Biodiversity Net Gain
Put the metric in landscape context
Biodiversity Net Gain provides a structured way to measure habitat losses and gains.
But the metric is only part of the picture.
Where habitats are retained, created and enhanced — and how they relate to the landscape around them — can be just as important as the number eventually reported.
TerraViso brings habitat evidence, BNG and wider landscape intelligence together so that biodiversity gain can be considered not only as a calculation, but as part of a functioning ecological landscape.
Start with a baseline you can understand
Start with a baseline you can understand
Start with a baseline you can understand
- Every BNG assessment begins with the existing habitats.
- TerraViso brings high-resolution imagery, environmental information and habitat evidence together to support the development of a consistent spatial baseline.
- Habitat information can be reviewed and edited, allowing field evidence and professional ecological judgement to remain part of the process.
- Once quality assured, that baseline provides a controlled point of reference for BNG calculation, scenario development and future monitoring.
Keep the metric connected to the map
Start with a baseline you can understand
Start with a baseline you can understand
- BNG ultimately describes changes happening in real places.
- Habitat will be lost.
- Other habitat will be retained.
- Some will be enhanced.
- New habitat may be created.
- TerraViso keeps those decisions spatial, allowing baseline and proposed habitats to remain connected to the landscape from which the metric is derived.
- That makes it easier to understand not simply how much biodiversity is being proposed, but where those changes are expected to happen.
A gain is more than a number
Look beyond the development boundary
Look beyond the development boundary
- Two proposals could potentially produce similar BNG results while creating very different landscapes.
- New habitat could sit relatively isolated from the ecological network around it.
- Or it could extend an existing habitat, strengthen a corridor, reconnect fragmented areas or complement habitats already present nearby.
- The statutory metric provides one important measure of biodiversity gain.
- TerraViso Ecological Intelligence can provide another perspective:
What could that gain mean for the wider landscape?
Look beyond the development boundary
Look beyond the development boundary
Look beyond the development boundary
- The BNG calculation may relate to a defined site.
- Ecological relationships extend beyond it.
- Woodland, hedgerows, grassland, wetlands, rivers and other habitats can form networks crossing ownership and development boundaries.
- Understanding that wider context can help identify where proposed habitat creation or enhancement could contribute to ecological relationships beyond the site itself.
- The metric has a boundary. Nature doesn't.
Explore different ways to deliver the gain
Keep professional judgement in the workflow
Keep professional judgement in the workflow
- There is rarely only one possible BNG scenario.
- Habitat might be retained in different places. Proposed habitat creation could change location or configuration. Enhancement might focus on different existing habitats.
- Those choices can alter both the metric result and the ecological structure of the resulting landscape.
- TerraViso is being developed to help compare different spatial scenarios, allowing alternative approaches to be explored before the preferred solution is fixed.
- The question becomes...
Can we achieve the required gain?
but also...
Could we achieve it in a way that works better with the landscape?
Keep professional judgement in the workflow
Keep professional judgement in the workflow
Keep professional judgement in the workflow
- BNG depends on ecological assessment.
- Habitat type, condition, strategic significance, feasibility and the appropriateness of proposed interventions require ecological knowledge and professional judgement.
- TerraViso is designed to support that process rather than automate those decisions away.
- Spatial analysis can help organise the evidence, identify relationships and explore alternatives.
- The ecologist determines what those findings mean.
Follow the gain after consent
From compliance to ecological opportunity
From compliance to ecological opportunity
- Achieving a BNG figure at planning stage is not the end of the story.
- Habitats need to establish, develop and be managed over time.
- A controlled TerraViso baseline creates the opportunity to return to the same landscape with new imagery, surveys and environmental evidence and investigate what happened next.
Did the habitat establish?
Is it developing as expected?
Have ecological connections strengthened?
Does the evidence still support the outcome that was originally intended?
EXPLORE MONITORING & CHANGE
From compliance to ecological opportunity
From compliance to ecological opportunity
From compliance to ecological opportunity
- BNG creates a requirement.
- But it can also create an opportunity to think more carefully about where habitat is retained, restored and created.
- TerraViso is being developed to help connect the statutory process with the wider ecological landscape — allowing the metric, the map and landscape context to be considered together.
- Not to replace the metric.
- Not to replace the ecologist.
- But to help make more of the opportunity.
Make the gain work harder
The question isn't only whether a proposal can achieve the required biodiversity units.
It is what those changes could contribute to the landscape around them.