Our Purpose
Our Philosophy
Cities are living bodies. When they ache, we can heal them — not with massive, disruptive projects, but with subtle, vital needlepoints of green. This is the art of urban acupuncture: reconnecting humans and nature through micro-interventions that ripple outward. Every planter, pocket garden, and restored patch of soil helps transform cities from cold, hard infrastructure into more liveable places, driving regeneration for both people and biodiversity.
Our Mission
We bring nature back into the city. By combining data, design, and community power, we transform overlooked urban spaces into living, resilient ecosystems. Through small, precise interventions, we regenerate the city fabric, strengthen resilience to climate change, and create healthier, more liveable environments for people and biodiversity alike.
Meet Our Team
Meet the people behind Urban Biome. Our team brings together expertise in technology, sustainability, and urban planning to create innovative solutions for greener cities.
Reuben Forster
Co-Founder, Technology & Data
Reuben is a builder, maker, and self-taught developer with a passion for solving real-world problems through technology. He has over 15 years’ experience working hands-on in construction and landscaping. In recent years, he’s dived into coding, GIS, and AI, becoming a true tech wizard with a strong interest in open data and satellite datasets. At Urban Biome, Reuben designs and builds the digital tools that turn environmental data and street-level observations into usable maps and insights. He enjoys bridging the physical and digital worlds, combining practical making with computational thinking to help bring nature back into cities.
Manon Dangelser
Co-Founder, Strategy & Communication
Manon works at the intersection of urban resilience, sustainability, and climate adaptation, with over 10 years’ experience across the built environment. She is passionate about regreening cities and making change on the ground, one green spot at a time. A map lover, she strongly believes in their power to reveal patterns and guide action. At Urban Biome, Manon shapes the strategy, narrative, and direction of the project, helping translate urban challenges into practical tools and real-world action. She aims to bring together technology, on-the-ground insight, and local efforts to help nature find its place back in the city.
Our Approach
We identify where nature is needed most. Using open data and community insights, we map the city’s challenges — from heat and flooding to air pollution and lack of green space — and reveal the places where small interventions can make the biggest impact.
Through our tools, Explorer and Sightings, we highlight both the gaps and the existing grassroots efforts already shaping the city. By connecting with local organisations, builders and makers, we help turn strategic opportunities into real, on-the-ground microinterventions that bring nature back into the urban fabric.
Our Tools
Explorer
Explore cumulative environmental challenges across Bristol with our interactive map—one of our free tools. We stack six key concern layers—air quality, flood risk, noise pollution, urban heat, vegetation deficit, and deprivation—into a single view. Yellow highlights areas with one challenge, shifting through orange to deep red as multiple challenges overlap. Click anywhere to see which concerns are high at that location. Green spaces and water features stand out above the data, showing where nature provides relief from urban stress.
Sightings
Log a tree, rain garden, planter or pond in under a minute — then track it over time. Sightings turns what people spot on the ground into a shared, living record: photograph it, flag an issue if something needs attention, and community groups, contractors or volunteers can claim the site and see it through to fixed. It’s how Bristol’s green infrastructure gets looked after, not just mapped once and forgotten.
Sightings now runs as native apps as well as in the browser, built for the field: photograph a site and the app reads the photo back to you, suggesting the type, the species and the condition, and you correct anything it has wrong. Explore shows what is around you; the Dashboard shows what your group has open. Jobs appear on their own when an observation reports litter, dry ground or weeds, and close themselves when a later reading comes back clear.
The iOS app has been through Apple review and returns to the App Store with the release shown here. The Android app is in open testing on Google Play. The original web version stays open to everyone, below.
Our Network
We cannot do this alone. To help us achieve our mission, we rely on a network of organisations. In Bristol, we collaborate with makers, builders and local groups that share our vision.
KWMC
Knowle West Media Centre - Bristol community arts and technology organisation.
Live Graft
Urban greening and living architecture specialists based in Bristol.
SUGi
Restoring biodiversity in cities through pocket forests and community-led rewilding.
Avon Wildlife Trust
Protecting wildlife and wild spaces across Bristol, Bath and the West of England.
WWT
Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust — conserving wetlands and their wildlife across the UK and beyond.
Lockleaze Neighborhood Trust
Community-led organisation in Lockleaze, Bristol, building a thriving and connected neighbourhood.
Eastside Community Trust
Championing community action in Easton and Lawrence Hill, Bristol.
BS3 Community Development
Building a stronger, healthier, happier community in South Bristol.
Support Our Work
Help us build accessible environmental intelligence tools for our cities. Your support enables us to develop open tools, conduct research, and make geospatial analytics available to organisations working toward sustainable, equitable urban futures.
Every contribution helps us maintain our platforms, expand our datasets, and keep our tools free for community use.
Open Collective provides transparent, community-driven funding with full visibility into how contributions are used.
Get In Touch
For inquiries, collaborations, or tool access, reach out at info@urbanbiome.co.uk