Provision of Air pollution removal by vegetation, Update and Methodology refinement and Pollination Service development

ONS require updated calculations and methodology on air pollution and pollination.

The outputs and methods from both of these pieces of work could be used by UK, devolved and local governments in policy appraisal. All of these outputs can be presented at high resolution providing both a national and local picture.

ONS intend to use the data for the ONS statutory competencies.

Air pollution removal

UKCEH were involved in scoping and implementing the improved methodology for air pollution removal by vegetation, and the revised method has subsequently been widely used in the Natural Capital Accounts. Results also been used in national accounts for Wales, England and Scotland, and have been downscaled for use in green infrastructure tools such as Greenkeeper. However, the underlying methodology is complex and there is a requirement for further work to facilitate reporting in future years:

 Updating the calculations for a more recent year, and at the same time incorporating any updates to the methodology that might be relevant.

 Developing a robust way to extrapolate from model outputs to interpolate between years and extrapolate in the short-term for future years.

ONS would not own the model used to update the core figures. The methods used to extrapolate between years will be published openly.

Pollination

Pollination is a key ecosystem service often referenced in Natural Capital and Ecosystem service assessment. It is not too hard to estimate the cost to the UK of losing pollinators entirely but much harder to estimate annual changes in the amount of pollination done.

For our accounts we need to be able to monitor yearly changes in pollination and consider the drivers of these changes.

UKCEH contains a group of pollinator experts including both modellers and pollinator monitoring. This unique blend of skills makes them well placed to adapt existing modelling work to enable us to include annual monitoring and habitat change data to produce pollination service change estimates.

The model produced will be based on open software. As such we would publish the full model on the same basis and not own it directly.

However we will be given bespoke training and support to run it which will upskill our own teams.