Feasibility Study: Creating a Natural Capital Data Product

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Many government agencies, businesses and communities are looking to solve a variety of problems by enhancing the natural environment. These 'Nature-based Solutions' can be powerful because each intervention can work on multiple fronts, as long the right things are done in the right places. For instance, planting a hedge along the right field boundary can protect the crops from storms, reduce local river flooding, enhance the scenery and make wildlife more resilient to climate change.At the same time, the government is changing the way it offers subsidies to farmers. They will increasingly be paid for the Nature-based Solutions (NbS) they provide through environmental actions, such as planting hedges and using fewer chemicals. Farmers are also beginning to sell some NbS to companies through commercial trades.It is not always obvious what are 'the right things in the right places', as the landscape acts as an interconnected system and needs to be considered in the round. This requires a lot of information processing, expertise and complex modelling. Unfortunately, this is currently a slow and expensive business.Viridian are proposing something different. We will use clever automation, intelligent algorithms and efficiencies of scale to drive down prices. We will create a standard suite of data, maps, information and insights to show farmers the best actions to take in the most effective locations. These data product will supply all the support they need to decide on how they want to use their land, as well as providing a wealth of technical detail for more specialist users such as land agents and consultants.We want to get this product exactly right, so we are proposing a feasibility study. This will allow us to consult widely across the industry to find out what different users want from the product, how they want to interact with it and how much they are willing to pay. It will allow us to get the right balance of technical complexity and simplicity of use; and of detail and cost.