8 minute read
Technology for nature
With the implementation of Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) comes a significant opportunity for more data-driven approaches to design, as well as more collaboration on projects. Here, three perspectives on key technologies provide insight into how.
From Geographic Information Systems (GIS), to computer aided design (CAD), to Building Information Modelling (BIM) and beyond, digital technologies are becoming essential tools for landscape professionals to provide integrated services that help to boost biodiversity on projects and help nature recover.
In this series of perspectives from across the landscape sector we look at these technologies, as well as where they overlap and interact, finding out how they can be incorporated into workflows and bring disciplines together collaboratively on projects.
The mapping capabilities of GIS enable the spatialisation of data, which forms the basis of any biodiversity or ecological assessment of a given project. Combined with the design functionality of CAD, this data can be incorporated into landscape designs which ensure the right planting is used in the right place to make best use of the land, alongside other competing objectives and outcomes. By using BIM, designs can be visualised as 3D models that can track live data over time, which is fed back to practitioners to model design iterations and inform project maintenance. The possibilities are growing all the time.
With BNG providing the stimulus for more data-driven approaches to decision making, as well as more collaboration between disciplines on projects, how can technology help?
Collaboration for better biodiversity outcomes
Over the years landscape architects and ecologists have been like wo tribes – one using computer aided design (CAD) to design, the other using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for site management and spatial analysis. But with Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG), there is a real need to collaborate.
While an ecological survey will establish the current biodiversity baseline on a site, it will often be a landscape architect’s design that will define the biodiversity value post-development. A 2022 Landscape Institute policy briefing suggested that, for landscape architects, BNG would mean liaising closely with project ecologists from inception, translating their recommendations into plans and designing sensitively to retain and enhance key existing habitats. It also recognised that the ‘accurate translation of habitat boundaries between GIS and CAD is vital to avoid frustration and delays’.
I’m not a CAD user, or a practising ecologist, or a landscape architect. I’m a GIS specialist and I love to collaborate, working daily alongside both ecologists and landscape architects. I wanted to better understand the issues both groups experience around GIS, CAD and BNG, so I reached out and spoke to both groups.
A number of factors contribute to the issues involved in integrating data from CAD to GIS, from there being so many CAD systems, each with their own proprietary functionality, to poor drafting and layer management in CAD, which result in errors imported into GIS software, to the sheer number of disciplines that may have worked on a CAD file before it arrives with the ecologist. Here’s how to improve the workflow for better collaboration:
Tips for landscape architects
Be aware that the main map projection used in the UK for BNG assessments is EPSG 27700: British National Grid, and ensure coordinates are set to metres before providing data to an ecologist.
Remove page elements, including legends, unrequired layers and design revisions.
Ensure good drawing practice and layer management to ensure data integrity.
Tips for ecologists
Discuss your needs with landscape architects and ask for unnecessary layers to be turned off.
Be specific about the projection needed, setting coordinates to meters and that habitat area calculations require continuous polylines and closed polygons.
Request data to be saved as ASCII format DXF, which will make it easier to import and work in GIS systems.
Discuss UK habitat classifications, plant codes and pallets with the landscape architect to aid understanding and interpretation.
Matthew Davies is a GIS specialist and founder of Maplango.
Digital technologies in BNG workflow
Urban Green utilises Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for data collection, data analysis and presentation, as a valuable tool to inform all aspects of site assessment across in-house teams including landscape, ecology and urban design.
Often, the initial baseline assessment consists of an ecological and biodiversity survey, undertaken in accordance with the UK Habitat Classification System (UKHAB). The ecology and Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) teams use an on-site GIS data collection survey system that is specifically tailored for UKHAB surveys and BNG metrics. Species lists and condition scores are then recorded within the system, accurately positioning and associating to their mapped habitats to inform the Biodiversity Metric baseline data.
Once the on-site data has been collected it will be transferred through to GIS software. The data will then be processed and mapped on to the site’s topographical survey to map habitat data and tree surveys live in the field, supporting assessments and feeding into the landscape proposals.
Through close collaboration between the Landscape Design and BNG teams, the proposals are tested and refined to maximise the on-site opportunities available and explore ways to incorporate new or enhanced habitat types and landscape features.
This design information is produced in CAD to enable the habitat areas, linear features, blue infrastructure and other components to be measurable and quantifiable. These quantities are then transferred into the BNG metric calculator to show both the pre- and post- development elements of the site and if the required minimum 10% net gain has been achieved.
The existing and proposed habitat maps will then be translated into an Urban Greening Factor map which simplifies the UKHAB classifications. This simplified version can aid the end design of the projects, allowing for the best biodiversity net gain results.
BNG is still evolving. Local authorities and developers are still new to the processes and requirements and no two projects are the same, so a flexible approach is required.
The use of GIS technologies in particular aides this flexibility, furthering interdisciplinary collaboration through an efficient, accurate and comprehensible way of producing a BNG assessment. This is a key asset in the production of holistic, environmentally conscious schemes which are beneficial to both the local wildlife and the communities they serve.
Charlie Lawler is a GIS Consultant and Tafara Musonza is a BNG Consultant at Urban Green.
Real-time planting design
The University of Birmingham Molecular Sciences Building, completed in 2023, is an £80 million project including a landscape designed and delivered using Building Information Modelling (BIM).
The university gardens’ planting scheme was created using BIM to design single planting, area planting and the creation of planting mixes. Rather than having to manually define planting types, specification information and quantities, the project team was able to use a centralised, cloud-based platform to create and manage plants and mixes collaboratively throughout the design phases.
Importing directly from cloud-based planting libraries, the design team created palettes of single species and mixes that best reflected the specific requirements of the project, which incorporated shade, semi-shade, sun, slopes, buffers and retaining walls. The planting in the model was automatically populated with characteristics such as height, form, spread, growth rate and ultimate height at maturity of each specimen. With any changes to the model immediately displayed in plan, section, elevation and schedule views, the team was able to test and evaluate their choices in real time as the design progressed.
Being able to view planting components in a 3D model enabled the team to consider the impact of trees above and beneath the ground, whether as a result of their canopies, growth, ultimate height and spread, shadow casting, tree pits and root balls. Used alongside other technologies, more opportunities open up, as design options can be used in conjunction with virtual or augmented reality technologies to provide users with an immersive 4D experience of the designs.
Models such as this can also be used in Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) assessments, helping practitioners to map out different potential habitat scenarios and measure design iterations against the anticipated net gain throughout the design process. Combined with Geographic Information System (GIS) data, practitioners can model project change over time and once built, the model can even become a digital twin, modelling live, real-time data and informing ongoing management and maintenance.
From plant selection to real-time iteration, tools for design automation, review, modification and visualisation are becoming essential for better collaboration, coordination and efficiency.
Tim Calnan CMLI is founder of Cloudscapes.
