Deephams STW Development

PROJECT BRIEF

Maydencroft Limited was commissioned by a utilities company to undertake a Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) Baseline Assessment & Strategy for a sewage treatment works in north London. The purpose of the assessment was to establish a baseline unit value of the site prior to the development of a solar PV array, and to identify potential locations for habitat enhancement and creation to ensure an overall minimum 10% gain in habitat units would feasible to achieve.

ASSESS

A BNG Baseline Survey carried out by our Ecologists identified modified grassland as the only habitat present on site, surrounded by roads and developed surfaces. The proposed development would diminish the quality of the grassland due to shading, reducing botanical diversity and resulting in a net loss. BNG Metric 3.1 was used to model potential options, including enhancement of grasslands and creation of mixed scrub habitats. This helped to demonstrate that it would be possible to mitigate loss and generate a 10% increase in habitat units, which enabled the proposed development to proceed as planned.

---