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Introduction

Affinity Water partnered with Atkins Réalis and AiDash to implement BNGAI™, an advanced AI-powered platform that revolutionised its natural capital management approach. By leveraging remote sensing technology, BNGAI™ enabled the efficient collection, classification, and analysis of environmental data across extensive landholdings.

This innovation transformed strategic decision-making, helping Affinity Water achieve environmental objectives, streamline compliance, and set a new industry standard. The partnership combined AiDash’s advanced remote sensing capabilities, Atkins Réalis’s expertise in natural capital accounting, and Affinity Water’s deep local knowledge.

Together, they delivered precise, actionable data, aligning with Affinity Water’s strategic goals and enhancing the relevance of outcomes.

Challenges

Faced with the complex task of managing natural capital assets across 459 sites and 1,600 hectares, Affinity Water sought a scalable, efficient solution to gain a comprehensive understanding of its estate and integrate natural capital considerations into its decision-making processes.

Traditional methods of habitat assessment and natural capital accounting were slow, labour-intensive, and expensive, often taking up to two years for completion. The challenge was not only to streamline data collection but also to ensure compliance with stringent regulatory requirements like Ofwat’s Biodiversity Performance Commitment, all while driving sustainable and forward-looking environmental practices.

The company needed a scalable, efficient solution to gain a comprehensive understanding of its landholdings, integrate natural capital considerations into its decision-making, and support its commitment to delivering a measurably improved environment.

Solutions

Affinity Water partnered with AiDash and Atkins Réalis to address natural capital management challenges by implementing BNGAI™, an advanced biodiversity management platform. Combining remote sensing technology with AI-driven analytics, BNGAI™ enabled scalable habitat classification and natural capital accounting, using high-resolution satellite imagery to map habitats across systems like EUNIS, JNCC Phase 1, and UKHab.

The platform significantly reduced the time and costs associated with manual surveys, offering a transformative approach to assessing and managing environmental assets. AiDash provided cutting-edge technology, while Atkins Réalis contributed natural capital expertise. Together, they worked closely with Affinity Water’s internal teams to integrate data into operational frameworks.

Interactive workshops ensured the accuracy and reliability of habitat classifications, ground-truthing the data to align with Affinity Water’s environmental and operational goals. The implementation allowed for precise measurement, tracking, and reporting of natural capital assets, setting a new industry standard for environmental management.

Results

BNGAI™ by AiDash delivered a comprehensive natural capital account of Affinity Water’s 1,446 hectares across 459 sites in under three months, identifying 6,800 unique habitats across 71 DEFRA BNG categories. This dramatically outperformed traditional methods, which often take up to two years.

The platform enabled Affinity Water to optimise resource allocation, streamline regulatory compliance, and align decisions with long-term sustainability goals. By leveraging AI-powered analysis and 50cm high-resolution satellite imagery, Affinity Water achieved significant time and cost savings. Targeted ground-truthing allowed ecologists to focus on strategic areas, enhancing data accuracy and operational efficiency.

BNGAI™ outputs are now integral to Affinity Water’s processes, including AMP8 Biodiversity Performance Commitments and asset disposals, aligning with its six-capitals approach to sustainability. The project delivered an estimated natural capital net present value of £9.14 billion over 100 years, setting a new industry benchmark for natural capital management and positioning Affinity Water as a sustainability leader.

By harnessing AiDash’s advanced remote-sensing technology, we were able to produce high-resolution habitat classifications in just two months—a task that would typically take up to two years using traditional ground surveys.

Affinity Water & Atkins Realis Teams

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