  Abridged] We present here new results on the space density of rich,
optically-selected, clusters of galaxies at low redshift (z<0.15). These
results are based on the application of the matched filter cluster-finding
algorithm to 1067 deg2 of the Edinburgh/Durham Southern Galaxy Catalogue
(EDSGC). This is the first major application of this methodology at low
redshift and in total, we have detected 2109 clusters above a richness cut-off
of R_m >= 50 (or Lambda_cl >= 10). We have used extensive Monte Carlo
simulations to define the detection thresholds for our algorithm, to measure
the effective area of the EDCCII and to determine our spurious detection rate.
These simulations have shown that our detection efficiency is strongly
correlated with the presence of large-scale structure in the EDSGC data which
we believe is due to the assumption of a flat, uniform background. Using these
simulations, we are able to compute the space density of clusters in this new
survey. We find 83.5 10-6 h-3 Mpc-3 for 100<= R_m < 200 (Lambda_cl~20) systems,
10.1 10-6 h-3 Mpc-3 for 200 <= R_m < 400 (Lambda_cl~40) systems and 2.3 10-6
h-3 Mpc-3 for R_m > 400 (Lambda_cl > 80) systems. These three richness bands
roughly correspond to Abell Richness Classes 0, 1 and >=2 respectfully. These
new measurements of the local space density of clusters are in agreement with
those found at higher redshift (0.2 < z_est < 0.6) in the Palomar Distant
Cluster Survey (PDCS; Postman et al. 1996 & Holden et al. 1999) thus confirming
that the space density of clusters remains nearly constant out to z~0.6 in
agreement with previous optical and X-ray measurements of the space density of
clusters.
