UrbanBioScore – biodiversity in cities

What will you find here?

On this page, you will find tools and knowledge to support work on urban biodiversity. The aim is to promote a joint effort to create more nature in cities – for the benefit of both people and species.

UrbanBioScore – what is it?

Aarhus University, in collaboration with leading specialists, has developed UrbanBioScore (UBS), which calculates a biodiversity value for an urban habitat based on recorded indicators within the habitats. The score ranges from 0 to 100 – where 100 represents the most valuable nature in Denmark.
The method makes it possible to:

Compare biodiversity in urban areas
Monitor developments over time through repeated surveys

On the website, you can

Read about UrbanBioScore – and the indicators it is based on, including reports and guidelines for data collection.
Download field registration forms – for practical work in the field where other applications cannot be used for data collection.

In our work on developing UBS, it has become clear that there are significant knowledge gaps regarding the importance of indicators in different contexts. Therefore, research on urban nature and the development of UBS is ongoing, and we continuously update the calculation method to make the best possible use of the collected indicators for calculating the biodiversity score.

News:

The calculation model for UrbanBioScore has been updated, and we recommend that you use UBS1.1 for calculating your biodiversity score going forward

In the memo, you can read about the updated model for calculating UrbanBioScore (UBS1.1) for biodiversity in cities and other built-up areas.
The updated model is based on the same biodiversity indicators as UBS1.0, but it uses expert-assessed values for the indicators rather than coefficients estimated from available data. You can read below how to calculate UBS1.1 using already collected data.

How do you move from UBS 1.0 to UBS 1.1?

If you are already using UrbanBioScore, you will likely need to obtain a UBS1.1 for your previously collected biodiversity indicators.
If you have entered data in Bynatur.app, you have a CSV file with your data. This file can be exported to the new data portal at GisMap, which assists with calculating UBS1.1.
If you have not entered data in Bynatur.app but have it in another format, you can either export it as a CSV file and then upload it to GisMap, or you can manually enter the data in the GisMap app.