// ENVIRONMENTAL & SUSTAINABILITY

Land, terrain and hydrology data for biodiversity, net-zero and environmental reporting.

A BNG metric, a carbon inventory or a catchment plan still has to sit on GB land parcels, watercourses and elevation that a regulator will recognise. We license NGD Land Features, terrain, Water Network, imagery and administrative boundaries for consultancies, utilities and in-house sustainability teams.

Request a quote All OS data licensing

NGD Land Features for land cover, vegetation and greenspace
Terrain and Water Network for catchment, flood and habitat context
Boundary-Line for the reporting geography a board or regulator expects

// WHO THIS IS FOR

Consultancies, in-house sustainability and regulated reporters.

The licence usually fails when a consultant holds a national file for one client, or when a net-zero team tries to run GB reporting on OpenStreetMap land cover.

Environmental consultancies

Ecology, BNG, EIA and catchment firms.

You need current land cover, hydrology and elevation around a site, plus a lawful way to show that context to the client and the LPA. Single-site clips are common; a regional studio licence makes sense once BNG work is repeatable.

NGD Land Features for habitats and land cover screens
Water Network and terrain for catchment and flood context
Imagery for habitat and access reconnaissance
Client reuse scoped so the LPA pack is licensed

In-house sustainability

Net-zero, ESG and estate teams.

Portfolio reporting wants national or estate-wide layers joined to UPRNs or site polygons, with Boundary-Line for the geography in the annual report. This is closer to a data warehouse than a field survey.

Estate-wide land cover and greenspace
AddressBase or site polygons as the join key
Boundary-Line for LA, national park or constituency reporting
Refresh cadence that matches the reporting year

// USE CASES

Environmental work that needs OS geometry.

OS data will not replace a Phase 1 habitat survey. It will stop the desk study, the catchment cut and the board map starting from an unlicensed basemap.

BNG desk study

Land cover, greenspace and neighbouring habitat context before the ecologist maps the metric on site.

Catchment and nature-based solutions

Water Network plus terrain to place interventions on the hydrology that actually drains to the asset or the watercourse.

Estate carbon and land reporting

Consistent GB land-cover geometry under every site in the portfolio, instead of a different basemap per consultant.

EIA and constraints

Topography, water, imagery and administrative boundaries as the licensed frame around designated-site layers you already hold.

Floodplain and resilience context

Elevation and hydrology as inputs to a flood or drainage conversation — still not a replacement for a flood-risk assessment.

Public or board maps

A lawful OS basemap under a net-gain or climate-adaptation story that will be published, not just used internally.

// THE OS DATA UNDERNEATH

Datasets environmental teams license through us.

Land features, terrain and water do most of the environmental work. Boundaries and imagery are the reporting and validation layers.

Land

NGD Land Features

Land use, vegetation, greenspace and surface classification for BNG and estate reporting.

Elevation

Terrain 5

5m DTM for catchment, landscape and regional habitat context.

Elevation

Terrain 1m

1m DTM/DSM when a site-level drainage or earthworks number matters.

Hydrology

Water Network

Connected GB hydrology with flow direction for catchment cuts.

Boundaries

Boundary-Line

The administrative geography in the report, the consultation or the board pack.

Aerial

Imagery Layer

Aerial validation of habitats, canopy and site change between reporting years.

// HOW IT'S DELIVERED

A clip for the desk study. A national layer for the estate.

1. Site or catchment clip

Land features, terrain and water for the AOI on the instruction. Typical for a consultancy appointment.

Best for: BNG, EIA and catchment jobs.

2. Estate or national files

GB or portfolio-wide layers into the sustainability warehouse, refreshed on the OS cadence to match reporting.

Best for: in-house net-zero and ESG teams.

3. Hosted environmental viewer

A public or officer map for a nature-recovery or climate-adaptation programme, with OS attribution handled.

Best for: authorities, utilities and estates publishing a map.

// LICENSING, EXPLAINED

Field survey remains yours. The national layers are licensed.

Consultancy deliverables

Your habitat maps and metric calculations are your work. The OS land, terrain and water layers in the pack need a licence that covers client and LPA use. We will write that in rather than leave it to a footnote.

Published sustainability maps

A net-gain or climate map on a corporate or council website is a public display. That is in scope if we name it; it is a problem if the layer was licensed for internal GIS only.

// FAQ

Questions from ecologists and sustainability data leads.

Will NGD Land Features replace a Phase 1 or UKHab survey?

No. It is a national land-cover dataset for desk study, screening and portfolio reporting. Condition, species and metric calculations still need a competent ecologist.

Can LPAs see the OS layers in our BNG pack?

Yes if the licence covers that submission. A screenshot with no acknowledgement is the usual failure mode; we would rather put the right wording on the figure.

Do you supply Natural England or EA constraint layers?

No. We license OS geometry. Designated-site and flood-map layers stay with those publishers; we will sit OS land and terrain underneath them.

Terrain 50 versus Terrain 5 for a catchment plan?

Terrain 50 is a national overview. Catchment and nature-based design usually wants Terrain 5; site-level earthworks wants 1m.

Can we keep a national land-cover file for every future client?

Only under a studio or enterprise licence that says so. A single-site clip for Client A does not become a national basemap for Client B.

How often does land cover update?

On the OS NGD cadence. If a site has just been stripped, imagery and your own survey beat the national layer — we will say so rather than oversell recency.

Official Ordnance Survey Licensed Partner

// REQUEST A QUOTE

Tell us whether this is a BNG job, a catchment, or an estate report.

Share the AOI or portfolio, whether the LPA or the public will see the map, and which of land cover, terrain or hydrology is the immediate gap. Indicative pricing comes back under NDA within one UK working day.

Reply within one UK working day
Senior partner team - no SDR gauntlet
Indicative pricing under NDA

Prefer email? Write to data@planningmapsuk.co.uk.

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