The National Vegetation Classification (NVC)
The National Vegetation Classification (NVC) is one of the key
common standards developed for the country nature conservation
agencies. The original project aimed to produce a comprehensive
classification and description of the plant communities of Britain,
each systematically named and arranged and with standardised
descriptions for each.
It was originally commissioned in 1975 by the Nature Conservancy
Council (NCC) and was intended as a new classification, not an
attempt to fit British plant communities into some existing scheme
derived from elsewhere in Europe. The general approach adopted was
phytosociological
and, therefore, concentrated on the rigorous recording of
floristic data. It did, nevertheless, try to avoid over-scrupulous
selection of samples, rejection of awkward data and preoccupation
with the hierarchical taxonomy of vegetation types.
The NVC is now championed by JNCC. Use the
following page links to find out more about the NVC: