Water
Natural resilience
Understand seasonal flooding, wetland storage and landscape hydrology in regulating water and supporting downstream resilience.
Case Study / Natural Capital / Wetlands / Digital MRV
Making Natural Capital Measurable
Lake Cerknica, Slovenia
Connecting water, carbon and biodiversity intelligence in one of Europe’s most distinctive wetland landscapes.
Location
Notranjska Regional Park, Slovenia
Landscape
Intermittent lake, wetlands, grasslands and forests
Project focus
Conservation and ecosystem restoration
Environmental services
Water, carbon and biodiversity
Notranjska Regional Park / Environmental intelligence
Understand the landscape.
Connect the ecosystem services.
Measure environmental outcomes.
Lake Cerknica, within Slovenia’s Notranjska Regional Park, is an extraordinary intermittent lake whose seasonal flooding sustains wetlands, forests, grasslands and internationally important biodiversity.
Working alongside the project partners, Aquascope provides integrated environmental intelligence to help assess ecosystem services, understand restoration opportunities and support the monitoring and reporting of natural capital outcomes.
Integrating water, carbon and biodiversity intelligence to support wetland conservation, restoration planning and credible environmental reporting.
01 / The challenge
Nature delivers multiple benefits. Measuring them together is the challenge.
Healthy wetlands and forests provide interconnected benefits, from storing and regulating water to supporting carbon-rich ecosystems and biodiversity.
Yet many natural capital projects assess these benefits independently, making it difficult to understand their combined value or demonstrate how restoration and conservation activities influence the wider landscape.
For project developers and investors, the practical challenge is to assess environmental benefits consistently, monitor them over time and communicate them through credible, transparent evidence.
At Lake Cerknica, seasonal changes in water extent and wetland conditions make integrated environmental assessment particularly important.
Natural capital investment needs more than individual environmental indicators. It needs a connected understanding of how ecosystems function.
02 / The landscape
A landscape where water shapes nature.
Seasonal flooding connects Lake Cerknica’s wetlands, grasslands and forests. These habitats contribute to natural water retention, carbon storage and biodiversity conservation, alongside traditional rural activities and local communities.
Carbon
Climate benefits
Assess carbon stocks and the potential effects of wetland conservation, rewetting and improved forest management on long-term carbon outcomes.
Biodiversity
Ecosystem health
Understand habitats and landscape conditions supporting biodiversity, and how conservation and restoration can contribute to ecosystem resilience.
03 / The Aquascope solution
One integrated view of natural capital performance.
Aquascope brings environmental data, spatial analysis and process-based modelling together to support the assessment and monitoring of natural capital assets. At Notranjska, this provides a framework for understanding the baseline, evaluating restoration opportunities and tracking landscape change.
01 / BASELINE
Understand existing natural capital
Map land cover, ecosystem characteristics and environmental conditions to establish a consistent reference for project assessment. Connect water-related ecosystem services with carbon stocks and habitat conditions.
Establish the environmental evidence needed for project development, investment assessment and long-term monitoring.
02 / SCENARIO
Explore restoration opportunities
Assess how land-management and restoration interventions could influence environmental conditions. Explore the potential effects of wetland restoration, rewetting, conservation and forest management.
Support project design, intervention prioritisation and more informed allocation of restoration resources.
03 / MONITOR
Track environmental change
Integrate environmental observations and modelled indicators to follow changes in landscape conditions over time. Build an evidence base for adaptive management, environmental reporting and future independent assessment.
Support transparent environmental performance reporting and ongoing project oversight.
The project’s modelling foundation
- Carbon baseline assessment for wetlands, grasslands and forests
- Integration of INCA carbon models in karst regions
- Connecting dissolved organic carbon fluxes with stored carbon assessments
An integrated monitoring foundation
The existing project established baseline carbon, water and biodiversity calculations, inputs for project development documentation and a digital monitoring platform for longer-term wetland project assessment. Modelled indicators and measured observations remain distinct.
04 / Water connects the landscape
Understanding water is fundamental to understanding natural capital.
Water’s seasonal movement influences wetland conditions, vegetation, soil processes, carbon dynamics and habitats. Aquascope’s hydrology-led approach connects these processes with wider environmental indicators to explore how landscape management may influence multiple ecosystem services.
Landscape hydrology
Seasonal water movement and landscape connections.
Wetland and soil conditions
Water availability, wetland extent and soil processes.
Carbon and biodiversity responses
Connections to carbon dynamics and habitat conditions.
Integrated environmental intelligence
Connected evidence for natural capital decisions.
By connecting environmental processes rather than treating them in isolation, Aquascope supports more informed natural capital decisions.
05 / From environmental assessment to digital MRV
Building confidence through measurable environmental outcomes.
Natural capital projects require a transparent evidence base to communicate environmental performance and support independent assessment. Aquascope helps project teams organise, analyse and report information across multiple ecosystem services.
01
Measure
Establish environmental baselines and integrate relevant satellite, spatial, modelled and field observations.
02
Report
Present environmental indicators and changes through structured dashboards and reporting outputs.
03
Support independent verification
Provide traceable environmental evidence for qualified third parties to assess against applicable methodologies and project requirements.
Aquascope supports measurement and reporting. Independent verification and certification remain the responsibility of appropriately qualified third parties. Environmental monitoring does not automatically produce tradeable credits.
Structured evidence for project reporting
Reporting outputs connect environmental assessment with the information project teams need for oversight and independent review.
06 / Commercial value delivered
Turning environmental complexity into actionable intelligence.
Integrated ecosystem assessment
Bring water, carbon and biodiversity information together to support a more complete understanding of natural capital assets.
Investment and restoration planning
Use environmental baselines and scenario analysis to support project design and prioritise potential interventions.
Transparent monitoring
Establish a consistent framework for tracking environmental indicators and understanding changes over time.
Scalable digital infrastructure
Extend consistent environmental assessment and monitoring approaches across additional landscapes and restoration projects.
07 / Investors and asset managers
Environmental intelligence for more credible nature investment.
Natural capital investors and project developers need clear evidence of environmental conditions, project additionality, risks and measurable outcomes. Integrated intelligence can support projects that are easier to assess, manage and report on.
Natural Capital Investment
Assess the environmental characteristics of prospective projects and understand their potential ecosystem-service benefits.
Restoration Project Development
Establish baselines, compare intervention options and support the design of monitoring programmes.
Corporate Nature Strategies
Support the measurement and communication of nature-related activities across landscapes and supply chains.
Environmental Reporting
Generate structured evidence that can contribute to reporting and disclosure, including TNFD-aligned nature assessments and other relevant frameworks.
08 / Project collaboration
Combining conservation expertise with environmental intelligence.
Notranjska Regional Park
Landscape stewardship, conservation priorities and local ecological expertise.
CarbonClear
Natural capital project development and coordination.
Aquascope
Integrated environmental intelligence, modelling, geospatial assessment and digital monitoring infrastructure.
09 / Wider applications
A scalable approach for wetlands and natural capital portfolios.
The Notranjska project illustrates how integrated environmental intelligence can support nature-based projects addressing multiple ecosystem services.
The same approach can be applied across wetland restoration, peatland rewetting, forest conservation and other landscape-scale natural capital programmes.
By combining environmental baselines, scenario assessment and monitoring in one digital environment, organisations can develop a more consistent understanding of their assets and the outcomes they aim to deliver.
From individual restoration projects to entire natural capital portfolios, Aquascope helps make environmental performance more visible, understandable and actionable.
Environmental intelligence / Natural capital
Make your natural capital measurable.
Aquascope helps natural capital investors, project developers and land managers understand environmental conditions, evaluate restoration opportunities and monitor ecosystem services.
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