Annex 3: Glossary and Abbreviations

Glossary

Below are the definitions of terms used throughout the Transport Scotland Biodiversity Strategy. The terms (in bold text) are followed by their definitions and are presented in alphabetical order.

Asset Management Performance System (AMPS)

An in-house, bespoke IT system developed by Transport Scotland and used since 2022 to support the management and maintenance of the Scottish Trunk Road Network.

The scope of AMPS primarily includes, collecting, storing and analysing trunk road asset information to:

  • inform maintenance needs for trunk road assets
  • monitor performance of assets and service providers
  • manage trunk road maintenance budgets
  • support data-driven decision making for asset management

The following modules/features are included in AMPS:

  • Map Explorer
  • Data Explorer
  • Reporting
  • Inspection and Maintenance
  • Finance
  • Schemes
  • Casualty Reduction
  • Structures
  • Development Management

Biodiversity

The variability of living organisms from all sources, which is fundamental to the processes that sustain life on Earth. This includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems.

Biodiversity Portfolio Board

The SBS: Governance, Monitoring and Evaluation states that the Biodiversity Portfolio Board will be responsible for overseeing the successful delivery of the wide range of government and public sector actions included in the biodiversity delivery plan. The group will be co-chaired by Director EnFor and CEO NatureScot and will include senior leads of relevant government and public agencies responsible for driving action.

The Biodiversity Portfolio Board will be provided with a report on progress on delivering the actions in the delivery plan every quarter. On an annual basis the Board will report to the Subcommittee on Climate Emergency and the National Stakeholder Forum on progress to delivering actions. Every 3 years the Board will make recommendations for a mid-term review of the actions in the current plan and every 6 years it will inform the next 6-year delivery plan.

Blue-green infrastructure

Blue-green infrastructure is defined as a network of natural and semi-natural areas with other environmental features designed and managed to deliver a wide range of ecosystem services. It involves integrating i.e. ‘blue’ elements (rivers, lochs, canals, ponds, wetlands, and floodplains) with ‘green’ elements, (soil and vegetation) to achieve effective water management as well as landscape and ecological design.

Most blue-green infrastructure solutions are a form of sustainable drainage system (SuDS).

Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd (CMAL)

A public corporation wholly owned by the Scottish Government and which owns ferries, ports and harbours and infrastructure necessary for ferry services serving the west coast of Scotland and the Clyde Estuary, and the Northern Isles.

Design Build Finance and Operate (DBFO)

A specific type of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model used primarily in infrastructure projects.

A DBFO contract is a long-term agreement and project delivery structure between the public sector entity (Contracting Authority/Employer) and a private sector entity (a DBFO Contractor/Concessionaire), where the latter is responsible for:

  • designing the infrastructure project;
  • building it to agreed specifications;
  • financing the construction and initial operation; and
  • operating and maintaining the asset for a defined period (often 25–30 years).

In DBFO contracts, the majority of risk and reward is transferred to the Private Sector.

Design Manual for Roads and Bridges (DMRB)

A suite of documents containing requirements and advice for the planning, design, construction, and maintenance of motorways and all-purpose trunk roads in the UK. It is a national standard produced by National Highways in collaboration with the Welsh, Scottish, and Northern Irish governments.

Ecological corridor

Landscape structures of various size, shape and vegetative cover that maintain, establish or enhance landscape connectivity.

Hedgerows or verges are examples of ecological corridors (natural and artificial) that can act as interconnecting routes permitting the movement of species across a landscape and increasing the overall extent of habitat available to individuals.

Ecosystem

A dynamic complex of plant, animal and micro-organism communities and their non-living environment interacting as a functional unit.

Ecosystem services

Direct and indirect benefits that people obtain from ecosystems such as food, water, fuel, building materials and medicines, as well as climate regulation, natural flood defences, carbon storage and pollination of crops.

Habitat

The place or type of site where an organism or population naturally occurs.

Habitat fragmentation

Dissection and reduction of the habitat area available to a given species - caused directly by habitat loss (e.g. land-take) or indirectly by habitat isolation (e.g. by barriers preventing movement between neighbouring habitat patches).

Highlands and Islands Airports Limited (HIAL)

A private limited company wholly owned by the Scottish Ministers and responsible for the management and operation of 11 regional airports.

Invasive Non-Native Species (INNS)

Plants and animals which have been introduced (accidentally or deliberately) outside of their native range through human activity. Invasive ones harm wildlife and the environment, are costly to the economy and can impact on human health and way of life.

Keystone species

A species that plays a pivotal role in an ecosystem and upon which a large part of the community depends for survival. Beavers are an example.

National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4)

The national spatial strategy for Scotland setting out spatial principles, regional priorities, national developments and national planning policy.

Natural capital

The world's stock of natural assets, including ecosystems, species, freshwater, land, minerals, air and oceans, as well as natural processes and functions, that directly or indirectly produce benefits for people. The value of natural assets that make human life possible.

Nature-based Solutions

Actions aimed at protecting, conserving, restoring, and sustainably managing natural or modified ecosystems, which address social, economic and environmental challenges effectively and adaptively, while simultaneously providing human well-being, ecosystem services, resilience and biodiversity benefits (as defined by the fifth United Nations Environment Assembly). In contrast to engineered, technology-based solutions, Nature-based Solutions (NbS) use living organisms and natural processes and are often more cost-effective, longer lasting, and have multiple synergistic benefits. The IUCN Global Standard for NbS is a global framework for the consistent and effective implementation of NbS.

Nature Networks

A Nature Network connects together nature-rich sites, including restoration areas and other environmental projects, through a series of areas of suitable habitat, habitat corridors, and stepping-stones.

The primary purpose of a Nature Network is ecological connectivity. This connectivity is required for fully functioning and healthy ecosystems.

Nature Networks are a key delivery mechanism of the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy.

Nature Networks Framework

Developed using co-design, this framework is built from the expertise of over 200 individuals from nearly 110 organisations across Scotland. It sets out the basic principles which associated action and delivery, at all levels, should be founded upon.

Network Management Contract (NMC)

Transport Scotland’s comprehensive agreements with private Operating Companies for management, maintenance and operation of the Trunk Road Network, which cover all aspects of road management and maintenance from inspection and asset management to network management, incident response, structural maintenance, minor improvements, road safety to design, construction and preparation of smaller contracts. Due to the complex nature of these contracts, they are procured through competitive dialogue.

These contracts are divided into four regional units. The two South unit contracts commenced in 2020 and the two North contracts commenced in 2022. These contracts have a duration of eight years, with the option to extend up to a maximum of a further four years at the sole discretion of the Scottish Ministers.

Network Rail Limited

A non-departmental public body of the Department for Transport, it is the owner and infrastructure manager of the railway network in Great Britain.

Operating Company (OC)

Operating Companies are contracted by Transport Scotland to ensure Scottish trunk roads are safe, efficient and well managed. The contracts are divided into four regional units and have a duration of eight years, with the option to extend up to a maximum of a further four years at the sole discretion of the Scottish Ministers. The contracts cover the trunk road and motorway network, except where the management and maintenance services are carried out under DBFO contracts.

Ramsar Site

A wetland site which is important for the conservation of global biological diversity and for sustaining human life through the maintenance of their ecosystem components, processes and benefits/services and which is listed on the List of Wetlands of International Importance (also known as the Ramsar List) and designated under the Ramsar Convention, also known as ‘The Convention on Wetlands’ signed in Ramsar, Iran in 1971. The Ramsar List is the world’s largest network of protected areas. There are over 2,500 Ramsar Sites in the world. 51 of these sites are in Scotland covering a total area of about 313,000 hectares.

Scottish Biodiversity Strategy (SBS)

Scotland’s response to the global emergency climate and nature emergency setting out an ambition for Scotland to be Nature Positive by 2030, and to have restored and regenerated biodiversity across the country by 2045.

Scottish National Adaptation Plan 2024-2029 (SNAP3)

The Scottish National Adaptation Plan 2024–2029 is the third iteration of Scotland’s strategic response to climate change adaptation. It outlines how the Scottish Government and its partners will build resilience across the country over the next five years.

Soft estate

The term used by transport agencies to describe the vegetated areas that line roads.

Soil sealing

The destruction or covering of the ground by an impermeable material such as concrete or asphalt.

Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS)

Drainage solutions that provide an alternative to the direct channelling of surface water through networks of pipes and sewers to nearby watercourses. SuDS mimic drainage in natural environments and manage rainfall close to where it falls.

SuDS include a number of components, most of which are “green”, “soft” or “landscaped” – soil and vegetation are important components. They use a sequence of techniques, such as intercepting water at source (e.g. by green roofs), pre-treating it in vegetated swales and filter trenches, treating and storing it in ponds, detention basins or wetlands (which reduces and slows down discharge to watercourses) and allowing infiltration of water to the ground (through infiltration basins, rain gardens and soakaways).

There are four main categories of benefits delivered by SuDS:

  • water quantity
  • water quality
  • amenity
  • biodiversity

These are referred to as the four pillars of SuDS design.

Sustainable use

The use of components of biological diversity in a way and at a rate that does not lead to the long-term decline of biological diversity, thereby maintaining its potential to meet the needs and aspirations of present and future generations.

Terrestrial/Marine Programme Boards

The SBS: Governance, Monitoring and Evaluation identifies these two separate programme boards as responsible for overseeing progress on key actions included in the SBS Delivery Plan. The Programme Boards will report to the Portfolio Board and the National Biodiversity Forum.

Transport Scotland

The national transport agency for Scotland and an executive agency of the Scottish Government.

Trunk Road Network

The trunk road and motorway network connects Scotland's major cities, towns, airports and ports enabling the movement of people, goods and services.

The trunk road and motorway network is 3,507 km (2,179 miles) long, including slip roads and roundabouts. It has a gross asset value of over £20.8 billion and represents 6% of the total Scottish road network. It carries 35% of all traffic and 60% of heavy goods vehicles. It is Scottish Ministers’ single biggest asset.

 

Abbreviations

The table below contains abbreviations (acronyms) used throughout the Transport Scotland Biodiversity Strategy, along with their corresponding definitions. Terms are sorted in alphabetical order.

Acronym

Full Version

ACCAR

Approach to Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience

AMPS

Asset Management Performance System

BNG

Biodiversity Net Gain

CMAL

Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd

DBFO

Design Build Finance and Operate

DMRB

Design Manual for Roads and Bridges

DVC

Deer Vehicle Collisions

EIA

Environmental Impact Assessment

EU

European Union

HIAL

Highlands and Islands Airports Limited

INNS

Invasive Non-Native Species

IPBES

Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services

IUCN

International Union for Conservation of Nature

M&E

Monitoring and Evaluation

NbS

Nature-based Solutions

NPF4

National Planning Framework 4

NMCs

Network Management Contracts (covering management, maintenance and operation)

OC

Operating Company (for management of the trunk road network)

SAC

Special Area of Conservation

SBS

Scottish Biodiversity Strategy

SEPA

Scottish Environment Protection Agency

SNCA

Scottish Natural Capital Accounts

SPA

Special Protection Area

SSSI

Site of Special Scientific Interest

SNAP3

Scottish National Adaptation Plan 2024-2029

STAG

Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidance

SuDS

Sustainable Drainage Systems