Building resilient communities – using digital tools to put nature back in the picture

By Zoe Metcalfe, Client Director - Local and Central Government UK

Nature is the world’s ultimate multi-tasker.

Planting trees upstream not only reduces downstream flood risk – it improves air quality, reduces the impact of extreme weather events, locks up carbon, protects the soil and can even improve mental and physical health outcomes in nearby communities. The reverse is also true, and depleted or otherwise vulnerable natural environments can often amplify shocks and stresses, from increased flood risk to heat islands and loss of keystone species.

In this incredibly interconnected system, a single intervention can make a big difference. But how can we assess this if we are not appropriately measuring our impact on the natural world, and vice versa?

In a traditional cost benefit analysis, the benefits provided by nature are not normally valued. We take them for granted because they are provided for free. But if we don’t measure this value, how can we make rational decisions? Or in the words of economist Joseph Stiglitz, “If you have the wrong metrics, you do the wrong things.”

To address this disconnection, we must develop an ecosystem valuation approach that does not ignore the natural environment but instead helps us better plan, predict, and model our effect on the planet’s diminishing reserves of natural capital in hand with human capital.

At AtkinsRéalis, we have been generating a solution that weaves together assessments of natural, human, and social capital with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Digital Twin technologies. This effectively creates dynamic ‘digital story books’ that can meaningfully visualise these complex data sets, and help planners, engineers and investors make decisions that will promote community and regional resilience.

These digital story books also enable us to take an asset-based community development methodology and approach, weaving in their needs and requirements as part of an evidence-based, co-development process. This empowers communities to share and build their social capital to be change-makers and be receptive to proposed interventions.

Capitalising on nature

Natural Capital Assessments assess natural capital stocks (habitats) and maps the benefit flows (or ecosystem services) from these stocks to humans. These assessments map both physical and monetary benefits, alongside articulating financial risk, allowing us to understand the impact of our natural stocks and to make more informed decisions.

We can use this insight to embed the real value of natural capital through biodiversity net gain (BNG), carbon codes and nutrient neutrality among others, to inform and support business cases, generate valuations for grant applications, statutory compliance and to develop the necessary depth of analysis for site interventions.

But how do we apply this information?

Advancements in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Digital Twin technologies have created a significant opportunity for the translation of remote sensing and other geospatial data sets into meaningful content. The resulting digital storybooks allow different stakeholders to assess potential interventions and explore ways to maximise the real value and long-term resilience of assets and communities.

Building climate resilience on the Evenlode

One place where this technique has already delivered results is along the River Evenlode in Oxfordshire, where we worked in partnership with the Environment Agency, Natural England, the Evenlode Catchment Partnership and the North East Cotswolds Farmer Cluster.

Here, we used remotely sensed data from satellites to identify the best places to reconnect the river with its floodplain, creating new habitats along the river whilst protecting both the railway and downstream communities at risk from flooding. This was presented in an interactive digital storybook for landowners and stakeholders to explore. Two pilot schemes have already been delivered on Pudlicote Farm and on the Blenheim Estate where historic drainage has been reversed to restore ancient channels that can hold water in the landscape and boost biodiversity.

Visualising the data in this way is vital to kick-start wider landscape transformation. It allows us to identify the best places to reconnect the river with the land around it to regenerate wetland and farmland, and provide new inspiring vistas along public footpaths. Even more importantly, it also allows us to bring local communities and landowners on the journey with us – working together with a collective of local farmers to develop the digital storybook and to analyse how this new use of their land would benefit them and their local community.

Reconnecting the River Thames with its floodplain

Similar work on the River Thames was also made possible by deployment of a digital twin of the river and floodplain. It could be used to model the hydrological effects and ecosystem service benefits of different ideas generated by project partners during a formal co-creation and collaboration process.

Biodiversity is essential for ecosystem health and resilience, providing direct benefits to humans through genetic diversity, pest control, pollination, and a variety of other ecosystem services. However, river barriers on the Thames in this part of Oxfordshire (around an area known as Chimney Meadows owned and managed by the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust) were preventing the passage of fish upstream, reducing biodiversity and ecosystem resilience to climate change.

To repair this damage, and to re-enliven the surrounding meadows for both humans and nature, a 450m nature-based fish pass was built around one of the largest structures on the river. This not only opened up a 30km stretch of the Thames for fish spawning and migration for the first time in more than a century but reinvigorated the entire ecosystem, increasing health and wellbeing, providing new locations for recreation and learning, and improving the area’s ability to store floodwaters and carbon.

This article was originally published in New Civil Engineer in December 2023.