Every term we use, defined in one sentence.

The average £ damage you'd expect each year from a hazard like flooding or heatwaves, taking into account that big events are rare. Insurers use this as their base number.

The air-conditioning bill the surrounding buildings no longer have to pay because trees and reflective surfaces cool the area down. Reported as £/year saved.

Money the water company and insurers don't have to spend on treating storm water or repairing flood damage, because the green infrastructure soaked it up first.

How many £ of benefit the scheme delivers for every £ spent. A BCR of 2.0× means £2 of public benefit per £1 of cost.

England's statutory unit for measuring habitat value before and after development. UrbanCat does not calculate statutory BNG units; an assessment must use the applicable statutory metric and competent ecological evidence.

The upfront money spent to design, build and install the scheme — distinct from the year-on-year running cost (opex).

How much of the scheme's £ value could be wiped out by a worse-than-expected climate. We report it under both RCP4.5 (stated policy) and RCP8.5 (stress-test ceiling).

Kuala Lumpur City Hall — the municipal authority that approves planning, drainage and green-infrastructure works inside KL's federal territory.

The standard finance method of forecasting a project's annual income and costs and converting them to today's £. NPV and IRR both come out of this calculation.

How much ecological value a project could lose for every square metre of its footprint before mitigation. It is a planning indicator, not evidence of statutory BNG compliance.

A second satellite greenness index that stays useful even in very dense planting where NDVI maxes out. We use both as a cross-check.

What the scheme costs each year on average, once you smooth the upfront build cost across its lifetime. Useful for comparing assets with different lifespans.

The tiny soot particles from traffic and burning that get deep into people's lungs — the biggest air-pollution killer. Trees and hedges remove some of it from the air; we monetise the avoided NHS cost.

An AI image-sharpener that turns 10-metre satellite pixels into something that looks crisp on an A3 client report. We use it only for visuals — the underlying numbers stay at native resolution.

Whether the local soil drains fast (A, sandy) or slow (D, heavy clay). It controls how much rainwater can soak in instead of running off.

An international sustainability disclosure standard covering material climate-related risks and opportunities. Whether it applies depends on jurisdictional adoption and the reporting entity.

The official UK score for how deprived a neighbourhood is — 1 means it's in the most-deprived 10% of England, 10 means the least. We give projects in deprived areas extra weight, in line with HM Treasury rules.

A set of principles for assessing the integrity of voluntary carbon credits, including additionality, permanence, double-counting and measurement. UrbanCat can organise evidence against these themes for independent review.

The annual % return the project earns over its life — the higher the better. A 7% IRR means the scheme returns the same as a 7% interest rate.

The total lifetime cost divided by the total benefit delivered — e.g. £ per tonne of CO₂ removed or £ per cubic metre of runoff retained. Lets decision-makers compare schemes on a common basis.

The three-step routine — measure, report and obtain independent verification — used to prepare an environmental claim for review. Market or regulatory acceptance remains a separate decision.

We re-run every calculation 800 times, each time with slightly different assumptions, so the report shows a realistic range (low, mid, high) instead of a single false-precision number.

All future income and costs from the project added up, but with future £ worth less than today's £ (the standard way governments and investors compare schemes).

The brownish gas from diesel exhausts that inflames lungs and triggers asthma. Leafy buffers absorb some of it.

A satellite measurement of how much living, healthy plant cover is on the ground, from −1 (water) to +1 (dense forest). We use it to prove a project actually delivered the greening it promised.

An algorithm that searches thousands of possible scheme designs and shows you the trade-off curve — e.g. 'this design maxes biodiversity, this one maxes £-saved, this one balances both'.

Annual payments — usually from a water company, council or insurer — for the public benefits the scheme delivers (cleaner water, cooler streets, less flooding). Think of it as an income stream the project earns on top of any one-off sale.

The standard health-economics unit: one year of life in perfect health = 1 QALY. UrbanCat values a QALY at £70,000 (HM Treasury Green Book 2022) when monetising avoided pollution and heat-stress mortality. NICE uses £20k–£30k for drug-approval decisions — a different context.

Two radiative-forcing pathways used here to test sensitivity to different future climate conditions. They are scenarios, not forecasts, and the selected pathways do not establish disclosure compliance.

How many tonnes of CO₂ the planting pulls out of the air each year, valued at the official UK carbon price.

An umbrella term for green drainage features (swales, rain gardens, permeable paving, ponds) that slow and clean runoff instead of piping it straight to a sewer.

A set of climate-related disclosure recommendations whose work concluded in 2023. UrbanCat can supply scenario-analysis inputs; reporting obligations depend on the entity and jurisdiction.

TCFD's nature-risk equivalent — a 4-step framework (Locate, Evaluate, Assess, Prepare) that tells companies how to disclose their dependencies and impacts on nature.

Everything the scheme costs over 20 years, not just the build price. Includes maintenance, replanting and any replacements.

The temperature your body actually feels once you factor in humidity, wind and direct sun — not just what the thermometer says. We use it to show how much cooler a street feels after planting.

The standard engineering recipe for working out how much rainwater runs off a piece of land in a storm. Greener surfaces hold more water — we calculate how much flooding and treatment cost is avoided.

The official UK Treasury unit for putting a £ value on improved wellbeing — one extra point of life-satisfaction for one person for one year = 1 WELLBY (worth ≈ £13k in 2024 prices).

The official UK Treasury way of putting a £ value on people feeling better — fewer sick days, better mental health — when they get access to green space.