Introduction

The concept of a "Millennium Audit" of the vegetation of the Hull area was concieved in the spring of 1998 as a way in which the Hull Natural History Society could make a useful and lasting contribution to the region. Other than a pilot feasibility study in 1997 (Middleton 1998), there has never been a systematic look at the city's plants. Even before the project was started it was realised that it would not be possible to complete a completely exhaustive survey. It was, however, thought that a "snapshot" of a rapidly changing situation would be of considerable use to future investigators.

We are grateful to the University of Hull for offering the resources to make the study freely available over the Internet. The prospect of producing and distributing the data in traditional printed form would have been too daunting for such a small group to anticipate. Fortunately, by entering records onto a computer database as they were collected, the task of creating a WWW version of the data has been relatively painless. CD versions of the complete web site can also be made available as required.

So here it is, warts and all. There are many things that would be done differently if we were to start again but despite everything, I feel that we have achieved what we set out to do and have produced something that will be of use in the future.