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Case study: A smart approach to biodiversity monitoring

25 January 2021

UCL’s community of staff and students is playing a leading role in responding to the challenges set out in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Read below a case study of the work that the Nature-Smart Centre has started on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

Photo of a grey long eared bat in flight

As the world’s population grows, so, too, do the pressures on the Earth’s resources and the disruption to our natural systems, habitats and species diversity. 

The Nature-Smart Centre at UCL East is a cross-disciplinary hub that brings together world-leading experts, including ecologists, computer scientists, city planners, economists and biologists, to gather evidence on how we can best manage our natural resources for a ‘nature-smart’ future. 

A team at the centre are using the Park’s green spaces as their laboratory to monitor bat populations. 

“Bat species are a good indicator of the general health of the natural environment in a particular area,” explains Professor Kate Jones, the centre’s academic lead. “They are the top predator of nocturnal insects, so the impact of any changes in land use on the insect species has a knock-on impact on bats.” 

Read the full case study of how Nature-Smart Centre is helping achieve SDG 15