Biodiversity and nature play a key part in meeting climate change and net zero goals. NatureScot is Scotland’s nature agency responding to the twin crises of biodiversity loss and climate change. They work to protect and restore nature by inspiring everyone to value our natural world. Philippa Vigano, Innovative Technologies Programme Manager, recently completed our Driving Value from Data professional development course to develop her knowledge and use data more effectively.
They advise the Scottish Government, and manage research and funding, such as the Nature Restoration Fund, and they guide organisations and individuals to play their part in fighting nature loss and climate change.
Philippa heads up a team utilising data and emerging technologies to help secure a nature-rich future for Scotland. Her team is developing projects that access new data to help protect, restore and value nature. Current projects include earth observation technologies, environmental DNA and other remotely sensed data.
Harnessing the power of data
Using emerging technologies and innovations will allow NatureScot to collect new data efficiently. For example, when surveying habitats they can explore earth observation tools instead of having teams on the ground. Using these tools would result in broader areas being surveyed to create more extensive habitat information and allow them to target field resources to priority areas.
“An organisation needs to understand what it wants to achieve with data and what data it needs – it’s about understanding what you want to do with the data and using it to add value.”
Philippa Vigano, NatureScot
Driving value from data to accomplish their goals
Philippa was ready to explore the growth opportunities presented by data. She participated in our Driving Value from Data professional development workshop to deepen her understanding in a way that was relevant to her goals.
Our Driving Value from Data workshop helps teams and individuals to:
- Champion data and harness your potential
- Make the right decisions for your business and make your plans a reality
- Grow your business, increase your productivity and succeed in an increasingly competitive world
For Philippa, the course introduced the concept of data maturity models – tools used to assess an organisation’s data capabilities and highlights areas for improvement. This knowledge helped to create tangible results for her team. The course has also supported her in conducting an internal data review and developing a long-term data strategy.
“Taking part in the ‘Driving Value from Data’ course was extremely beneficial in deepening my understanding of what more we can and could do with our data. I particularly valued the concept of data maturity – it was a new way of thinking but made perfect sense”.
Philippa Vigano, NatureScot
Professional development to support their data journey
Philippa’s data journey didn’t end there. After completing the course, she reached out to The Data Lab to inform the next steps in her professional development journey.
Our team delivered a professional development workshop with NatureScot and supported them in developing their first data strategy. The strategy has provided an overview of their data projects and helped teams to collaborate and prioritise resources. This intelligence will also help them understand their data needs, develop large infrastructure projects and get more value from data.
Philippa has started applying her learning to some key projects:
- Opportunity mapping: Habitat and condition data help identify the best opportunities for nature restoration. Using existing data in new ways helps the team map opportunities and highlight gaps.
- Measuring and understanding natural capital: Natural capital defines our natural resources, such as rocks, soil, air, water and all living organisms. NatureScot are helping land managers understand what resources they have and how they can protect, restore or create new natural capital. Natural capital can be assessed and managed at different scales and they are looking at how to get more value from existing data and identify gaps. Working with Space Intelligence, Philippa and her team were able to satisfy a need for a complete and repeatable map of habitats in Scotland for natural capital assessments.
NatureScot is promoting the benefits of using data more effectively across their organisation. Senior leaders are facilitating data management and sharing. This means that data is available to provide insights, support action and inform future projects.
Ready to see how you and your organisation can drive value from data?