General recommendations
Maintenance practice for each ecological asset should be based on guidelines included in maintenance plans (see Section 7.2 – Developing an adaptive ecological asset maintenance plan) and are summarised below.
- Perform a detailed inventory of elements to be inspected and maintained, including it a GIS database. Include data about geolocation, features (dimensions, materials, etc.) as well as targets, standards and goals to be met. All information recorded in the inspections and maintenance tasks should be comprehensively recorded in the database, which should also have scope to record any particular incident and/or modification to resolve problems or conflicts. All elements of each asset should be included in the inventory and the maintenance plan.
- Undertake the inspection and maintenance tasks for each element according to the infrastructure plan and respective national guidelines and standards.
- Schedule the inspection and maintenance tasks appropriately to keep to specifications provided by designers and constructors, and according to weather events, biological events (e.g. seasonal migration or periods when target species movements are increased; seek wildlife expert assistance for schedules of target species) or any extraordinary event, such as infrastructure maintenance works.
- Set the general qualitative or quantitative standards to be met, according to target species, for all components of each ecological asset.
- Establish and apply procedures for identifying conflicts or deviation from standards and how to resolve them: repair, reinforce or replace.
- Develop appropriate training for maintenance staff and field crews.
- Monitor, evaluate and report successes, needs and conflicts experienced during maintenance, in order to correct deviations and include this information in future plans.
- Modify the maintenance practice and plan according to results, information gathered and any species creating conflicts or experiencing negative effects. Define and schedule additional actions if conflict increases or expands.
The overall guidelines for inspecting, preserving, and improving each asset are provided in the following sections and specific descriptive task sheets are included in Section 7.4 – Maintenance tasks sheets.