NCGS Approved Methodologies
The methodologies approved under the Nova Community Greening Standard. Each declares the indicator it serves via meth:forIndicator and the activity type via ncgs:forActivityType.
NCGS-M001 — Census count of tree state at a declared horizon
A full census of the tree individuals planted at a site, or handed over there in the delivered-with-monitoring stratum (ADR-0031), made on one monitoring visit at a declared observation horizon: every tree reached is observed alive or dead with its condition class, care and evidence; trees not reached are unobserved. From the approved observations the methodology computes trees alive, survival rate, trees by condition class and, from T3, establishment rate. Condition assessment is part of this methodology, not a separate one.
NCGS-M002 — Stratified-sample estimate of tree state at a declared horizon
An estimate of the survival family from a sample of tree individuals drawn per stratum, made on monitoring visits at a declared observation horizon under a monitoring plan whose sampling design is sample: every sampled tree reached is observed as the census does, and the site’s totals and rates are estimated with stratum weights, a standard error and an interval. The alternative to NCGS-M001 for a planting too large to census.
NCGS-M004 — Canopy and shade measurement at T4 or later
Measurement of each living tree’s crown from the two canopy axes recorded on a monitoring visit at T4 or later: the crown area as an ellipse, the shade area of a site as the sum over its living trees, the usable-shade subset as the sum over crowns wide enough to sit under, and the canopy cover change at the site as the shade area minus the site’s baseline canopy. Claims shade only once trees are old enough for a crown to mean something.
NCGS-M005 — Survival-adjusted carbon stock from stem diameter (provisional)
The carbon stock of a site’s living trees at T3 or later from each tree’s measured stem diameter: above-ground biomass by the AR-AMS0007 allometric equation, carbon by the fraction 0.47, CO2 equivalent by 44/12, summed over trees observed alive; baseline and leakage zero under the small-scale conditions AR-AMS0007 states. Provisional: it applies only under a project design that carries the crediting-period and eligible-land sections a carbon module would add (ADR-0016), which no design carries in this release.
NCGS-M006 — Site suitability assessment against the safe-space criteria
A structured site visit and stakeholder interview in which an assessor scores the six safe-space criteria (water, caretaker, security, soil and ground, space and services, access) met, not met or unknown, each with a note and a photograph, and files a suitability determination derived from the scores.
NCGS-M007 — Ecological appropriateness and avoided harm
Determination of whether planting trees at a site would harm the existing ecosystem, from the mapped SANBI vegetation type, the observed land cover and its intactness, resulting in either clearance to plant or planting withheld on ecological grounds, recorded as a positive safeguard result.
NCGS-M008 — Stewardship persistence from care records
Recording care events on tree individuals by whoever performs them, to the evidence bar of the observer role, and computing from them the care actions recorded, stewardship persistence at each horizon, and the share of stewards and owners practising a skill an education session taught them. Care records are verified against the next monitoring visit’s observation of the tree, never reviewed one at a time.
NCGS-M009 — Environmental education session and knowledge assessment
Recording and counting environmental education sessions: each session at a host site covering one or more sites, with the curriculum elements taught, attendance counted by audience type from the signed register, accountable adult attendees recorded as agent roles, and an optional before-and-after knowledge check reported as session-level means. From conformant sessions the methodology counts sessions held and attendees.
NCGS-M010 — Household benefit survey
A structured survey of the owner at a household stand, taken on a monitoring visit at T2 or later that observed a living tree there, after KIA-Adapt’s A4 questionnaire: per living fruit tree whether it bore fruit in the recent season, and for the household whether fruit was shared or sold, the months with fruit and the people the trees benefit; reported as counts of trees and of households, never as a person’s answers.
NCGS-M011 — Delivery verification from consignments
Verification of what the programme handed over from consignment records: for each consignment, the recipient’s signed acknowledgement, a photograph of the stock and the supplying nursery, the lines of species, quantity, container size and living trees confirmed, and the dispatch packed at the nursery when there was one; from acknowledged consignments the count of living trees delivered, the trees lost in delivery, and with the tree individuals later planted at the same site the planting rate. No tree individual is created and no survival, condition or care is observed (ADR-0003).
NCGS-M013 — Record-completeness audit of planting records
An audit of a site’s planting records against the required field set: for every tree individual a planting record names, a species from the register, a planting position, a planting date, a photograph by content address and, on the record, an observer in the fieldworker or supervisor role. A tree whose record is complete counts as planted, verified and geolocated; the share of complete records is the record-completeness rate. The audit reads records; it visits no tree.