Sensand, among other project partners including La Trobe University, Integrated Futures, Odanata Foundation, and Landcare Australia, has completed the Natural Capital Accounting project, including the successful launch of its digital platform.
The project seeks to address a critical gap in promoting sustainable farm practices, by collaborating with 50 Australian farmers to integrate farm management operational data with farm-scale environmental and biodiversity data. As a result, the farmers were able to generate 50 different natural capital accounts; providing data on soil, vegetation, biodiversity, as well as ecosystem services flowing from those assets, such as pasture, shelter, pest and pollinator information.
In launching this project, Sensand and its partners were able to achieve three core outcomes:
- A first-of-its-kind methodology in Australia for measuring and communicating farm-scale natural capital for farmers and their stakeholders was established.
- A user-friendly digital platform that presents data points and ecosystem layers of information.
- A pathway for farmers to set and achieve their financial, environmental, and social goals, and to help communicate their environmental performance to their stakeholders.
Sensand built the NCA (natural capital account) digital platform (a lite version of the Sensand platform itself), which displays all of the farm data captured within the project, visualised in overlays, pins, and files. To view a demo, visit this link.
Farmers onboarding to Sensand
As the project comes to a close, 50 farmers will be onboarded to Sensand, and have access to the multitude of other tools that complement their natural capital accounts.
These can be used to centralise farmer and land management operations, accounts, and markets to one place. In the coming weeks and months, further testing and exploration can be done to further refine the tools and workflows available to users.
“A platform that brings all these things together under a single umbrella will be extremely useful for [the farmers],” says Danny O’Brien of Integrated Futures.
Viewing the NCA data on Sensand
The NCA data available on Sensand comes from a number of different sources, including survey data and ecosystem overlays. To view a demonstration of the publicly available Sensand application hosting NCA data collected at the Orana farm, visit this link.
Survey Data
By interacting with survey data pins, you’ll be able to access bird surveys, ecological assessments, and plant surveys that contain data, photos, and more.
Ecosystem Overlays
The ecosystem overlays visually represent natural capital data as map layers. These vary from predicted species richness of birds to native shrubs on-farm, to predicted counts of detritivores. Other datasets include predator and pollinator information, and shelter and shade visualisations.
Farm-Scale Natural Capital Account
Users can view report summaries by ecosystem types and states, or access the entire report generated for each of the 50 farmers.
Powered by Sensand’s integrations technology framework
The Farm-scale Natural Capital Accounting digital platform has been built using Sensand’s technical infrastructure, including their proprietary integrations framework. This framework enables researchers, tech providers, service providers, and users themselves to have the tools to utilise core components on Sensand (such as map layers, geolocated survey points and report data) which empower them to innovate, visualise, share, and distribute data across workspaces and properties in Sensand.
We’re really excited about our work in the NCA project with our invaluable project partners, and we’d love to hear from you if you are interested in learning more about how Sensand can help you. Contact us here!
Stay tuned for more product updates as it relates to the Farm-Scale Natural Capital Project.