Storymap: The natural capital of the Trent Valley

What is natural capital?

Natural capital refers to the resources provided by our natural environment. This includes water, soil, geology and all living things.

Ecosystem services refers to the benefits these resources give us. This includes the food we eat, water we drink, building materials and medicines.

We refer to our natural capital as ‘stocks’ and the ecosystem services as ‘flows’

What is the purpose of this storymap?

To find opportunities to restore nature, we need to understand what we have and where. We have mapped the habitats and land cover – our ‘natural capital’ – within the Transforming the Trent Valley study area. Here, you can explore the area’s habitats (the natural capital ‘stock’), the benefits we get from them (the ‘flows’ or ecosystem services) and the economic benefits they give us (their ‘value’), for example, in terms of avoided health care or water treatment costs.

How to use the storymap

You can view the storymap on a larger screen to open it in a new tab making it easier to explore.

There is a tab for each of ‘Stock’, ‘Flows’ and ‘Value’. Click on each one to explore the natural capital, ecosystem services and economic benefits in the Trent Valley.

There are further tabs for ‘Projects’ and ‘Opportunities’. Projects provides information about the different projects we are delivering as part of the Transforming the Trent Valley landscape scheme. Opportunities highlights areas where we have identified opportunities for future projects that we hope to explore.