We’re excited to introduce PlotShare, a new feature that lets Orbify Platform users streamline project area creation by sharing responsibility directly with plot owners or managers.

PlotShare reduces the back-and-forth communication and potential errors in capturing plot boundaries, making the process easier and faster for all parties involved.

With PlotShare, platform users can create a unique link that allows plot owners to open the project area creator, where they can easily upload a shape definition file or draw the project area on a map. Once the plot is defined, users can:

• Review the area and approve it to generate reports

• Edit the shape if adjustments are needed

• Request Corrections from the plot owner if issues arise

We are also introducing CSV support to make the experience even more accessible, especially for users unfamiliar with GIS technology. Plot owners can now create shapes directly from CSV files, eliminating the need for complex spatial data files.

Additionally, editing is straightforward with a visual map editor and an easy-to-use geographic coordinates editor to refine shape vertices.

Project area creator redesign

Together with PlotShare, we’ve rolled out a complete redesign of the project creator, making project area creation smoother, faster, and more intuitive. With a fresh, modern interface and a suite of new tools, users can now define project areas with precision and ease.

This update brings powerful drawing tools that support the creation of complex shapes, along with intuitive shape and vertex editors for easy adjustments. You can instantly measure defined areas to support compliance, planning, and other project needs, all while keeping track of account limits in real-time for uninterrupted project creation.

Improvements & fixes

• Return calculated areas (hectares) when performing Historic assessment for ARR

• Fix problems when generating the annual precipitation chart

• Improve parsing of complex GeoJSON files

• Redesign the Biodiversity Hotspots visualisation

• Fix performance issues when calculating fire risk for small AOI

• Increase coverage for the Common Practice ARR component

• Prevent report creation for unsupported date ranges (pre-2000)

• Improve performance of chart values calculation

We've introduced Reports Archive, designed to streamline report management and enhance user experience. With this feature, users can archive reports they wish to retain without occupying their active report quota - meaning there's no need to delete valuable data to stay within usage limits.

Key features of the Archive:

• Archiving instead of Deletion - users can archive reports, keeping them inactive yet accessible for later restoration whenever needed

• Preview for Archived Reports - while archived, reports are still listed in the archive with key results available for preview

• API Access - the Archive is fully accessible and manageable via the API, allowing for easy integration into existing workflows

This feature gives users greater flexibility and control over report management and Orbify Platform usage costs.

Improvements and bug fixes

• Historic assessment of forested areas for ARR reporting has been updated with area calculation for specific categories (e.g. Forested, Unforested)

• Fixed problem that prevented maptiles configured with long TTL from rendering

• Improved support for areas with reduced data coverage in Common practice and Land use categories components

• Forest loss by dominant driver has been updated (with coverage up to 2023)

• Resolved an issue that could prevent Biodiversity Hotspots layer from returning correct results

• SoilGrid SOC layer component was updated to report tonnes per hectare values

We have introduced a dedicated API designed to perform quick compliance checks for EUDR reports generated within Orbify platform. This streamlined API offers a fast and efficient way to verify plot complianace as an initial step before a complete report is fetched and analyzed.

The documentation of the endpoint is available in our API docs here.

Improvements

• Forest loss by dominant driver dataset was updated to cover the temporal range up to 2023

• A new type of custom component output was introduced - computed_markdown - allowing to create custom, automatically generated text components, based on the well-known Markdown syntax

Bug fixes and improvements

• Fixed a problem with report's creation date not appearing for some of the older reports

• Improved performance and reliability of fire risk related components

• Introduced guards to prevent accidental split of large geometries into separate reports

• Introduced a dedicated caching mechanism to improve performance of the exportable report table columns

• Fixed a problem with Not found error returned for some published reports

• Fixed EUDR component to improve the accuracy of compliance understanding by correcting result interpretation issues.

• Resolved handling of large areas in tree cover loss layer component (_tree_cover_loss_by_dominant_driver_layer_develop) to improve scalability for larger AOIs.

• Addressed deforestation visibility issue in the EUDR template where detected deforestation was not being displayed on the map.

• Fixed calculation issues with EVI/NDVI metrics to ensure accurate vegetation index reporting.

• Resolved Performance Benchmark Block malfunction in the ARR Additionality Tab, for improving workflow.

• Improved handling of large areas in forest 2020 statistics component (component_known_issues_forest2020_stat) for better performance and accuracy in large datasets.

• Clarified Non-Permanence Risk Percentage interpretation in ARR Additionality Tab for clearer risk assessments.

• Fixed Moisture Chart to display correct values, improving data clarity and visualization.

• Added no-data handling to a specific component (component_glad_tree_growth_chart_main).

• Fixed annual NDVI/EVI calculation failures, ensuring uninterrupted calculation processes for the vegetattion index annual data.

• Resolved pydantic issue in Terrain component, allowing smoother functionality without data validation errors.

• Fixed the defrestation degradation statistic component: when no data is provided, avoiding unnecessary failures in data vizualization (perimeter_boundary_deforestation_degradation_stat error) .

• Adjusted Min/Max values in the surface temperature chart component (average_surface_temperature_stat) for more accurate temperature representation.

• Fixed negative value display in AGB loss by year component (component_agb_loss_by_year_chart) for more accurate data presentation.

• Fixed pixel overload issue in tree_cover_loss_by_dominant_driver_layer and Forest Map Quality Screening Tool, ensuring proper visualization.

Improvements

• Enhanced visibility of degraded tropical moist forest by introducing a distinct color scheme for easier identification.

• Improved chart clarity by renaming the Oil Palm Plantations chart to provide more accurate context.

• Restored missing thumbnails to improve component previews and enhance the overall user experience.

We’ve expanded our platform’s capabilities by adding support for point coordinates when creating project geometries. This enhancement brings more flexibility and precision to the user interface, allowing users to upload and process Point geometries directly.

Key features include:

• Point Geometry Processing - users can now upload files with point data, which the platform processes for creating project geometries,

• Circle Drawing Around Points - users can easily draw circular areas around specific point locations, offering a new level of spatial precision for defining project areas,

• Location Search on Map - In addition to drawing geometries, we’ve introduced a location search feature, enabling users to quickly find specific locations on the map to streamline the project setup process.

The point based geometries are already supported by the project creation API.

Improvements

• We have extended the API response for Country Benchmarking System Risk to now include the total_deforestation_percentage property

Fixes

• Improve perimeter boundary deforestation and degradation component handling of cases with no available data

• Fix Mangrove median canopy height calculation for complex scenarios

• Correct Soil Texture Chart component's category handling

• Fix elevation calculation in Terrain component for very small project areas

We have updated our Protected Areas database with Natura 2000 sites, exposing the Natura 2000 sites as an additional, separate layer component.

Natura 2000 is an ecological network of protected areas, set up to ensure the survival of Europe's most valuable species and habitats. Natura 2000 is based on the 1979 Birds Directive and the 1992 Habitats Directive. Natura 2000 is the key instrument to protect biodiversity in the European Union. The European database of Natura 2000 sites consists of a compilation of the data submitted by the Member States of the European Union and is generally updated once a year.

Bug fixes and improvements

• Fix chart title for Oil Palm Plantations

• Update colour scheme for degraded tropical moist forest

• EUDR - Fix when deforestation is detected but not visible on the map

We've introduced Report summary component that displays key information from your reports in one concise section, making it easier to review critical data at a glance. This feature streamlines report analysis, allowing you to gather essential insights before diving into detailed content.

We have exposed the platform usage metrics view for users, allowing to easily monitor the Orbify Platform quota usage.

The metrics monitoring view allows to visualise specific account quota thresholds as well as historical usage.

Improvements and bug fixes

• Improved PDF report branding

• Fix new ARR project chart labeling

• Non Permanence risk component performance improvements

Improvements

• Improved commodity plot identification: We've refined the labeling of commodity plots, improving the identification of areas containing resources like timber. This enhancement boosts the accuracy of compliance risk assessments.

• Improved labeling of commodity plots: We've improved the descriptions related to the presence (or absence) of commodity resources within plots, providing users with clearer information.

• Non-Permanence risk component performance: The Non-permanence risk component now retrieves results faster, enhancing user experience with quicker results access.

Bug fixes

• Drought Risk Calculation: We resolved an issue affecting drought risk calculations in specific edge cases when using a particular image band.

Bug fixes

• Performance improvements for workspaces with large number of reports

• Minor fixes for printable map content

• Fix issue with automated content ordering for printable (PDF) project reports

• Fix problem with components sometimes not showing up properly on newly created reports

We are happy to announce the release of the new ARR (Afforestation, Reforestation, and Revegetation) templates. These updated templates help users evaluate Carbon projects for compliance with Verra’s latest methodology (VM0047).

Key Changes

There are two templates to guide project developers through the VM0047 methodology:

1. New Projects Template: For projects under 5 years old. It focuses on:

• Suitability and eligibility of the project plot for an ARR project.

• An estimate of the expected additionality of the project.

• Project risks.

1. Existing Projects Template: For projects over 5 years old. It focuses on:

• Site conditions.

• An estimate of the additionality of an ongoing project.

• Climate risks.

We've just rolled out a fantastic new feature: Report Sections! 📊 🤩

Here's what you can do with Report Sections:

• Organise Better: you can use the section tabs to organise the report content by breaking down the reports into more manageable parts 🔄

• Improved Navigation: segmenting the reports into different sections improves readability and introuces a clear, logical structure 📚

• Updated Templates: we're also updating all the existing report templates to make most of this new feature 🚀 This means you'll see the benefits right away, with a more organised look to your reports

• Fix a problem with removing report components

• Improve component search

We’ve introduced a new - asynchronous - approach to handling data exports. In order to streamline the process and avoid potential browser timeouts when the data is preparing, the mechanism will instantenously schedule export data generation and will send an email notification, sharing a dedicated link to download all the already prepared data.

Minor bug fixes

• Fix active report counter

• Fix problems with reassigning trial to active paid subscription

• Fix problems with median canopy height calculation

Orbify’s new template, designed to assess climate hazard risks, empowering organisations to proactively plan and respond to environmental threats with accuracy and efficiency. Here’s what the template´s features::

• Flood Risk Analysis - Understand and mitigate flood risks with insights from weather data, historical events, and precipitation patterns.

• Drought Risk Assessment - Proactively manage drought impacts by evaluating soil moisture, vegetation health, and precipitation deficits using advanced indicators.

• Fire Risk Assessment - Stay prepared for fire threats by analyzing weather conditions, historical fire data, and extreme heat events wildfires management.

• Natural Non-permanence risk - Combine all risk factors to identify high-risk areas, enabling robust planning and informed decision-making for resilient projects.

Bug fixes

• Use rounded values in median canopy height calculation

• Fix drought risk calculation issues

• Change labeling in EUDR Autocompliance tool ("non compliant" changed to "likely non compliant")

Country Benchmarking System Risk

The EU Commission is developing Guidelines that will provide precise definitions and aspects allowing for proper country level benchmarking. Currently, there’s no official categorisation available yet.

Until this is officially available, we have come up with a safe approach of estimating the country level risk based on the historical (2001-2023) rates of deforestation within a country. Known planted forests and timber extraction sites were excluded from the deforestation rate calculation.

Currently the risks are classified as:

• Low - below 1% of deforestation

• Standard - below 5% of deforestation

• High - 5% (or more) of deforestation

Bug fixes

• Fix problem with building the biodiversity hotspots layer for some locations

• Fix issue with uploading specific SHP file setup

• Improve the VCI (Vegetation Condition Index) map layer calculation performance

• Improve distinction of specific protected areas in the map layers

• Improve rendering of legends in the pie charts

• Update protected areas with Italian (Regione Lombardia) protected areas

Bug fixes

• When there's no colour defined in Protected Area's properties its black

• Update protected areas with Italian (Regione Lombardia) protected areas

• Legend for SBTN Natural Lands colours are hard to distinguish