Support and feedback
If you need some support, find any bugs or odd behaviour, or would like to give us some feedback about Natural Capital Suite please feel free to contact us.
What are actions?
Actions are the on-ground changes combined with the support mechanisms (e.g. extension, grant, regulation) that can be considered in developing an investment portfolio.
Two example Actions are:
- Riparian fencing and revegetation with grant to support on-ground works undertaken by landholder
- Riparian fencing and revegetation with grant to support on-ground works undertaken by landholder, completion field day, plus annual trailing maintenance grant and site inspection
These two actions are the same on-ground change, but the delivery and support mechanisms are different which will result in different adoption likelihood and social benefits from the field day to demonstrate the project.
What are action libraries?
Action libraries are where actions are stored. You can choose the Action library to use for your scenario.
Master Action libraries
There are master action libraries that are managed and curated by Truii modellers. These represent a shared knowledge base of Actions. Only approved data curators can edit master library actions.
Group based Action libraries
You can create local libraries of actions within your group. These action libraries can be created from scratch, or by copying existing action libraries (such as a master library). Your local action libraries are only available within your group. They cannot be shared between groups.
What is a scenario?
A scenario is the configuration of Actions, investment priorities and the predicted benefits of that configuration.
Key scenario configuration options are:
- Scenario type (work to a budget or apply all selected)
- Adoption approach – consider the temporal response of changing levels of adoption through time.
- Spatial application – catchments/sub-catchments to apply to scenario to
- Action selection – Filter the available Actions from your selected Action library (Action type, industry, likelihood of adoption, response time of Action, confidence in Action benefit prediction)
- Investment priorities – Prioritise the Action portfolio based on weighted benefits for water quality, biodiversity, social, economic, climate change, or First Nations benefits
Explore the results of a scenario
Click on the ‘Explore’ button for a scenario to see the predicted benefits of implementing the scenario.
Duplicate a scenario
Scenarios can be copied. This will allow the use of a previous scenario to be the basis of a new scenario. To duplicate a scenario, go to the scenario library and select the copy tool on the scenario you wish to copy.
How is confidence determined?
Natural Capital Plan uses a semi quantitative approach to determine the confidence in the predicted benefits of an action and the cost of implementing the action. The confidence is scored across a five point scale, which in turn is converted to a confidence band to display in the scenario explore view.
What are positive and negative actions?
Positive Actions
Positive Actions are activities that provide a net positive social and environmental outcome such as revegetation, agricultural practice improvement, gully remediation.
Positive Actions are considered in investment portfolios, they can be sorted and prioritised according to their benefits.
Negative Actions
Negative Actions are activities that have a net negative social and environmental outcome (although they may benefit an individual) .
Negative Actions represent a business as usual approach (e.g. a declining environmental condition from continued clearing)
What is a group?
User access and data management is handled as a group. A group is like a shared folder, where the group admin manages who has access to the group and all those with access to the group can see all the projects within the group.
Groups allow for organisational control
A group is typically assigned to a single organisation. The projects within that group are only visible to the group members. Groups ensure that single organisations maintain control over their own data through managing the permissions an access of users in their group.
Group administrator privileges
Group administrators can invite users to the group and remove users from the group. Group administrators cannot remove themselves.
User access permissions
There are two levels of user access:
- Admin – Can use and add members – full access to the tool and can invite and remove users (
- User – Can use only – full access to the tool but cannot invite or remove users
Group size
There is no limit on the number of users in a group.
Projects per group
There is no limit on the number of projects in a group.
What is a project?
A project has two parts:
- a survey which describes the project activities
- area/s on a map which shows the physical location of the project
A project has a single survey, which can be applied across multiple land parcels (blocks) for the project.
Blocks
A block is a continuous land parcel within a project. A project can have multiple blocks. This is to allow representation of a common land management practice or project activity across several different blocks without having to complete the survey for every block.
There is no limit to the number of blocks in a project.
What types of projects are included?
Broadacre practice change projects
A broadacre practice change project is one focused on changed agricultural land management practices such as stock management, erosion control measures and fertiser user.
Revegetation projects
A revegetation project has the primary activity of restoring native vegetation, either through natural regeneration or direct planting. Revegetation projects can focus on the riparian zone or terrestrial areas. The water quality and biodiversity outcomes will vary between riparian and terrestrial revegetation projects.
Preservation projects
Preservation projects focus on putting place controls to preserve existing high quality vegetation. Preservation projects can focus on the riparian zone, wetlands or terrestrial areas. The water quality and biodiversity outcomes will vary between riparian, wetland and terrestrial areas.
How do I create Reef Credits?
The workflow of creating credits is:
Getting set up
- Use the contact page to send us a request to use Natural Capital Credit
- We will create a group for your organisation
- You will receive an email with a link to register (create your password)
- Login to Natural Capital Suite (use the login button top right of any page on this web stie)
- Select the application you want (Natural Capital Credit (Reef Credits))
Starting a new project
- In the App, select ‘New’ / ‘Project’
- Complete the project information (Name, description, project owner, industry type)
- This is where you can add project level attachments about the project for the verifier (property details, project proponent details, project statutory declarations)
- Set the baseline
- Select year 1
- Draw all the blocks for the farm enterprise on the map
- For each block complete the practice survey for that block for that year (you can do bulk edits in the table)
- Add a ‘new year’ this will copy the previous year (blocks and survey responses)
- Edit the practice survey for the new year to represent any different practices for that year
- Continue for all seven baseline years
- Add a ‘monitoring report’
- Update the practice survey for the monitoring report to reflect practice for that year
- Describe the monitoring period activities for the verifier
- Add Attachments for the reporting period (evidence to support the practice such as statutory declarations from the grower)
- Make arrangements with an approved project verifier to review your project
- Select the verifier from within the app and ‘submit monitoring report’
- respond to communication from the verifier using the chat function (you will be notified by email if there is a comment by the verifier)
- Verifier approves the monitoring report (you will be notified by email)
- You will receive (by email) an invoice based on the reef credits generated
- You can download the monitoring report and send to the scheme administrator
Claiming Credits
- In order to complete the process, you need to Submit a form to the Scheme administrator (‘Application for Certification and Issuance’) and attach evidence of verification, the ‘monitoring report’ and ‘detailed results’ download for the reporting year.
What is a group?
User access and data management is handled as a group for your organisation. A group is like a shared folder, where the group admin manages who has access to the group and all those with access to the group can see and edit all the collections and projects within the group.
Group administrator privileges
Group administrators can invite users to the group and remove users from the group. Group administrators cannot remove themselves. When you invite members to your group you can invite them as administrators (so they can also add and remove users).
User access permissions
There are two levels of user access;
- Group admin– full access to the tool and can invite and remove users
- Group user – full access to the tool but cannot invite or remove users
Group members
There is no limit on the number of users in a group.
Projects per group
There is no limit on the number of projects in a group.
What is a project?
A project is covers a single farming enterprise and captures project information and the agricultural practices during the baseline period and for all reporting periods.
Each year of a project has three parts:
- Project blocks on a map which shows the physical location of the project (these are identical across all years of the project)
- An agricultural practice survey for each project block which describes the management practice for that block for that year
- Supporting information (attachments) that demonstrate the agricultural practice
There is no limit to the number of Projects that a group can have.
You cannot share projects between groups
No. Projects exist within a single group and are not shared. To have access to a project, users must be a member of your group.
Verifier access
When you submit a reporting period for verification, the verifier has read access to that project. They do not have group access and cannot access any project that they have not been requested to verify. For the project that they have been requested to verify, verifiers can download attachments and view project details such as agricultural practice survey and they can communicate with you via the project chat but they cannot edit the project.
What is a block?
A block is a land parcel within a project. A project would usually have multiple blocks to allow the representation of different agricultural practices across a farming enterprise. Ideally you blocks will be identical across all years of the project life, so when setting up a project make your blocks small enough to represent the scale of different management practices likely to be applied. This often results in blocks being at the sub-paddock scale, often called land management units by some growers.
Blocks per project
There is no limit to the number of blocks in a project.
What is the baseline period?
The baseline period covers the seven years prior to the first monitoring period. The baseline period is used to establish the pollution load from the farming enterprise before the reef credit related practice change is implemented. The baseline period operates over seven years to account for changes in practice over this period such as the application of mill mud in one or more years or variable rates of fertilisation in different years.
The modelling approach does not predict the actual pollution load in any given year. But rather it predicts what the long term annual pollutant load would be (across a long climate period) if that management practice was in place for the entire period. This long term annual average pollutant load is determined for each of the baseline year agricultural practice ‘scenarios’. The average pollutant load of these seven baseline year scenarios is used as the baseline load from which potential reef credits are determining in subsequent reporting periods.
How does project verification work?
To ensure the rigor of the Reef Credits scheme, the scheme administrator requires that an approved third party verifier reviews each reporting period monitoring report for which reef credits are to be determined.
The project proponent must choose a Verifier accredited either by:
- The Clean Energy Regulator as a Category 2 (Team Leader) Greenhouse and Energy Auditor; or
- An organisation accredited by the Joint Accreditation System of Australia and New Zealand Environment Scheme.
The scheme administrator maintains a list of approved reef credit scheme verifiers.
Before the project verification process commences, the project proponent must get approval from the scheme administrator for the nominated project verifier and subject matter experts within that organisation that will verify the project. This approval process is initiated by submitting a ‘Verifier Nomination Form‘ to the scheme administrator.
The selection and payment of a project verifier is the responsibility of the project proponent.
What is leakage?
The concept of leakage is to ensure that pollution reductions on one part of a farming enterprise (project area) are not compromised by increased pollution from other parts of the farming enterprise (potential leakage areas).
The entire farming enterprise is considered as part of a project. Those areas where reef credits are to be assessed are ‘project’ blocks, other parts of the farming enterprise are ‘leakage’ blocks. In the assessment of Reef Credits if there is an increase in pollution from the leakage blocks, no reef credits will be permissible for that monitoring period.
What are delivery ratios?
The DIN Methodology V1.1 requires the scaling of pollutant load from the paddock to account for losses between the project location and the Great Barrier Reef Lagoon. This application of ‘delivery ratios’ is conducted automatically in the P2R Projector computation process and no further delivery ratio computation is required for projects completed within Natural Capital-Credit.
Background information on delivery ratios on the P2R Projector website.
The modelling simulations that are used in P2R Projector generate sediment and nitrogen yield at the paddock edge. Before these modelling simulations are added to the P2R simulation lookup tables, a scaling factor is applied to account for losses and transformation between the paddock and stream network.
P2R Projector reports load reduction at the end of the catchment. To achieve the end of system estimate, load delivered to the stream is scaled by a delivery ratio to account for losses and transformation in the river network. This regional delivery ratio is reported in the detailed results file.
What is a monitoring report?
According to the DIN method V1.1.
“A monitoring report must be submitted as a requirement for each monitoring period. The project proponent must monitor the project for compliance with the project land management plan and document land management activities and any unplanned disturbances to project area.
The monitoring report must include documentary evidence of nitrogen application events during the monitoring period, this must include but is not limited to:
- Evidence of equipment calibration
- Records of date and rate of nitrogen application for the project area
- Records of fertilizer receipts and/or farm management diaries
- Soil testing results
- Rainfall records.”
What is a Land Management Plan?
According to the DIN Methodology V1.1.
“A Land Management Plan for the property must be prepared outlining soil, nutrient and irrigation management strategies. The Land Management Plan must include:
- Maps of project area at project commencement;
- Description of Baseline soil, nutrient and irrigation management activities including nitrogen application rates and fertiliser types in accordance with the relevant Paddock to Reef Program Water Quality Risk Framework;
- Maps of project area and reef credit accounting zones (blocks) for each monitoring period;
- Description of soil, nutrient and irrigation management activities in each monitoring period including N application rates and fertiliser types
- Proposed soil and nutrient management activities for the remainder of the crediting period.
- In the event of land use change to a zero nitrogen application, details of analysis that change will not have a negative impact on water quality.
A Nutrient Management Plan can form the basis of the Land Management Plan providing the above criteria are addressed. The Land Management Plan must be kept up to date for the duration of the crediting period and be submitted at the end of each monitoring period with the application for Reef Credits.
What will happen to my project if I don’t submit it for verification?
Draft projects are deleted if no monitoring report has been submitted within 18 months of the initial creation of the project. A draft project is one where the project has been created but no monitoring report has been submitted for verification.
How does computation version locking work?
Natural Capital Credit uses the P2R Projector computational services to calculate the water quality improvement savings from practice change for determining potential Reef Credits. The P2R Projector computational version to be used for the life of the project is set on the creation of the first block of the first year of the baseline for a project. Users cannot change the computational version for a project.
Drawing the block in Natural Capital Credit
If the first block is drawn on the map in Natural Capital Credit, the version applied for the entire project life will be the P2R Projector version being used on that date.
Import a collection from P2R Projector
If the first block is created by importing a P2R Projector collection for the first year of the baseline period. The version used in P2R Projector to last save the collection will be the version set for the entire life of the project.
When will my project be locked for editing?
The baseline management practices and monitoring period practices are editable until the first monitoring period has been submitted and verified.
Once the first monitoring report (first monitoring period) of a project is submitted and verified, the baseline practices are locked for editing and cannot be changed for the life of the project. The practices for the monitoring period are also locked for future editing once the verification process for that period has been completed.
The exception to this case is if the project area increases. In which case, additional blocks may be added to the baseline (and practice surveys recorded) – subject to approval from the scheme administrator. This enlarged project baseline area will be used for subsequent monitoring report periods.
If the project area decreases, a new project will need to be created to reflect the changed project area. A new project can be created by copying and existing project and editing the project areas.
Terminology and definitions
A full list of the Reef Credit Scheme terminology and supporting documentation and methods is available on the market administrator site
Below is a subset of terminology commonly used in Natural Capital Credit:
- Baseline Scenario – the conditions that would have been expected to exist in the absence of a Project and against which any future ecological benefits or impacts can be measured.
- Block – the base spatial unit for data capture and reporting (called a Reef Credit Accounting Zone in DIN methodology v1.1).
- Enterprise area – the total area of the farming enterprise operated by the participant (may include both project areas and potential leakage areas).
- Group – organisation level access and project storage.
- Leakage – the displacement of activities that harm water quality from one location to another.
- Methodology – a specific set of criteria and procedures that follow scientific good practice that apply to specific Project activities to identify the Project Area and duration, determine the Baseline Scenario, demonstrate additionality, quantify Net Pollutant Reductions and/or removals, and specify the monitoring procedures.
- Monitoring report – is the annual report of practice change for a project that is submitted for verification.
- Participant – a landholder that is participating in the Reef Credit Project by developing and implementing a Reef Credit Project Plan.
- Person – an individual, a corporation, a trust, a firm, or a government body or agency.
- Project area – the area over which Project activities are being implemented.
- Project owner – the nominated member of the Natural Capital Credit group who receives communication from the App about the project.
- Project proponent – the Person that has overall control and responsibility to carry out the Project and to whom Reef Credits may be issued.
- Potential leakage area – the area of the farming enterprise that is not the project area.
- Reef Credit Project Plan – documented proposal for implementing Project activities for the duration of the Project Period.
- Verifier – an accredited and independent person or organisation approved by the Reef Credit Secretariat within the requirements of the Reef Credit Standard.
- Verification – the independent assessment by a Verifier of the Pollutant reductions and/ removals for a specific Monitoring Period.
Natural Capital Credit specifically implements the DIN method V1.1. Definitions relating to this method are:
- Baseline period – the 7 years immediately prior to project start date.
- Land Management Plan – a plan outlining agricultural practice (details are in the DIN Method V1.1).
- Monitoring period – as defined in the Reef Credit Standard but must be equal to 12 months for this methodology.
- Reef Credit Accounting Zones (RCAZ) – These are sub-areas of the project area stratified by crop, soil type, climate zone and land management. In Natural Capital Credit this is a ‘block’.