SAFIS
Site Analysis for Freshwater Invertebrate Surveys
SAFIS is an Excel spreadsheet application designed to save time for surveyors by automatically:
- providing data on species identified at a site
- calculating a variety of metrics to analyse the value of the site
SAFIS is designed in Excel 2003 and should run without problems in later
versions of Excel.
You can download SAFIS from the link at the bottom of this page but please
read the following information about the program first.
1 SAFIS data look up functions
Screenshot
By typing in a single species name SAFIS will provide an instant data sheet
on the species concerned this gives you the following information:
Family, Description or Common name, BMWP / Wetscore / CCI score, Status, Range,
Habitat
If you have used a name which has been revised the correct current
name is displayed this is highlighted in a colour code as is the status of
the species.
The species data look up will be found in the 'Query Species'
tab of the spreadsheet
2 SAFIS species list information
function
When you type or paste a species list into SAFIS the program will output
a table of information about the invertebrate community you have surveyed:
This provides you with a list of Species names, naming authority, warning
of your use of synonyms, status, distribution, habitat and other information.
This may be copied and pasted into Word, Excel etc.
Screenshot
Once the species list is typed into the 'Data input' tab, then the list shown above appears instantly in the 'Species Info' tab
3 SAFIS general report
function
When you type or paste a species list into SAFIS the program will output
a simple table of basic information about the invertebrate community you
have surveyed:
This provides you with a basic list of Common name, Order, Family, Species
and a Description of each invertebrate.. This may be copied and pasted
into Word, Excel etc. for basic use in reports.
Screenshot
Once the species list is typed into the 'Data input' tab, then the list shown above appears instantly in the 'General Report' tab
4 SAFIS site analysis
function
When you type or paste a species list into SAFIS the program will instantly
calculate several metrics analysing the site and the invertebrate community
you have surveyed. You do not need to do any calculations to obtain the
following analysis:
- BMWP & ASPT to give a measure of water quality
- LQI to give a measure of water & habitat quality
- Wetscore & SQS to give a measure of the sites water beetle fauna
- CCI or Community Conservation Index to indicate the conservation value of the site in terms of the aquatic invertebrate community you have recorded
Screenshot
Once the species list is typed into the 'Data input' tab, then the list shown above appears instantly in the Analysis' tab, the example site shown above was in fact a SSSI in Suffolk, hence the good results.
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5 SAFIS' other features
- SAFIS has an inbuilt species dictionary which has been compiled from a great many data sources, too many to list individually.
- All the user has to do is input species names, the dictionary is then interogated to provide data for calculations and reports.
- The first tab of the SAFIS spreadsheet provides much more information about the program and about each of the analysis metrics than can be put o this page. Sections of text about the analysis methods may be copied / pasted for use in reports.
- SAFIS provides a 'Data Store' tab, here you can keep a selection of species lists. If your site has several ponds then all can be kept seperately. If you have several related sites in one area all data can be kept together. Then the required list can be copied and pasted in to provide the output required.
- It is recomended that a 'master copy' is kept and each time SAFIS is used for a site it is saved under an appropriate name for that site, hence building up a collection of easily found analysis data.
- Cell contents in SAFIS is protected by a password so that formulae cannot be accidently erased or altered.
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6 Downloading SAFIS
- SAFIS is freely downloadable without restriction for use by all entomologists.
- SAFIS has No copy-protection, no digital rights management, needs no activation, no missing features nor advertisements.
- Intellectual copyright does however remain with the author, BAS (Boxvalley Aqua Surveys)
- SAFIS is provided under the generally accepted rules of Shareware.
That is it is provided free of charge to evaluate and, if you find
it useful and use it in your work, you consider paying a small
fee of £10 to help compensate the owner for time spent in development
and to encourage him to improve the program.
You can donate via my
account ...... paypal@boxvalley - Full details of the shareware licence are included in the 'Instructions' tab of SAFIS, please read these before use.
- In order that BAS can keep a track of how often SAFIS is downloaded and can update users of improvements the download link below will take you to a registration form, you will need to provide your email address in order to download SAFIS. Apart from update notifications or requests for help you will not receive any emails from BAS nor will your email be passed on to other parties. (I hate spam as well!)
