The project involved the development of a desk-based assessment tool to provide baseline habitat type and condition information for sites within the Bellway estate, aligning to BNG. Several pilot sites were used to develop and test the tool; a selection of these were subsequently surveyed by TEP Ecologists to ground-truth desktop results.
Outputs of the project were visualised in a web map on Esri’s ArcGIS Online platform. This enabled Bellway Homes to view, interact and interrogate the pilot site data and habitat information at the site and habitat parcel level.
The project provided a methodology which could be rolled out estate-wide, to provide statistics of baseline habitat composition and biodiversity units. This will facilitate opportunity mapping and forecasting of potential BNG yield for future proposals, to allow informed decision-making prior to on-site habitat assessment. This aligns with Bellway Homes’ BNG+ target, to deliver more than the minimum 10% net gain on new developments.
