Feature-by-feature comparison against the BNG monitoring market
| Capability | Urban Biome BNG Monitor |
Verna Cohort 19 |
Linckia Cohort 21 |
BNGAI | Gentian | Traditional Consultancy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monitoring capabilities | ||||||
| Satellite monitoring | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Community / citizen science unique | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| AI condition scoring | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ~ | ~ | ✗ |
| OS data integration | ✓ | ~ | ~ | ✗ | ✗ | ~ |
| 30-year compliance tracking | ✓ | ~ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Scalability & access | ||||||
| Works without ecologist | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Ground-truth verification | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Scales to 1000s of sites | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ~ | ✗ |
| No expensive licence needed | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Data layers fused | ||||||
| Satellite + AI + OS + Community | ✓ All 4 | 0 of 4 | 1 of 4 | 2 of 4 | 1 of 4 | 1 of 4 |
| Annual cost per council | £3,000/yr | £10,000/yr | £1,200+/user | Unknown | £30/ha | £300–800/day |
~ = partial or admin-only | Parliamentary POST briefing (2025) explicitly calls for citizen science in BNG monitoring — Urban Biome is the only platform delivering this.