Urban Biome

The spaces between developments are the most walked and least looked after

FixMyStreet for green infrastructure

Citizen science mapping and satellite monitoring for neglected urban green spaces

Reuben Forster & Manon Dangelser  •  Geovation Spring 2026

Bristol sightings map

The public realm gap

Red = planning application sites where BNG applies.
Everything between — the most-walked, least-managed spaces in any city — has no habitat framework at all.

These gaps are also the linear routes connecting sites — the wildlife corridors essential for biodiversity. Without them, habitats are islands.

  • Ownership unclear, nobody organised to act
  • 53% of LPAs have ≤0.5 ecologists on staff (ALGE-ADEPT 2022)
  • CCC scored urban greening “unable to evaluate” — no national dataset exists (CCC 2025)
OS NGD Sites — gaps between developments

How it works

Add sighting
1

Snap & map

AI species ID, GPS auto-extracted
habitat type & condition

Timeline
2

Score & track

BNG habitat score, monthly
satellite health timeline

Issue flagged
3

Flag & fix

Community flags issues
volunteers nominate to help

📊

Council
Dashboard

Aggregated intelligence,
satellite alerts,
compliance exports,
volunteer approval.

THE PAID PRODUCT

4

Council dashboard

 
 

Built, deployed, validated

143

GI assets mapped

6

Community volunteers

24

BNG habitat types

<£40

Monthly running cost

  • Bristol council tree inventory integrated
  • FixMyStreet Pro: 25+ councils pay for street issues — district £5–7k/yr, unitary £15–56k/yr (SocietyWorks)
  • One ecologist costs £35–45k/yr — we cover a whole city for less (CIEEM 2024)

"Looking forward to seeing how this data can support urban greening decisions."

Jasmine Faudon, BSc Wildlife Conservation
Dense sightings

Market & timing

TAM

330+

Planning authorities with 30-year monitoring obligations they can't fulfil — plus all unmonitored public realm.

SAM

600+

Councils with declared climate emergencies needing environmental intelligence.

SOM Year 1

£30k

5 South West councils at £5–7k/yr. FixMyStreet: district £5–7k, unitary £15–56k. (SocietyWorks)

Four forces converging now

BNG mandatory since Feb 2024

30-year monitoring obligation councils cannot fulfil. Environment Act 2021

No national urban greening data

CCC scored urban greening “unable to evaluate” — no national dataset exists. CCC Adaptation Report 2025

Planning & Infrastructure Act 2025

Requires habitat baselines councils lack. Royal Assent Dec 2025

Free satellite + serverless cloud

Sentinel-2 data + Cloudflare Workers = national-scale analysis for <£40/month.

Business model

Community generates data at zero marginal cost. Each new city makes the network more valuable.

📱

Community maps GI

Free to use

🛰️

Satellite enriches

Monthly NDVI per sighting

📊

Council pays

£5–7k/yr

🌍

More cities join

Network effect

Community

Free

Map GI assets, flag issues, volunteer to maintain. Open data.

Dashboard

£5–7k/yr

Aggregated intelligence, satellite monitoring, issue alerts, volunteer approval.

Pro

£10–15k/yr

LNRS tracking, compliance exports, advanced reporting.

Year 1

5 councils × £6k avg = £30k

Year 2

15 councils, 3 cities = £100–150k

Why us, not them

Urban Biome Verna Linckia iNaturalist
Focus Urban public realm Rural BNG Development sites Species records
Data collection Citizen science Paid ecologists Paid ecologists Citizen science
Satellite monitoring Per sighting, monthly No No No
Condition tracking Yes, over time Snapshot Metrics No
Scales with users Network effect Headcount Headcount Yes
Open data Yes No No Yes

Only platform combining citizen science + satellite monitoring for urban green infrastructure.

One builds the tech, one opens the doors

Reuben Forster

Technical Lead & GI Analyst • Full Time

  • 15 years construction & landscaping — saw GI planted then forgotten
  • GIS consultant (Ecolazy), designer (Heatherwick Studio)
  • Built entire platform solo: Python, Rust, SvelteKit, Cloudflare
  • 5 production tools on <£40/month

Manon Dangelser

Strategy & Stakeholder Lead • Part Time

  • 10 years advising councils on climate resilience
  • Senior Consultant at Arup (3.5 yrs)
  • Chartered Environmentalist (CEnv)
  • Co-authored AUDE Climate Adaptation Guide
  • Bouygues / VINCI engineering background

Together: Reuben knows the tech doesn't exist. Manon knows why councils can't build it — no budget, no data, no staff. Urban Biome answers a problem they've both lived.

What we need from Geovation

Funding

£20k funds 6 months: council dashboard, native apps, first paying councils.

OS Data

Enhanced Land Cover to validate every community sighting with standardised habitat classification.

Go-to-market

Mentorship selling to councils. We've never sold to local authorities — Geovation alumni have.

Network

Connections to OS product teams, council innovation leads, and the Geovation alumni ecosystem.

Bristol → South West → National

Every community sighting enriches OS data. Our success validates OS habitat products.