Building An Urban Nature Network In Edinburgh
Urban nature networks are the interconnected habitats in a city or urban area. Edinburgh’s Thriving Green Spaces project, working alongside the Edinburgh Living Landscape partnership programme, created a visualisation of these nature networks through nature network maps that highlight what, where and how to improve different habitats to benefit both people and nature.
WHAT WE LEARNED | 4 MINUTE READ
Donya Davidson
Ecologist and Project Development Officer on the Thriving Green Spaces project, which included leading on the development of the Edinburgh Nature Network.
Marc Metzger
Professor of Environment and Society at the University of Edinburgh. Along with one of his MSc students Gabriela Franco Paya, he supported the GIS mapping part of the project.
Dr. Cathleen Thomas
Living Landscapes Programme Manager at the Scottish Wildlife Trust. Her role was to oversee the development of the Edinburgh Nature Network.
Linda Anglin
City of Edinburgh Council’s Senior Manager in Parks and Green Spaces and has led the city's Thriving Green Spaces project.
Collaboration
Collaboration was key to the success of the project - a broad range of expert stakeholders brought together deep and detailed information about the city's nature for the first time.
Donya
“In the past, there's been lots of fantastic work happening in Edinburgh, and lots of organisations and groups doing great stuff, but we've never taken this whole landscape scale approach before. We joined forces and got everyone working collaboratively together in the city. I worked very closely with the planning team in the council, and they were really positive about the work. They became ‘champions’ for the project and would spread the word around the rest of the council and to other stakeholders. I think people just really, really got it and saw the value in it – that really helped us in the process.”
Marc
“It was great to work on a project that aims to have real life impact. There were meetings with policy folk from the local authorities who expressed concerns or identified opportunities that I would never have thought of.
It's hard to imagine a situation in the near future where there would be a doubling of budgets for green space. So, it’s encouraging to see all the creative ways that local authorities are developing collaborations with NGOs, the private sector and other government agencies that are outside the local authority. And of course, the collaboration with the university which provided a really great opportunity for us to be involved in this type of work.”
Overcoming Hurdles: The Pandemic
This project had just got underway when the Covid-19 pandemic hit. The team quickly adapted by moving all their workshop sessions online and doing their data gathering digitally.
Cathleen
“We had to find really innovative methods to host people for the online workshops and allow them to view the maps and comment on them. It was a challenge that required quite a lot of technical training. But overall I think in some ways we benefited from this. There was a lot of camaraderie and real dedication from people. Some came to every single workshop, which was great.”
Donya
“There are definitely benefits to doing the mapping online. For example, there were lots of participants who would have had to travel into Edinburgh. They might have had to get child care, or deal with lots of other factors. Instead, they could participate in the workshop from the comfort of their home, and I think that actually was a real positive and helped with our participation levels.”
Connecting With Nature
Nature network mapping helps to identify the connection between people and nature.
Donya
“Sometimes we think about wildlife and people as two separate entities; we forget that we are animals as well. We benefit from nature in so many different ways, like getting the food on our plates – we need insect pollinators for that. We need trees that can help prevent flooding so that our homes don't get destroyed. That's why I think the nature networks are so key to tackling both the biodiversity and the climate crises. These crises negatively impact wildlife. They also negatively impact people.”
Marc
“Conservation and protecting nature is actually all about people, because people are the ones who have to change some of their behaviours in order to protect nature. It’s people who will fund conservation measures and who want to live with or near nature and green space.”
Using The Maps
Mapping nature networks provides the information that can help local authorities and landowners direct and prioritise investment.
Linda
“We’ve been using the maps especially for helping us develop our long-term plans. We can look at the areas where projects are already underway and also see where there’s nothing planned. From here, we can look to see what we can do in these areas, and we use the nature network maps to help us work that out.”
Cathleen
“The City of Edinburgh Council has incorporated the recommendations into their local development plan. This is so that when we're looking at where we're going to put new housing or other kinds of development, it's making sure that they’re as sustainable as they can be. For example, they might incorporate green roofs or green walls, sustainable urban drainage systems, rain gardens – whatever it is that helps wildlife use those sites – whilst also improving the space for the people that live there.”
Delivering The Benefits: Community Engagement
Putting the strategies into action benefits from the whole community coming together.
Donya
“Now that we have identified all these different actions as a result of our work with nature networks, we really need the community to help us make them a reality. We need our citizen scientists! Therefore, it's important to make the maps accessible and engaging for the public so that they know how they can play their part.”
Marc
“I think the maps are very useful for showing how much green space the council has, but also to identify where the council can do more. In fact, not just the council but individual citizens, homeowners who can improve their gardens, businesses that can improve the grounds on their estates, and so on. That communication aspect is really important. Then, the focus should be on prioritising where future improvements happen and who should be making them happen.”
