Giving ecologists
roots in GIS and wings
to advocate for nature
On-demand QGIS training, purpose-built BNG tools, and a community of ecologists who get it.
And all designed for ecologists, by ecologists.
Upskill in QGIS
Go deep with practical training courses
Solve issues fast with quick reference videos & SOS email support
Join Q & A Sessions to get hands-on support
Pro tools
Python tools to automate geometry & digitising fixes
Use full UKhab classification on Qfield/Mergin
Integrate BNG design revisions with ease
Sound familiar?
One day setting reptile refugia, up half the night on a bat survey, the day after trying to remember how to split a polygon!
We get it, because we’re ecologists too.
There’s a lot more to your work than GIS. But GIS is now a big, unavoidable part of it.
BNG is mandatory, planning timescales are tighter than ever, and clients expect accurate, defensible spatial data every time.
The trouble is, most GIS training wasn’t built for how ecology actually works.
Generic courses, generic examples, nothing that reflects the reality of a busy ecology practice; the seasonal pressures, the CAD files landing in your inbox from landscape architects, the hours lost to geometry errors and manual UKHab-to-Metric faff.
That’s why Spatialsesh exists.
We’ve spent over two decades helping ecologists tackle their biggest mapping challenges; and we’ve built the training, tools and community to make your working life a whole lot easier.
Power up your mapping with our Pro tools. Dive in for quick video reminders, hints and tips. Or linger longer and upskill with a full course. Whatever you need, you’re in the right place.
You don’t have to figure it all out on your own
Ever spent an afternoon trawling YouTube for an answer to a QGIS problem you know should take five minutes? Or waited until the one person in the office who knows how to fix a geometry error comes back from annual leave?
Community membership fixes that, for you and your whole team.
What’s included in Community membership
1 Access to all current and future Spatialsesh courses
Work through them all or dip in as and when you need them.
2 The quick reference video library
Short, single-issue videos built around real problems, not generic tutorials. New content every month, and you get to vote on what gets recorded next.
3 Mappy Mondays
A monthly live Q&A on Zoom where you can ask me anything. Bring your actual mapping headaches and we’ll work through them together. Friendly, informal and genuinely useful. New starters and senior ecologists both get a lot out of it.
Members forum to share, discuss and troubleshoot with other UK ecologists working through the same challenges.
Community membership is only £300/year for individuals. £600/year for a small team. Less than the cost of a single training day, with 12 months of support included.
Want to go further?
Pro membership adds the complete QGIS toolkit purpose-built tools that cover the full ecological project lifecycle, from desk study through to BNG submission. More on that below.
For practice owners and team leads
Community membership gives your whole team:
Year round access to structured QGIS developement
No overhead of sourcing individual trainers or booking each time someone new joins
On demand access to quick reference videos to solve problems quickly
STAGE 2 —FIELD SURVEY
Species Survey Templates
Ready-to-use QGIS templates for a range of protected species surveys bats, birds, reptiles, badgers and habitat mapping.
Pre-loaded data layers, styled outputs and report-ready formats. Built around how surveys actually work in the field.
Cold fingers, short days, long site walks. At least your data collection can be painless.
Seamless digital recording on site. Fully compatible with QField and Mergin Maps for
Deploy the same template across your whole team. Everyone’s data comes back in the same format. Every time.
Power up your mapping with Spatialsesh Pro
We’ve developed three purpose-built QGIS tools that cover the complete ecological project lifecycle — from desk study right through to BNG submission. No expensive enterprise software. No starting from scratch on every job. No afternoons lost to invalid polygons.
One toolkit. The full project lifecycle. Consistent, defensible outputs every time.
STAGE 3 — BNG ASSESSMENT
Spatialsesh BNG
This is the big one. A complete, end-to-end QGIS project for BNG assessments, built around how BNG actually works in practice, not how software providers pretend it works.
Full UKHab classification. Automatic conversion to Metric habitats; no manual translation, no cross-referencing.
Condition assessment forms. Natural England guidance, embedded directly in the interface, so you can reference criteria in the field while you’re completing them.
Automated digitising fixes. Custom Python tools that clean geometry, remove overlaps, fill gaps and prepare export-ready outputs in a single run.
Design revision just landed from the landscape architect? Create a new proposed layer, run the analysis, compare results. No duplicating entire projects. No untangling linked geometries. No lost afternoon.
What used to take hours takes minutes. Data captured once, correctly, and immediately ready for the metric.
For practice owners and team leads
Pro doesn’t just save time on individual projects.
It gives your whole team a consistent, standardised set of workflows.
It reducing reliance on individual staff members, improves data quality and protects your professional reputation.
Every Pro subscription includes a one-to-one onboarding session with Matt to get your team set up and working confidently from day one.
STAGE 1 — DESK STUDY
Protected Areas Tool
Every desk study needs distances and bearings to designated sites. It’s a standard task, but doing it manually is slow, fiddly and easy to get wrong. This tool does it automatically, directly in QGIS, in seconds.
Powered by a database with over 50 datasets - everything you’d need for a thorough ecological desk study.
Data is updated every six months (Jan and July) to keep pace with the national data.
Consistent, repeatable and fully auditable, with outputs ready to drop straight into your report.
Practical QGIS Training - no generic theory
Every course is self-paced, jargon-free and built around the kinds of projects UK ecologists actually work on.
I’ve trained thousands of ecologists in QGIS — for CIEEM, the Field Studies Council and in-house at consultancies of all sizes, so the materials are tried, tested and genuinely ecology-specific. Not generic GIS training with ecology examples bolted on.
All courses include:
Instructional Videos with:
Explainer Section & On-screen Demonstration.
Downloadable Data and Materials.
Step-by-Step Exercise Instructions.
Courses Deliver CIEEM Competency Frameworks.
Certificates Issued On Completion.
Work through at your own pace.
Join monthly Q & A session if you get stuck, or
Use Emergency Email Support if you need help right away.
QGIS
Essentials
Course Level: Beginner
Time Commitment: 1 day
The foundation everything else builds on. Perfect for graduate and assistant ecologists getting to grips with GIS for the first time, or experienced ecologists finally making the switch from ArcGIS.
1. Set up a QGIS project and data management process.
2. Source and incorporate high quality, freely available data to provide background and set your data in context.
3. Create your own GIS data to represent habitats, species and other features on a map, and add colours and symbols.
4. Perform basic spatial queries, to export a species list for a site.
5. Produce professional habitat maps for reports.
QGIS for
Biodiversity Net Gain
Course Level: Intermediate
Time Commitment: 1 day
Get confident with the full BNG mapping workflow. Set up QGIS survey forms for office or field data entry, integrate BNG datasets, georeference raster survey maps, work with CAD imports from landscape architects, create pre- and post-development habitat datasets, and export to the Natural England BNG Metric using the official QGIS tools.
1. Set up a QGIS form for ease of data input in the office or field.
2. Integrate a range of datasets commonly used in BNG assessments.
3. Geo-reference a raster field survey map for use in QGIS.
4. Work with CAD data in QGIS (add, symbolise, re-position, covert to other formats).
6. Create pre and proposed development habitat datasets using advanced digitising tools.
7. Work with the NE BNG QGIS project, including exporting data to the BNG Metric using NE tools.
Qfield for Ecologists
Course Level: Intermediate
Time Commitment: 1 day
Go from paper forms and transcription errors to a fully digital field survey workflow. This course covers everything you need to configure QGIS for field use, deploy your project to QField, capture data confidently on site and synchronise it back to your desktop — ready for analysis.
Pairs naturally with the Species Survey Templates in Pro; use this course to understand how the templates are built, then adapt them for your own survey types.
1. Configuring QGIS for the field:
Setting up raster and vector layers
creating custom data entry forms
building simple and cascading dropdown lists and searchable fields capturing photographs
building species lists
2. Getting to the field:
Transferring your project to QField by cable or QField Cloud
Navigating the QField interface Digitising and editing features
Using GPS for accurate positioning
3. Getting your data back:
Synchronising QField with QGIS by cable or QField Cloud
£175 per course. Community and Pro members get access to everything as part of their membership.
Already bought a course and want more? Community membership costs less than two courses, and comes with 12 months of support.
Choose your plan
One price covers your whole team within your tier — no per-seat counting.
| Courses | Community | Pro | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ecology-specific QGIS courses | ✓ Individual purchase | ✓ All included | ✓ All included |
| Quick reference video library | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Mappy Mondays — monthly live Q&A | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Vote on new content | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Protected Areas Tool | — | — | ✓ |
| Species Survey Templates | — | — | ✓ |
| Spatialsesh BNG workflow | — | — | ✓ |
| 1:1 onboarding session with Matt | — | — | ✓ |
| Pricing | |||
| Individual / Freelancer | £175/course | £300/yr | £750/yr |
| Small practice (up to 5 users) | — | £600/yr | £1,200/yr |
| Medium practice (6–15 users) | — | £900/yr | £1,800/yr |
| Larger teams | — | Get in touch | Get in touch |
Community sits comfortably within a typical CPD budget.
Pro pays for itself within a single project.
Get Community Membership
Learn how to use QGIS for BNG in your own time, at your own pace. See above for full list of modules.
Anytime access to all current and future courses for a year. Plus quick reference video library and Mappy Mondays support Q & A sessions, and get help via SOS email.
All the benefits of community membership, plus the Pro tools, and a 1 hour onboarding session.
Learn QGIS Essentials in your own time, at your own pace. See above for full list of modules.
Book a course
Anytime access to all current and future courses for a year. Plus quick reference video library and Mappy Mondays support Q & A sessions, and get help via SOS email.
Anytime access to all current and future courses for a year. Plus quick reference video library and Mappy Mondays support Q & A sessions, and get help via SOS email.
Get Pro membership
All the benefits of community membership, plus the Pro tools, and a 1 hour onboarding session.
All the benefits of community membership, plus the Pro tools, and a 1 hour onboarding session.
What our clients are saying
“The videos are perfectly tailored to the current ecology needs for BNG, including CAD file conversion and the use of the NE QGIS to Metric import tool”.
John, Small Business Owner
“I thoroughly enjoyed the course and was able to follow the steps provided confidently. I feel empowered to use GIS now as part of my role as a Ecological Consultant”
Sarah, Ecological Consultant
“Matt Davies was a great training provider; knowledgeable, friendly and approachable when we needed ”
David, Senior Ecologist
“Being able to look back over the teaching videos in my own time is so valuable. The course was very practical which is essential for BNG”
Fiona, Freelance Ecologist
Need a bit more hands on help?
Pro includes a one-to-one onboarding session to get you started.
But if you’d like dedicated ongoing support; setting up your practice’s BNG workflow from scratch, working through a tricky dataset, or just having me on hand when things go sideways mid-project, you can book hours with me directly.
Dedicated Support
A lot of clients use this to get their workflows set up properly at the start of the year, put together some reference materials for the team, and keep a few hours in reserve for ad-hoc issues as the survey season kicks off. Support is flexible; Zoom, WhatsApp or email, whatever suits you.
Common uses:
Working through specific project challenges as they arise
Customising QGIS workflows for your practice
Data preparation for particularly complex BNG assessments
Developing a GIS roadmap and training plan for your team
Onboarding and upskilling new starters
From £1200 for 10 hours
On-Hand When You Need Us Most
The ‘we work on it with you or for you’ option.
Meet on Zoom, or get help via Email or What’s app.
Lot's of clients opt for support this way. It's a really collaborative approach that helps to:
Build capacity.
Save time.
Give peace of mind knowing support is at hand.
Meet your Tutor / Mentor / GIS Support / Consultant
✳
Meet your Tutor / Mentor / GIS Support / Consultant ✳
About
Back in the 90s, Matt studied Ecology/Geography at Sheffield University. An MSc in Natural Resource Information Systems followed. And he hasn’t really changed path since, still with one foot in Ecology and one in Geography.
After honing his skills at JNCC and GiGL, he founded and has run the Geo-spatial consultancy Maplango for 11 years.
Training
Matt has trained thousands of Ecologists to use QGIS, so the materials are tried and tested.
He’s run in-person courses all over the UK; for CIEEM, FSC, and in-house for many clients. When COVID hit, he began running courses live on Zoom.
And he now records videos so you and you team can work in your own time, at your own pace.
Support/Consultancy
Maplango are geo-spatial experts. And Ordnance Survey Partners.
Opt for Dedicated Support and you’ll be in good company.
We work with Canary Wharf Group, JNCC, The Port of Dover, and a wide range of Ecological Consultancies.
We have over 25 years GIS experience and in-depth knowledge of ecological, green infrastructure, landscape, ecosystem services and estate management projects. You are in safe hands.
Our Vision
We envision a world where ecological knowledge is genuinely respected and trusted, and where it informs the decisions that impact our planet.
We want ecologists to feel confident in creating accurate, trusted geographic data that ensures the natural world can thrive for generations to come.
Our Mission
Our mission is to equip ecologists with the confidence and skills to collect, analyse and communicate spatial environmental data.
We aim to enable and empower ecologists to influence planning decisions, inform policy and improve industry practice, so that ecological knowledge is embedded in how we shape the world.
Our Purpose
Spatialsesh exists to give ecologists both roots and wings: a strong grounding in GIS skills and the empowerment to inform decision-making on nature’s behalf.
We provide accessible, flexible training that fits around real life, enabling ecologists at all career stages to grow their capabilities, stay current and advocate for nature with clarity and confidence.
Any queries?
If you have any questions, want to discuss your requirements, or book a demo, please book a meeting, or fill out the form below.
Send us your query
Contact us
From the Spatialsesh Insights library
Practical articles and short videos for ecologists using QGIS and other map tech — published monthly. Written in plain English, without the jargon, by someone who understands the pressures of ecological practice.
Recent articles:
How can you streamline your BNG mapping workflow in QGIS and eliminate the usual friction?
How Can QGIS Improve Great Crested Newt Surveys & Pond Detection?
Modernising Reptile Survey Workflows with QGIS, Mergin / Qfield and LiDAR
Driving Consultancy Success: Mapping Workflows for Consistent, Efficient and Defensible Bat Surveys
How Learning Organisations reduce GIS risk in the age of BNG
“A well-written article that I will come back to, and that is high praise.” John
“Written in plain English without becoming over-technical.” Mark
“I will definitely forward this to the ecologists here and others I know.” Jane
“Extremely useful.” Olly
FAQs
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Access to all current and future courses, the quick reference video library, 12 monthly Mappy Mondays Q&A sessions, SOS email support and the members forum for a full year. New content added every month, shaped by what members ask for.
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Everything in Community, plus the three productivity tools: the Protected Areas Tool (with its comprehensive designations database, updated twice yearly), the Species Survey Templates and the Spatialsesh BNG workflow project. Pro also includes a one-to-one onboarding session with me to get your team up and running from day one.
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With Community or Pro, absolutely. Work through them all, or dip into specific modules as and when — great for onboarding new starters or brushing up before field season.
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Yes — one price covers your whole team up to the stated number, no per-seat counting within the tier. For teams of more than 15, drop me a line for a tailored quote.
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Yes. All courses deliver CIEEM Competency Frameworks, and a certificate is issued on completion.
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Updated every six months — in June and December — so your desk study outputs are always based on the latest national data.
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On-demand support hours are available separately from membership, used flexibly via Zoom, WhatsApp or email for tutorials, troubleshooting or data review. From £1,200 for 10 hours, no VAT.
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Get in touch, for a free 20-minute call and we’ll work it out together.