Greenspace Information for Greater London CIC
GiGL mobilises, curates and shares data that underpin our knowledge of London’s natural environment. We enable our stakeholders to make informed decisions in policy and practice.
Based on the Ordnance Survey 1:10,000 map © Crown copyright and database rights 2015 Ordnance Survey Licence No. 100032216. GLA
last updated 14.05.2020
Our Services
GiGL's wide range of services fall into four categories.
Submit & Access Data
Send Us Your Records
If you have wildlife or habitat records, we encourage you to submit these here.
Explore Our Data Online
Explore selected GiGL data via our online interactive map.
Get a Data Search Report
Ecological consultants: access comprehensive biodiversity and open space information.
GiGL Life
Joy of Recording: Does watching and recording wildlife make a difference?
The Barbican Wildlife Garden is 0.17 hectares of loveliness! We have a meadow which is hand scythed annually and two borders of hedging which include mature plane trees. There are two ponds and a small orchard of ‘rescued’ fruit trees. There is a much loved small bird hide, complete with a white board for observations. We have bird boxes and feeders, and a network of paths dotted with perching logs and benches…
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Interview, Amy Palmer-Newton
Amy is one of GiGL’s Database Officers. She delivers work to review, manage and develop GiGL’s SINCs and habitat databases. This includes collating data in partnership with local authorities and land managers, and coordinating steering from stakeholders. She also maintains information and models predicted changes relating to areas of deficiency in access to nature…
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Planning for Biodiversity’s Future
Those involved in environmental and planning policy have been busy lately. The Environment Bill is making its way through parliament and some of the cornerstone pieces of legislation that are set to emerge will have big consequences for how the environmental data sector supports planning and nature recovery work in England. Many of us are working on responses to the Planning for the Future white paper consultation, due shortly…
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Planning for Better Biodiversity Outcomes
A whole year has passed since the “Biodiversity Evidence – Better Outcomes from Planning” project began. The project aims to support London’s Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) to achieve better outcomes for biodiversity through the planning process. We started by finding out how biodiversity is currently being taken into account and about the challenges faced. The information collected then informed the production of resources and training for use by LPA planners as guidance when looking into biodiversity matters of development projects…
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Joy of Recording: 365 days of wildlife
On the 1st January 2019 I began a year-long personal project – every day I would observe and record wildlife through the lens of a camera. I was inspired by the Ealing Wildlife Group who run a Facebook group which I’d recently joined and with whom I had shared posts about local wildlife. The members help each other by answering questions about wildlife in their gardens, nearby parks and open spaces. The project provided the opportunity I was looking for to connect with nature and learn more about local wildlife…
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Knowles Knows: Demystifying the Data Exchange
Part of the service that we provide specifically to our Service Level Agreement (SLA) partners is to ensure that they can access GiGL data on their own systems. Every quarter we send copies of the data that represent snapshots of the database at those times. This “data exchange” is usually during the last week of April, July, October and January…
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Nature at Home
This spring Londoners have helped protect each other by curtailing our daily travels to stop the spread of the coronavirus. This has also, necessarily, affected our trips to visit greenspaces and see wildlife. We are still receiving records from people’s gardens, of wildlife spotted through windows or from permitted walks…
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Information is Beautiful
Data is dull, isn’t it? It’s just a load of facts and figures collected together, a series of ones and zeros that don’t seem to be worth paying much attention to. But when it is presented in the right way data really comes alive. It is possible to convey a whole story in just one image that is simultaneously accurate, revealing and persuasive…
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Business as usual
The last few months have been anything but usual. Whilst COVID-19 has brought about previously unforeseen changes to our daily-lives, GiGL is proud that we’ve been able to maintain as much of a standard service to our stakeholders as possible…
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Joy of Recording: Bedfont Lakes – the volunteers assisting an ecological transformation
Bedfont Lakes is a 72.5 hectare country park on the edge of Greater London, and one of the best birdwatching sites in the southwest of the capital. Its size rivals that of Greenwich Park and Wandsworth Common. Yet, when I mention it among Londoner friends and colleagues, no one’s ever heard of it…
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