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Biodiversity Net Gain Estimator - BNG Toolbox
Biodiversity Net Gain Estimator - BNG Toolbox

How to create rapid BNG Assessments at the click of a button

Dan Geerah avatar
Written by Dan Geerah
Updated over a week ago

Note: you must be on a Professional Subscription to access this tool.
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To upgrade, click here

Land App now has two tools ready to go live to help you with Biodiversity Net Gain:

  1. BNG Reports Dashboard: an aggregation of you and your team's BNG Units across multiple maps. This dashboard can be filtered by Map ID, or catchment area allowing you to generate BNG Report at speed and scale. You can learn more about this functionality here.
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  2. BNG Estimator Tool: an instant BNG Calculation "on the fly" for a single map, displaying the unit breakdown for each feature on your plan. This guidance will be exploring this Tool found within our Toolbox.

The new BNG Estimator Tool in Land App; instant Biodiversity Units delivered to your map.

The new BNG Estimator Tool in Land App; instant Biodiversity Units delivered to your map.

WEBINAR LAUNCH - January 2024; you can see the tool in action from ~35 minutes in.

Getting your data ready

To access the tool, you will need:

  1. For Baseline Units: A full Baseline Habitat Assessment for your area of interest, that is assigned a Level 3+ UKHab Code.

    1. “g2a - Lowland calcareous grassland” will generate units

    2. “g - grassland” will not generate units.

    3. “g4” will generate units, the only code to do so with 2 characters.

    4. If you are without a baseline and want a rapid assessment, users can purchase a UK Habitat Best Guess Baseline. See here for guidance.

  2. For Uplift Units: A Land Management Plan covering part or whole of the baseline area, assigned a Level 3+ UKHab Code.

    1. Creation Units: a change of Primary Habitat code from Baseline to Land Management Plan (e.g. c1c --> g3c).

    2. Enhancement Units: a change of Condition Score where the Primary Habitat remains constant (e.g. "g3c Poor" --> "g3c - Good").

  3. For Scenarios, you can create multiple Land Management Plans and get comparison scores.

For areas not given a Condition Score, the Land App will automatically assign "Moderate" to both the Baseline and Land Management Plan.

Common Codes NOT eligible:
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Example of ELIGIBLE codes:

Example map for UKHab codes that are NOT eligible for calculating Biodiversity Net Gain units

Step-by-step guidance

  1. Once you have completed a Baseline Habitat Assessment (following the rules above), you can trigger the BNG Estimator.

    1. Note, if you wish to calculate Uplift units, you will also need to have completed a Land Management Plan for part or all of the area of interest.

    2. The simplest way to do this is to "copy to project" all the habitat areas that are changing on a Land Management Plan (see this guidance for how).

      1. Creation Units: the Primary Habitat code must differ from the Baseline.

      2. Enhancement Units: the Primary Habitat code must be the same as the Baseline, but the Condition Score must differ.

      3. Scenario Plan: you can create multiple Land Management Plans and the BNG Tool will handle them independently with the same Baseline.

  2. Click the three dotsnext to your Baseline Habitat Assessment Layer > Choose "Toolbox"

  3. Click on "Estimate Biodiversity Net Gain"

  4. Hit "Run".
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  5. The Tool takes up to 2 minutes to run (and can be longer in busy periods). You should receive an email when it is ready.
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  6. This can then be exported as a Print, or as a Table View.

An example output from the BNG Estimator Tool, on Land App. Features are rapidly assessed from Baseline to Land Management Plan to calculate Biodiversity Unit (Baseline, Retained, Enhancement and Creation Units).

An example output from the BNG Estimator Tool, on Land App. Features are rapidly assessed from Baseline to Land Management Plan to calculate the Biodiversity Unit (Baseline, Retained, Enhancement and Creation Units).

FAQs and Troubleshooting

Why can't I see the BNG Tool in the Toolbox?

  1. You need to ensure that the plan you are looking at is in the Baseline Habitat Assessment template.

  2. You need to be on a Professional Subscription to run the tool. You can upgrade here.

How come my units didn't generate for all fields?

  1. You need to ensure that the Primary Habitats assigned to the Baseline and Land Management Plan are Level 3+. To get a full list of these codes, see our wider FAQs for BNG here.

  2. If you want to generate uplift units, you also need at least one Land Management Plan for part of your map.

  3. You can draw "multiple" scenario Land Management Plans and run them concurrently with a single Baseline. This allows you to compare scores.

How do you handle Condition Score?

  1. The Condition Score of the Habitats will impact the scores returned. If you assign Condition Scores to your features, the Tool will use these to calculate the units. If no Condition Score is assigned, the Tool gives both Baseline and Land Management Plan "Moderate" Conditions.

How are you Calculating Strategic Significance?

  1. If the area of interest overlaps with the "Habitat Networks Combined: Natural England" layer, we give it a Strategic Significance Multiplier of x1.15.
    We will be looking in the future to work closer with the Local Nature Recovery Strategies to give this attribute more local focus.

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