Reference-state Targets

Reference-state targets are the objective target ranges for ecological indicators (canopy cover, biomass, EVI, structural diversity, soil organic carbon, infiltration capacity) that the relevant scientific literature says are achievable in a given ecoregion under good management.

They are the benchmarks against which a field’s actual scores are measured.

Why they matter. A “7 Healthy” Land Health Score in one ecoregion can correspond to a different absolute biomass figure than in another, because the achievable reference state differs. A grazed grassland in the brittle Mediterranean fringe and a grazed grassland in temperate Devon will never produce the same biomass, and it would be wrong to score them against the same benchmark.

EcoIntel’s reference-state targets are:

• Drawn from the relevant ecological literature for each of the thirteen European zones currently supported.
• Updated as new data arrives: the calibration improves with every season.
• Specific to land-cover class within an ecoregion: a wooded parcel and a grassland parcel in the same ecoregion have different targets.
• Tagged with their source so the analyst can trace any score back to the literature.

They provide the answer to “Is this score good?”, a question that depends entirely on what is possible here, not on what is possible elsewhere. Without reference-state targets, ecological scoring is just abstract numbers. With them, it is a verdict against a specific, defensible standard.

A new feature is in development: ecoregion percentile, telling you where your field sits among similar farms in the same ecological zone. Where the reference state tells you “what’s possible here”, the percentile will tell you “how am I doing among similar farms in my zone”.