Section 1 (1) of G ermany' s Federal Nature Conservation Act, and state nature conservation laws, require t hat nature be conserved, maintained and developed in both populated and unpopula ted areas. Such actions, in turn, must be based on recent, comprehensive, high- quality data that have been interpreted in accordance with the principle of natu re conservation. Biotope mapping in villages, towns and cities has proven to be an indispensable way of obtaining and interpreting such data. The program “biot o...