Training session: ''Applying spatial data and metrics to assess locations and tailor nature strategies''
Location matters. Spatial data helps organizations move from broad nature commitments to strategies tailored to real ecological and operational contexts.
These resources will help you understand why nature-related risks and opportunities are inherently location-specific and how spatial data can guide smarter, site-based decisions. You’ll learn how to select and combine spatial datasets, apply the mitigation hierarchy, and see practical examples of spatial data in action.
Webinar highlights
Location-focus in nature strategies
Nature strategies can’t be one-size-fits-all — as many risks and opportunities are inherently location-specific. Leading frameworks (TNFD, ESRS, GRI, SBTN) emphasize the importance of geographic specificity and highlight the need for spatial data to inform materiality assessments and target setting.
Spatial datasets enable companies to move from broad commitments to tailored actions by identifying, prioritizing, characterizing, and monitoring site-level interactions with nature.
Spatial data and metrics: what to consider?
From field-collected data to global datasets, knowing the type, quality, and limits of spatial data is key. By combining complementary sources and checking for accuracy, coverage, responsiveness, companies can build strategies grounded in real-world and evidence based.
Case study: Applying the mitigation hierarchy
By combining global spatial data with local context, businesses can identify sensitive ecosystems, understand biodiversity risks, and prioritize actions such as avoiding impacts in critical areas, minimizing operational damage, and restoring degraded habitats. Even when exact supply chain locations are unknown, spatial data can still help companies assess risks at a landscape level and tailor strategies to different regional contexts.
Training developed by Jacob Bedford & Aime Rankin, UNEP-WCMC
