caroline nash (uel) - buglife. brownfield... · brownfield landscaping: urban invertebrate...

Brownfield landscaping: urban invertebrate conservation

Caroline Nash (UEL)

TRANSITIONING TOWARDS URBAN RESILIENCE AND SUSTAINABILITY

Global biodiversity loss:

Provisioning services: products such as food, fibre and medicines.

Supporting services: functions necessary for the production of other ecosystem services such as soil formation and nutrient cycling.

Regulating services: processes such as water purification, air quality maintenance and climate regulation.

Cultural services: non-material benefits such as education and well-being.

Global biodiversity loss:

30% global decline in wildlife since 1970

the need for development to be truly sustainable

UK - Thames Gateway

© bbc.co.uk

•Availability of large Brownfield sites providing great opportunities for commercial and residential development

• 40 miles of opportunity • Biggest regeneration area in North West Europe with £9 billion Government investment • Government Housing Target of 160,000 homes to be built in the Thames Gateway by 2016

Countryside-properties.com

Brownfield: derelict, previously developed land

©philipwolmuth.com

Brownfield: Urban wildspace

Brownfield value

Buglife: All of A Buzz project Roberts, J., Harvey, P. and Jones, R. (2006) All of a Buzz in the Thames Gateway; Phase 1 project report. Report produced for English Nature.

Buglife All of a Buzz

• Surveyed over 40% of Thames Gateway brownfield sites

• 40% estimated to be of ‘High’ quality for invertebrates.

• 1,198 invertebrate species of nature conservation importance associated with brownfield habitats.

•Including a suite of UKBAP priority and Red Data book species.

© Craig Slawson

The state of brownfields in the Thames Gateway

Buglife revisit data set 6 years later and less than 50% of important brownfield sites remain intact.

(Robins et al., 2013)

Brownfield loss

Planning process encouraged to target brownfield

No established framework for assessing the value of

brownfield sites in terms of biodiversity and ecosystem

service provision

Appropriate mitigation requires appropriate

ecological assessment

Conservation Invertebrates generally hold little weight in the planning

process

Planning

Mitigation – green roofs

©Dusty Gedge

Green roof - design

Laban Dance Centre © Kadas & Gedge

Truly sustainable development

Kadas, G.J. (2006) Rare Invertebrates Colonizing Green Roofs in London. Urban Habitats 4(1), 66-86.

At least 10% of species collected at the study sites were designated nationally rare or scarce.

Are green roofs adequate mitigation on their own for brownfield loss?

ISIS

National conservation significance thresholds

Specific Assemblage Types (SATs)

Species lists

Broad Assemblage Types (BATs)

based on niches and processes

Rarity score

Are green roofs adequate mitigation on their own?

Greenroof invertebrate surveys (Kadas/Gedge) n = 261 species

All of a buzz in the Thames Gateway (Buglife)

n = 629 species

ISIS

Specific Assemblage Types 3 groups

• Coleoptera • Arachnids

• Hymenoptera

Datasets

Analysis


Greenroofs: (Kadas/Gedge)

Brownfield: (Buglife)

Favourable

Unfavourable

n = 629 spp

n = 261 spp

ISIS ver. 2009


Open mosaic habitat

Countryside-properties.com

Shelter belt of mid/late successional trees and

bushes

Early successional ruderal and scrub

South facing slopes

Seasonally wet areas

Lichen and mosses

Bare ground heats up rapidly

Brownfield landscaping projects

Barking Riverside brownfield landscaping

LWT community garden

UEL’s beetle bump

Barking Riverside brownfield landscaping

• 443 acre brownfield development • 10,800 homes • Planning consent included requirement to conserve valuable wildlife

• 40% of site will be greenspace AND • 40% of properties will have green roofs

Brownfield habitat features as part of landscaping

Bringing together brownfield habitat niches and the aesthetics of urban landscape design


Rubble, metal sheeting and ornamental planting

Woodland pocket with standing deadwood and deadwood piles



South facing sand bank with concrete features


Wildflower meadow blended with ornamental planting and amenity turf

Biodiversity surveys

2010

2011

Characterising habitat features


Vegetation surveys (2011 = 135 spp)

Invertebrate surveys • Bumblebee and butterfly walks • Sweep netting • Pitfall trapping


Invertebrate surveys • Bumblebee and butterfly walks

Number

Species diversity


Invertebrate surveys • Pitfall trapping

Invertebrate surveys • Sweep netting

Species of conservation concern

• Red Data Book 2 (RDB2) species: Philanthus

triangulum

• Two RDB3 species: Lasioglossum pauperatum,

Lygus pratensis

• Four notable species

• 13 local species (one of which was also an

Essex Red Data species - Melitta leporina)

• 3rd modern record of the solitary bee Andrena

nigriceps in Essex and the first from the East

Thames Corridor.

Species of conservation concern

• RDB2 species Polistichus connexus

• Proposed nationally notable (pNa): species

Zodarion italicum

• Nationally scarce (Nb) species: Brachinus

crepitans (Essex RDB), Calathus ambiguus

(Essex RDB), Harpalus ardosiacus and

Notiophilus quadripunctatus (Essex RDB),

Substantial variation between different habitat pockets

LWT community garden

LWT community garden: ISIS analysis

Favourable status

Flower-rich resource (F002)

Unshaded early successional mosaic (F1)

Permanent wet mire (W3)

Mineral marsh & open water (W2)

Broad Assemblage Types (BAT) Specific Assemblage Types (SAT)

Score Corresponding national status No. of spp

16 Extinct; Presumed extinct; Ireland Only; RDB1; RDB2; pRDB1; pRDB2 2

8 RDB3; pRDB3; RDBI 1

4 RDBK; pRDBK; RDB4 (out of danger); RDB5 (endemic); Na; Notable/Nb(endemic) 25

2 Local, Nr 103

LWT community garden: Design

LWT community garden: Design

Native wildflowers South-facing sandy bank

Wildlife pond

Dead log pile with standing deadwood Gravel planting

Picnic benches

LWT community garden: Community Engagement

UEL’s Beetle Bump

UEL’s Sports Dock

Beetle bump site

Beetle bump construction

Recycled aggregates used: • 20 tonnes of broken brick, • 20 tonnes of screened recycled soil, • 10 tonnes of chalk • 10 tonnes of crushed concrete

Plants used: • Wild carrot (Daucus carrota) • Autumn hawkbit (Leontodon autumnalis). • Red deadnettle (Lamium purpureum) • Wild parsnip (Pastinaca sativa) • Red clover (Trifolium pratense) • Bird's-foot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus) • Red bartsia (Odontites verna) • Narrow-leaved Bird's-foot trefoil (Lotus glaber) • Black horehound (Ballota nigra) • Musk mallow (Malva moschata) • Weld (Reseda luteola) • mix of composites • Commercial wildflower seed mix

Beetle bump – from above

Beetle bump 2013

UEL - amenity landscaping 2013

Wetland green roof experiment

Thank you for listening

TRANSITIONING TOWARDS URBAN RESILIENCE AND SUSTAINABILITY

caroline nash (uel) - buglife. brownfield... · brownfield landscaping: urban invertebrate...

Documents