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Urban Biome

Street-level intelligence for urban green infrastructure

Urban Biome Ltd  ·  Geovation Spring 2026  ·  GeoTech

The problem

There's a blind spot in
how we monitor cities

Satellites see

Heat islands, vegetation loss, air quality trends — at 10m resolution, updated monthly

The gap

Planters, street trees, rain gardens, green walls — small-scale GI is invisible to remote sensing

NO DATASET EXISTS

We capture

Type, design, condition, issues — verified street-level records with ownership linked via OS data

The evidence

The data doesn't exist.
Officially.

"Unable to
evaluate"

Climate Change Committee's assessment of UK urban greening progress, 2025

53%

of Local Planning Authorities have 0.5 or fewer ecologists on staff

ALGE-ADEPT 2022

0

national datasets tracking the condition of public realm green infrastructure

Why now

Five forces are converging

Regulatory demand is outpacing data infrastructure supply. The window is open.

2024

BNG Mandatory

Biodiversity Net Gain now law. Councils face 30-year monitoring obligations they cannot fulfil.

2025

CCC Data Gap

Climate Change Committee scored urban greening "unable to evaluate." No national baseline exists.

2025

Planning Act

Planning & Infrastructure Act requires habitat baselines councils currently lack.

2025

LNRS

Local Nature Recovery Strategies oblige every area of England to map nature recovery priorities — councils need habitat data they don't have.

2026

Tech Maturity

Free Sentinel-2 data + serverless cloud = national-scale monitoring at startup cost levels.

The solution

Two layers. One evidence base.

1

Satellite Environmental Intelligence

Property-resolution stress mapping from Earth observation data, updated monthly

NDVI FAPAR Surface Temp NO₂ FCOVER LAI
+ + +
2

Community Ground-Truth

Verified street-level GI records — type, design, condition, issues — with ownership auto-linked via OS data

Photos GI Type Design Condition Issues Ownership
=

Prioritised Intervention Zones

Where to invest next. Which assets are underperforming. Which areas need greening most — at street and property scale.

How it works

Every sighting becomes a
living intelligence record

Each dataset alone is partial. Aggregated for one asset, they compound into intelligence greater than the sum of parts.

Living
Asset
Record
Satellite NDVI
Monthly · automatic
FAPAR · LAI · FCOVER
Vegetation indices
GI Type & Design
Structured classification
Land Ownership
Auto-linked via OS
Issue Tracking
Flag · resolve · alert
Condition Score
Good · Fair · Poor
GPS + Photo
Auto-extracted
Community Obs.
Multiple observers
Data compounds over time
Day 1
Photo + GPS + type & design + condition + land ownership → baseline record created
Month 1-12
Satellite indices logged monthly. Other observers add photos. Condition updated. Issues flagged and resolved.
Year 1+
Seasonal trends visible. Decline detected early. The same failure patterns surface again and again — tree roots compacted, root-bound, tree guards strangling growth. We learn what works and what doesn't.
Already seeing it: corten steel planters outlast wooden ones. Mediterranean species survive dry spells. These patterns are invisible without longitudinal data — and right now, nobody is collecting it.

The moat

We learn what works.
Councils stop repeating mistakes.

As data compounds, patterns emerge that are invisible to any single council. The platform becomes an evidence base for what actually works — shared across every authority.

Communities record
GI across cities
Patterns emerge:
what works, what fails
Insight feeds back
into new deployments
Better outcomes
drive more adoption
SHARED
LEARNING
Same mistakes repeated
Wooden planters break. Tree guards strangle. Root-bound trees die. Every council learns alone.
Shared intelligence
Corten steel lasts. Mediterranean species survive heat. Best practice emerges from data, not anecdote.

The product

What a council officer sees
on Monday morning

app.urbanbiome.uk/bristol/dashboard
Priority Zones
All Sightings
Stress Map
Asset Timeline
Issue Tracker
Export Report ↗
Bristol — Priority Score
7.4 / 10
Greening investment urgency
Assets Monitored
143
verified sightings
Environmental Stress
Heat HIGH
Air Quality MODERATE
Vegetation STABLE
Condition Breakdown
Good61%
Fair27%
Poor12%

Validation

Built and deployed.
Not concepts.

143

GI assets documented

Structured condition data no existing dataset captures. Live in Bristol with 6 community volunteers.

3

Live data streams

Satellite indices, OS basemaps, and community ground-truth — all flowing, all integrated.

£500

Annual infrastructure

Entire platform runs on serverless. National scale is achievable without national-scale costs.

1

BID pilot interest

Bristol BID confirmed willingness to pilot high-street planting monitoring.

FixMyStreet Pro

Citizens report potholes

30+ councils pay £5–56k/yr

Urban Biome

Citizens report green infrastructure

+ satellite monitoring + habitat scoring

Market

A greenfield market.
No incumbent.

TAM
~400 UK local authorities
SOM Year 1
5 councils · £40–60k
SAM
~200 urban authorities
Bristol, Bath, Exeter,
Plymouth, Swindon
Year 1 target councils
£8–12k
per authority, annually
£100–150k ARR
Year 2 target

Business model

Free to map. Paid to decide.

Community

Free

Open map access and community participation. The evidence base.

  • Record GI sightings
  • View community map
  • Track local impact
  • Report issues

Pro Dashboard

£8–12k/yr

Council-grade decision intelligence. The revenue.

  • Priority scoring
  • Satellite monitoring
  • Ownership-linked insights
  • Exportable reports

Data Network

National

Each city compounds a national habitat dataset. The endgame.

  • Network effects at scale
  • Data licensing potential
  • Increasing value per node
  • National GI register
Conversion trigger: Council officers see stress maps overlaid with community data — read-only isn't enough, they need scoring and exports to act.

The team

One builds the tech.
One opens the doors.

Reuben Forster

Co-founder · Technical Lead · Full-time

15 years in construction and landscaping showed him GI is planted then forgotten. Built the entire platform solo — satellite pipelines, community capture, OS integration.

Heatherwick Studio Ecolazy (GIS) Python Rust React Cloudflare

Manon Dangelser

Co-founder · Strategy Lead · CEnv

10+ years climate resilience consulting at Arup, Bouygues and VINCI. Speaks the language councils trust. Co-authored the AUDE Climate Adaptation Guide.

Arup Senior Consultant CEnv AUDE Guide Co-author Bouygues VINCI
50/50 equity · No other shareholders · No options issued

Roadmap

From Bristol to national

Now

Bristol Live

143 assets, 6 volunteers, 3 data streams integrated

H1 2026

Geovation

UKHAB integration, council design input, first pilot

H2 2026

5 Councils

Pro dashboard, £40–60k ARR, grant stacking

2027

Pre-seed

£150–250k raise, 10–15 councils, £100–150k ARR

2028+

National Dataset

Data licensing, central gov, insurers, utilities

The ask

What Geovation unlocks

Four blockers. One programme solves all four.

01

Council Introductions

We need to sit with council officers. Geovation's network gives us the room.

02

OS Data Access

Enhanced Land Cover is architecturally critical. Our product is better with UKHAB — and UKHAB gets a showcase.

03

Procurement Mentorship

Council procurement is labyrinthine. Alumni who've navigated it are the missing guide.

04

£20k Equity-Free

Funds the first council pilot. If grants slip, our £500/yr infrastructure means runway is long.

Mutual value: our success validates the OS data ecosystem

Urban Biome

Green infrastructure is planted then forgotten.
We make it visible, monitored and actionable.

Reuben Forster & Manon Dangelser
hello@urbanbiome.uk · Urban Biome Ltd · Company No. 16520770