What is Habitat Intactness?
Habitat Intactness is a biodiversity indicator that quantifies the degree to which a habitat has remained intact by comparing its condition between two points in time, thereby capturing changes due to anthropogenic pressures.
Habitat Intactness provides a 0–100 score that reflects the degree to which an area has been altered by four specific threats: deforestation, roads, buildings, and cropland. A score of 100 indicates a habitat that remains in its pristine condition, unaltered by human interference. A score of 0 indicates a habitat that has been completely degraded by human forces. While calculated separately from EII, an area’s Habitat Intactness score will directly correlate with its EII score.
There are five benchmark values that judge the level of Habitat Intactness (developed internally by the TLG Science team):
- Pristine >= 95
- Good >= 75
- Fair >= 50
- Poor >= 25
- Critical <25
Who is it for?
The indicator is useful for:
Conservation organizations who need to:
- Monitor the status of anthropogenic disturbances when implementing conservation actions
- Track changes in ecosystem condition over time
- Demonstrate measurable conservation outcomes to funders and stakeholders
Land stewards and project developers who want to:
- Verify the effectiveness of protection and restoration efforts (e.g. VCM actors who need to monitor deforestation)
- Identify areas of concern or degradation early (e.g., proximity of wildlife preserves to roads or buildings)
- Build credibility with transparent, science-based quantification
Investors and buyers who want to:
- Assess baseline habitat quality before investing
- Track performance of nature investments over time
- Access granular data on ecosystem condition across portfolios
Municipalities who want to:
- Monitor habitat condition in urban and peri-urban areas (e.g. where to permit new roads and developments)
- Assess environmental impacts of development and infrastructure projects
- Support biodiversity planning and green infrastructure strategies
Construction and built environment companies who want to:
- Assess baseline conditions before project development
- Monitor habitat impacts during and after construction
- Demonstrate environmental stewardship and compliance with biodiversity commitments (e.g. BNG in the UK)
Mining companies who want to:
- Establish baseline habitat conditions before operations
- Monitor disturbance and rehabilitation effectiveness
- Track biodiversity outcomes for renaturation planning and reporting
How it works
Habitat Intactness uses earth observation to detect disturbances and assess the condition of natural habitats:
- Baseline assessment
- Establish the current state of habitat intactness across your area
- Identify intact areas and areas showing signs of disturbance
- Ongoing monitoring
- Track changes in habitat condition over time
- In future: Detect new disturbances or improvements from restoration (currently limited by public data)
- Visualization and reporting
- Explore habitat intactness through two different maps — a simple map overlay and an interactive map with more granular cell-level measurements — with threat-based filters to identify the spatial distribution of impacts.
- Access time-series graphs showing evolution of habitat condition year-over-year
- View tabular data of the total hectares impacted annually by specific threats, as well as 5-year trends to examine which threats are increasing or decreasing
- In future: Download data for reports and stakeholder communication
What you'll see in Landler
Plot-level Land Monitoring
Access annual time-series data showing how habitat intactness has changed for individual plots (or plot-level projects in the case of Conservation). Navigate to the Plots tab and select a specific area of land to see:
- 2 maps (one static map overlay, one interactive at cell level) with four threat filter toggles to show deforestation, buildings, roads, and crops
- 3 dashboard cards with graphs, tables, and descriptions of the Habitat Intactness levels, degradation drivers, and land sizes impacted by these specific threats (annual data and 5-year trends)
Group-level Land Monitoring
Group-level summary data will appear in the Groups page when a specific group has been selected.
Portfolio-level Land Monitoring
Portfolio-level data will appear in the Biodiversity Measurements page in the form of three dashboard cards with graphs and tables of the Habitat Intactness levels, degradation drivers, and land sizes impacted by these specific threats (annual data and 5-year trends).
How Habitat Intactness relates to other indicators
Habitat Intactness is one of several biodiversity indicators available in Landler. When should each one be used?
Compared to EII:
- Habitat Intactness is similar conceptually to the structural composition that is used to calculate EII, but these indicators use different data and are calculated independently. Habitat Intactness is therefore a separate indicator from EII, it is not used to calculate EII.
- Annual historical data is available for Habitat Intactness. EII data is currently only available for the present year (although going forward we intend to develop historic data sets).
Compared to Natural Habitat:
- Both indicators measure the extent of human intervention from cropland. Habitat Intactness also measures the extent of human intervention from deforestation, buildings, and roads.
- Natural Habitat only refers to the presence of natural forest habitats compared to cropland. Habitat Intactness refers to habitats across forests as well as other land types.
- Natural Habitat is more useful for investigating plot-level data. Habitat Intactness is more useful for examining landscape-scale trends and threats.
Together, these indicators provide a comprehensive view of biodiversity performance for various land types and land uses. For more information about monitoring biodiversity, visit the Biodiversity Domain page and consult the list of Biodiversity Indicators available.
Frequently asked questions
What data sources power Habitat Intactness?
Habitat Intactness uses satellite imagery to detect disturbances and assess ecosystem condition. The indicator is calculated using remote sensing data that identifies signs of human impact and habitat degradation.
How often is Habitat Intactness updated?
Habitat Intactness is calculated annually as part of clients’ regular monitoring cycles.
Can I see Habitat Intactness for agricultural plots?
Habitat Intactness is be useful for assessing trends across landscapes with mixed land types, which may include agricultural plots. However, it is not useful at a plot level, as it will tell the user what they already know: that the plot is being used for agriculture. At a plot level, other biodiversity indicators such as Natural Habitat, Vegetation Condition, and Deforestation are more appropriate.
How does Habitat Intactness differ from Natural Habitat?
Natural Habitat measures the percentage of area covered by natural ecosystems (what is there), while Habitat Intactness measures the quality and condition of those ecosystems (how intact they are). Both provide complementary insights into biodiversity performance.
