Can technology help deliver Biodiversity Net Gain?
Hello hello!
If you’re based in the UK, you’re definitely aware of Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG). You might even have first-hand experience of delivering it in new developments. Since February of this year, it’s been a legal requirement for all new developments in England to secure a 10% increase in biodiversity on-site compared to pre-development levels.
It sounds great! And it is. Except in practice it’s also very technical to secure, time-consuming and can lead to frustrating trade-offs in the masterplanning process (more neutral grassland, anyone?).
As a relatively new requirement, most ecologists, design teams, developers and local authorities are still getting their heads around the process, how best to approach BNG and get the best outcomes. (Tell me if this sounds familiar).
That’s why I was excited to record a podcast episode with Shashin Mishra of AiDash, a tech company that has released an AI tool to streamline BNG and get consistent results. The tool is called (perhaps unsurprisingly) BNGAI. In the episode, we discuss:
The incredibly precise data that BNGAI uses to accurately analyse habitat types.
How the tool can help designers and ecologists work more collaboratively through a map interface (image above).
How local authorities are using it to bake BNG into their site allocations.
And lot’s more!
I’m usually sceptical of tech solutions (maybe I’m a bit of a Luddite…) but I am genuinely excited for how tools like this can help us to deliver more ecologic design and better outcomes for people and nature.
Listen to the episode on the links below:
I know what you’re thinking. Is this tech trying to replace trained ecologists? I asked that question! Spoiler alert: no!
But listen to the episode to get all the details on how it can help ecologists in their BNG work.
Thanks for reading - remember, you can always hit reply to email me directly. Let me know your thoughts on this episode or your experience with BNG!