Issue 5

Weaving the data rainbow

Previous editions of the GiGLer have focused on the work of our partners and the systems we have developed to ensure the data we hold are as reliable and accurate as possible. This time, we show you some of the ways that data can provide a bespoke evidence base to inform your work; whether you engage people in accessible local open spaces, or identify the appropriate location for habitat recreation.

We have welcomed the arrival of some significant datasets over the last few months. …

Creating opportunities

Philippa Burrell, Director Thames Valley Environmental Records Centre, explains how third generation data are already changing the way people work in the region.

A simple ‘data in, data out’ service had been available in Oxfordshire and Berkshire before the Thames Valley Environmental Records Centre came into being. A number of key people in the region – county ecologists, Natural England, Wildlife Trust staff and others – could see the potential for even more helpful data products and were willing …

Mapping opportunites in London

Thames Valley may be ahead of the game in third generation data modelling, but London is not far behind. Nick White of the London Biodiversity Partnership explains how the same opportunity mapping techniques could help target action in London. In 2007, the London Biodiversity Partnership successfully lobbied for regional habitat creation and enhancement targets for a range of key habitat types to be incorporated into the Greater London Authority’s alterations to the London Plan. Although biodiversity had always been mentioned within …

Data fields of glory

Having recently completed the first phase of GiGL’s open space data project, Tim Hogg, GiGL’s Open Space Data Officer, reports on achievements so far, and gives an overview of some of the contents of the new open space dataset.

In Issue 3 of the GiGLer, John O’Neil, Senior Planner at the Greater London Authority and Mandy Rudd, GiGL Director, wrote about the possibility of creating a regional open space dataset to help London boroughs with evidence-based decision making, vis-à-vis open space provision around Greater London. In June this year, GiGL completed the first stage …

News

There have been a couple of changes to the GiGL team over the summer. Ian Woodward, GiGL’s first Royal Parks Officer has now left to do an MSc. Ian hasn’t escaped GiGL altogether, as he continues to represent the British Trust for Ornithology on our Recorders’ Advisory Group.We wish him all the best with his studies.

We’re pleased to welcome Claudia Watts to our team. Claudia has replaced …