I've been working at MKA for approaching four months and I wanted to take the opportunity to introduce myself and share some of my thoughts about my areas of interest.

Firstly myself, my name is Liam Price and I'm the new Senior Ecologist and team lead in our Oxford office. My background is one of a generalist, but my key areas of expertise are Biodiversity Net Gain and Natural Capital. I have worked with the Biodiversity Metric since its version 2.0 days in 2019.

This was initially on a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP), a unique challenge in itself, and subsequently on a wide range of projects, sectors and contexts. Throughout the Biodiversity Metric's progression through versions 3.0,3.1, 4.0 and finally the Statutory Biodiversity Metric I have worked on rail projects, road schemes, gas pipelines, another NSIP, housing projects and offsetting/habitat banking.

The latter was a particular highlight, having the opportunity to work with large landowning charities and smaller scale farmers to deliver significant biodiversity improvements, while maintaining the connection between the existing land managers and the land. One of my key passions is sharing my knowledge with others and I have had the chance to run BNG focussed talks/training in-house, at CIEEM conferences, IEMA webinars and as CPD sessions for clients.

My other key area of interest is in ecosystem services and nature-based solutions (NbS). Ecosystem services essentially relate to the flows of benefits provided by the natural world. This could be the lumber from trees, the flood attenuation provided by floodplains or the recreation value of a park. NbS takes this a step further by using the delivery of these ecosystem services to address challenges that have historically been dealt with using 'grey' solutions. A classic example of this is the management of surface water runoff with Sustainable Drainage Solutions (SuDS), which essentially help reduce the rate and amount of water entering into our already stretched drainage system.


By incorporating SuDS features, like swales, detention ponds, rain gardens, green walls or green roofs, greater headroom is added into the system, so heavy rainfall events are less likely to result in flooding. This means that less stormwater drainage storage volume is required and there are a host of other biodiversity, urban cooling and visual amenity benefits (like this clock) also provided by these features.

 

What particularly interests me about these areas are their relevance at all scales and the benefits that can be had from considering them. A great example of this are these tram tracks in Manchester, these 'green tiles' provide habitat for pollinators and help to absorb water, reducing the rate of surface water runoff.

The consideration of ecosystem services and NbS dovetails with Biodiversity Net Gain very well. An example of this is the retention and provision of hedgerows within a housing project. There may be a requirement to provision additional hedgerows to meet Biodiversity Net Gain targets, which must be done. Hedgerows provide value to invertebrates, foraging and nesting birds, foraging bats, dispersal routes for small mammals, especially in an urban environment.

Hedgerows may have been included in the landscape plan partly for visual screening purposed. This is an ecosystem service benefit in itself. However, the value of hedgerows goes much beyond this. They also provide noise and pollution attenuation benefits, they can reduce surface water runoff through their roots and increased soil porosity, they can provide shading and hence cooling, especially in an urban environment.

By considering these factors, we can ensure that hedgerows are placed in the most impactful locations. Obviously, hedges cannot attenuate noise if there is no noise to attenuate. Something that I find especially interesting is that in addition to reducing noise levels, green barriers (such as hedgerows) reduce people's perception of the actual noise levels present (Dzhambov and Dimitrova, 2015).

A key question here is about the value of such work; why does it matter that additional ecosystem services are delivered? The answer is fourfold. Firstly, the more environmental considerations are imbedded into a development, the healthier and more robust the wider ecosystem will be.

Secondly, the greater the 'amount' of ecosystem services are delivered, the better off people will be. This could be through physical wellbeing, or they could face reduced pressures related to flooding or heat stress.

Thirdly, there is a clear financial benefit. Investment in ecosystem services has the potential to deliver significant returns on investment (González-García et al., 2025; Daigneault, Strong and Meyer, 2021).

Finally, the National Planning Policy Framework states that planning decisions should contribute to and enhance the natural and local environment, including through the consideration of ecosystem services. Demonstration of the consideration of these features will therefore help planning applications to be viewed favourably.

So, what does this all mean when you work with MKA? It means that you will be working with technical experts that can advise beyond legal compliance and help you to deliver positive outcomes for you, the environment and people.