The River Habitat Survey (RHS) Toolbox software was developed to enable RHS surveyors to prepare for RHS surveys, input and analyse data. The RHS Toolbox will quality control data, identify potential errors, calculate indices and perform contextual analysis using the RHS baseline survey sites. Using this interface, you will be able to print RHS forms and perform additional analyses.
Updated versions of the RHS toolbox were produced for 32 and 64 bit versions of Access and the user data file can now shared on a network drive to enable multi-user access (beta version). Network sharing is only available with a site licence.
The RHS Toolbox content will develop over time and will provide full access to additional indices, 25000 sites on the RHS database, sharing of data between users, ToolHab functionality, in-built GIS and much more. The RHS Toolbox has been applied to a series of commercial and noncomercial applications such as Water Framework Directive Assessment, planning application, habitat assessment etc (link to application page)
The RHS toolbox enables to:
- Input RHS and additional map data
- Run quality controls of the form including logical checks
- Display RHS sites on online current and first edition OS maps
- Calculate Jeffers PCA scores (Jeffers, 1998)
- Calculate Habitat Modification and Quality indices (HQA and HMS) including sub-scores
- Calculate four hydromorphological indices
- Perform Context Analysis and assess the site HQA score within the context of similar sites in the UK.
- Calculate River Habitat Quality index for the site based on HQA and HMS (Environment Agency, 2003)
- View and print RHS forms
New features:
- RHS Toolbox compatible versions for 32 and 64 bit versions of Office.
- The user data file can now be shared on a network drive to enable multiple users within an organisation to share data (only available with a site licence).
- Data and photo import from the Android RHS Mobile application.
- Calculation of a new Riparian Quality Index to assess the naturalness, complexity and continuity of the riparian zone
- Ability to export data from sites of similar types selected as part of the context analysis to Excel.
- Ability to export RHS data to multiple formats: Excel, pdf, html
The RHS Toolbox development requires investment in time and resources so it is unfortunately not possible to deliver it free of charge. Please find below the licence cost which have been kept low for students, academia and charities/not for profit.
Pricing:
- For consultancy: £90 per license (version license)
- For charities and non-profit organisations: £60 per license (version license)
- For students: £20 per license (version license)
- For site licences: £450 per site license (yearly license)
Please get in touch with us (info@riverdeneconsultancy.com) if you wish to purchase a site license for multiple users. Only site licenses can be networked.
Click any of the links below to purchase a license and do not forget to send us your registration file generated by the software (see instructions to download the software at the end of the page).
Instructions to download and install the RHS Toolbox:
1- Download the zip file for the relevant version of the RHS Toolbox:
2- Create a RHS folder somewhere on your computer (e.g. C drive) and extract the content of the zip file into that folder.
3- If you do not have Access 2010 or later already installed on your PC, you can download and install the free Access 2016 runtime here
4- Double-click the file RHSDataInput.accdr.
You have access to a trial version for 30 days after which you will have to register and purchase a license. During the trial period, every time you log in, you will be asked whether you wish to purchase a license and register.