TerraViso for Planning & Development

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• A project boundary defines where development is proposed.

• It does not define the ecological system around it.

• Woodland, hedgerows, grassland, watercourses and other habitats may form networks that extend through, around and beyond a development site.

• TerraViso can bring high-resolution imagery, habitat information, terrain, vegetation and other environmental evidence together to provide a wider spatial understanding of that landscape from the outset.

• Habitat mapping tells us what has been identified within and around a site.

• But two areas with the same habitat classification may play very different roles within the landscape.

• One may be relatively isolated.

• Another may help connect a much larger ecological network.

• Understanding those differences can provide additional context when considering layout, mitigation, enhancement and habitat creation.

• The question is not simply....

What habitat is affected?

but....

What role does it play in the wider landscape?

• Ecological assessment should not only tell us where development should not happen.

• Understanding the wider landscape can also reveal where design choices might create better ecological outcomes.

Could an existing corridor be retained?

Could a hedgerow gap be reconnected?

Could habitat creation extend an existing network?

Could a drainage or landscape feature contribute more to ecological structure?

Could the layout avoid breaking a relationship that already works?

• TerraViso can provide evidence for exploring those questions while there is still scope to influence the design.

• There is rarely only one possible layout for a development or infrastructure project.

• Changing the position of development, open space, habitat creation, drainage, access or landscape features can alter how the project interacts with the ecological network around it.

• TerraViso is being developed to help explore those alternatives spatially.

• The objective is not for software to design the development.

• It is to provide better evidence while meaningful choices can still be made.

• Development can alter ecological relationships outside the area where physical change takes place.

• Removing one connecting feature may influence a network extending across neighbouring land. Equally, habitat creation within a project may strengthen connections well beyond the development boundary.

• TerraViso's landscape-scale approach helps place site-level decisions within that wider ecological context.

• The red line matters to planning. Nature sees a wider landscape.

• Planning and development bring different disciplines together.

• Developers, planners, ecologists, landscape architects, engineers, landowners and local authorities may each approach the same site with different questions.

• A consistent spatial evidence base can provide a common landscape around which those conversations take place.

• TerraViso does not remove disagreement or professional judgement.

• It can help make clearer what the evidence is, where it came from and what the landscape appears to be telling us.

• TerraViso does not determine whether development should proceed.

• Planning decisions involve policy, ecology, design, infrastructure, economics, communities and professional judgement.

• What TerraViso can do is help make the ecological landscape easier to understand earlier in that process.

• That means better evidence for identifying constraints, exploring opportunities and understanding the implications of different choices.