Bedfordshire Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS): Blue Lens mapping (2024) 

NCS were commissioned by the North Northamptonshire Responsible Authority to produce the mapping layers for the Local Habitat Map. This built on many years of work completed in the area around opportunity mapping for biodiversity and wider environmental benefits, and other projects. For the LNRS we produced GIS layers of numerous measures to create the Areas that Could Become Important for Biodiversity map. The North Northamptonshire LNRS was only the second across England to be fully completed and published, and was commended by Natural England and others for the quality of its mapping.  

NCS were appointed by Cambridgeshire County Council to provide GIS support for the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough LNRS. NCS had already completed natural capital and opportunity mapping across Cambridgeshire, and the LNRS project involved collating numerous datasets and updating the habitat basemap. As in the Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes LNRS (outlined above) NCS produced the mapping required for the Local Habitat Map and the maps supporting the Statement of Biodiversity priorities. The latter involved creating maps to inform the development of the priorities and measures for the region, in collaboration with the LNRS production team, and a negotiation of how best to identify, map and present the enhance and create opportunities. It also included revising maps, creating new output for continued engagement and consultation, and producing methodology reports. The draft LNRS has just been released for consultation. 

NCS were commissioned to manage the pre-and post-public consultation LNRS development process, provide the mapped evidence base and co-write the strategy text for the Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes LNRS. NCS produced maps of the location, extent and condition of habitats across the region, before using opportunity mapping to highlight the best locations to create or restore habitats related to the priorities and measures for the region. NCS also created maps showing the best opportunities to enhance the provision of a range of ecosystem services, along with a range of other opportunities. Maps were analysed and summarised for different National Character Area zones across the study area and weighted by stakeholder priorities.  

NCS also created a web-based interactive portal to display all of the maps. This will be publicly accessible when the LNRS is published and the draft output was available for users during the recent public consultation. NCS also created a StoryMap of the draft LNRS for consultation. NCS prepared and delivered all LNRS outputs ready for public consultation, in line with the Statutory Guidance (Sections 104-6 of the Environment Act 2021) and Buckinghamshire Council’s Accessibility Standards, and assisted with delivery and communications. This included report writing, editing, oversight and task allocation of all LNRS outputs, and writing the Priorities and Measures, Stakeholder Engagement and LRNS methodology statement outputs.