and effect relations can be found on the STOWA Online Hydrotheek.

Reptiles and Amfibians

Molluscs

Birds

Vegetation & Habitattypes

Mammals

under construction

User Manual - HABITAT 3.0

User Manual older versions of HABITAT

Support

FAQ's on HABITAT

Also see the HABITAT tutorials under the 'Download' tab

If you have any questions email the HABITAT helpdesk

To acquire the HABITAT software send a request by email to the helpdesk.

Download the tutorial
Input maps exercise 1
Input maps exercise 2
Input maps exercise 3

first acquire the HABITAT software

Dutch product folder (A3)
English product folder (A3)

Below a selection of HABITAT applications from the Netherlands and other countries is presented.

The Netherlands

Lake IJssel

Lake Marken & lake IJ

Ems-Dollard

Delftland Coast

Other countries

Croatia (Sava river)

United Arab Emirates

More information

Click here for a HABITAT bibliography and HABITAT presentations

The Netherlands

Lake IJssel

Open Dutch version
Title: Effect of water level rise on ecology in Lake IJssel
Status: finished
Execution in: 2009

Description

In this project the ecological effects in lake IJssel due to changes in water level is studied. Four different water levels are studied from which two below the current water level and two above the current water level. The water levels above the current situation are tested for the situation to use the lake IJssel as a freshwater buffer. HABITAT is used as a tool to quantify the ecological effects.

Reference: Harezlak, V. & Maarse, M. (2009). Verkenning van effecten van peilstijging op de natuur in het IJsselmeer - een HABITAT analyse. Deltares rapport (DUTCH)

Lake Marken & Lake IJ

Open Dutch version
Title: Future resistant ecological system of lake Marken and Lake IJ
Status: finished
Execution in: 2008

Description

In this project several measures are studied to make the ecosystems of lake Marken and Lake IJ more resilient. Measures are suggested leading to clear water zones along the coast of North Holland, a smooth transition from clear to silty waters, transition zones between water and land and natural water level fluctuation.
HABITAT is used for a quantitative calculation of the ecological effects of these measures compared to the current situation. Results show that dams, if constructed in the right shape and built on the right location, increase the amount of clear water along the coast of North Holland. This also leads to a silt gradient. Furthermore, construction of shallow zones lead to a better land-water transition and subsequent vegetation development and breeding grounds for birds.

Reference: Haasnoot, M. et al. (2009). Naar een Toekomstbestendig Ecologisch Systeem in het Markermeer en IJmeer. Kwantificering van het effect van de voorgestelde maatregelen met HABITAT. Deltares rapport (DUTCH).

Ems-Dollard

Open Dutch version
Title: Ecological effects of anthropogenic pressures in the Ems-Dollard estuary
Status: running
Execution in: 2009-2011

Description

The Ems-Dollard estuary on the Dutch-German border has been and will be subject to a variety of natural and anthropogenic changes. Over the past decades, the ecosystem had to deal with increasing shipping traffic and dredging, as well as industrial effluents and several large engineering projects. Currently, discharges of waste water have decreased, but how will the system cope with climate change, more dredging and more industry? This is studied with an 'effect-chain' approach: First, the effects of changes on the physical components of the system are modelled using hydro- and morphodynamic models (Delft3D), resulting in e.g. an increase in tidal amplitude or turbidity. Second, based on these results, the water quality and presence of algae is modelled. Finally, the outcome of these steps provides the input for the Habitat model, which is used to asses impacts on several key species and WFD-habitats. This physics-based approach makes it possible to study different combinations of changes, meanwhile increasing the understanding of the system by performing a sensitivity analysis.

Delftland Coast

Open Dutch version
Title: Model development for the design of a sand engine
Status: finished
Execution in: 2008

Description

Along the Delftland coast a new technique for sand suppletion is tried out. It is a mega-suppletion called 'Sand Engine', in which a large amount of sand is dropped at once along the coast creating a broader beach and thereby increasing the ecological value of the area. This sand is then subsequently spread along the coast via natural morphological processes. Simulations are made for 50 years after the sand suppletion and HABITAT was used to gain insight in the vegetation development over time.

Reference: coming soon

Other countries

Sava river

Open Dutch version
Title: Water management strategy Sava River in Lonjsko Polje region, Croatia
Status: finished
Execution in: 2006

Description

The construction or designation of detention areas along lowland rivers is considered along many European rivers. In Croatia HABITAT is used in combination with SOBEK hydrological and water quality to assess impact of water management strategies on vegetation composition and habitats of species. This modelling study focused on the controlled detention area of Lonjsko Polje along the river Sava. The flooding characteristics of the area are assessed in combination with the vegetation development and the transport and storage of sediment and phosphorus. Results of the modelling show that it is not so much the intake capacity that determines the flood duration time of a detention area, but the drainage capacity. A too long
inundation duration following a flood event is shown to lead to major shifts in the vegetation composition

Reference: Baptist et al., (2006). Flood detention, nature development and water quality along the lowland river Sava, Croatia. Hydrobiologia. 565:243-257

United Arab Emirates

Title: Marine Impact Assessment and Ecological Modelling
Status: finished
Execution in: 2008

Description

In this project the marine environmental impacts were assessed of the proposed extensions of the Shuweihat Power and Desalination Plant near Abu Dhabi. The study was comprised of a detailed hydrodynamic modeling study, a water quality modeling study as well as an ecological modeling study. HABITAT was used to calculate the ecological impacts on sensitive habitats (coral reef, seagrass, mangrove, macroalgal communities and fringing rock habitat with mixed macroalgal communities).
The study shows that the effects on sensitive habitats ranges from minor adverse impacts (seagrasse, macroalgae, fringing rock habitats) to potentially moderate adverse impacts (coral reef habitats).

HABITAT Community

The HABITAT Community exists of HABITAT users who agreed to share knowledge on response curves, models, scenarios and projects through the wiki. After registering and agreeing with the licence agreement, you will get access to the HABITAT community wiki and its toolbox. Furthermore, you will get ftp information on where to download the HABITAT software.

To register, sign up to the wiki page and send a message to the administrators.

Sharing toolboxes

(only available for users who agree with the licencee agreement.)

Dare to Share
Dare to Share your Toolbox with response curves and profit from knowledge of others!
The Dare to Share priciple is derive from Soekijad

HABITAT Team at Deltares


Alex Koster	Bregje van Weesenbeeck	Gena Donchyts	Harriette Holzhauer	Maaike Maarse	Jasper Dijkstra

Marjolijn Haasnoot	Rolf van Buren	Ronald Vernimmen	Valesca Harezlak	Victor Beumer	Mijke van OOrschot