DiscoverLondon (https://www.gigl.org.uk/discoverlondon/) is GiGL’s online public mapping portal. It lets people investigate dynamic maps of our green city to encourage the exploration of Greater London, enabling anyone who is interested to discover more about their natural surroundings at home or on the go.
It started out life in 2012 as iGiGL, which was developed to provide an alternative to two of the Greater London Authority (GLA)’s decommissioned web-based portals, Wildweb and Your London. In 2018 iGiGL was redesigned and rebranded to create the new DiscoverLondon. This grouped the 16 existing layers into 6 practical themes, and improved both its speed and usability.
GiGL have grown a lot since then and on its 11th birthday we decided that DiscoverLondon needed an update. As well as a design overhaul to help simplify navigation, and the creation of a new URL, we’ve added a bunch of new features to help people dive into all of the information we have to share.
Plan your next visit to an open space using the Spaces to Visit map, or learn more about London’s most important publically accessible wildlife habitats on the Wildlife Sites map. If you’re interested in the aquatic side of London, use the Rivers and Waterbodies map to explore London’s waterways. The Wildlife Crime map gives a snapshot of cases and statistics throughout the city, while London’s Landscape shows you the different ways London’s natural environment has been classified. Finally, use the Recording Support map to check out your local borough and vice-county and confirm the London Natural History Society (LNHS) recording area.
How to get started:
- Choose a map on the home page that catches your interest. Click on the image and you’ll be taken to the map of your choice.
- Scroll around your screen to investigate different parts of London, or use the search box to zoom to specific sites or places.
- Use the Legend button in the top right corner for a quick overview of what you’re seeing. Click on the map to open pop-up boxes with more information. For some maps, click the ‘more information’ link to open an even more detailed description.
- Keep exploring! Use the Menu button on the top right to switch between different maps.
We’ve added a new list feature to our Wildlife Site and Spaces to Visit maps that let you explore these sites in a new way. Use the list to scroll through everything, search for specific sites you know or look for all the sites in your local area.
We have also redesigned our factsheets linked to each site, which provide more detailed information and pictures for our Wildlife Sites, Spaces to Visit, Wildlife Crime Case Studies, Urban River Survey Results and River Restoration Projects.
For more on what you can find and how to navigate DiscoverLondon, check out our updated Users Guide.
While DiscoverLondon is our public portal, there is a wealth of additional data held by GiGL that can be accessed in a number of ways, from commercial data search reports and Service Level Agreements to support for students and community groups. Find out more on our website here.
We hope that you’ll enjoy using DiscoverLondon, whether you’re looking for information on a specific site or are just interested in wandering the virtual streets to see what you can find. We also hope this update will help us reach new audiences and make it easier for everyone to connect with their local area.
We welcome your feedback on the content or other features you’d like to see so that we can make continuous improvements to the data and usability. We’re interested to hear from anyone who has information to share on their local sites, from history and opening times to photos and wildlife recordings. Please email any site specific information to sitefeedback@gigl.org.uk, and keep on the look out for a new online form we’re developing to make it even easier to get in touch. You can also submit any wildlife recordings made within Greater London to https://www.gigl.org.uk/submit-records/submit-a-record/.
And we’re not stopping here. We have lots of plans to improve and build on what we have, including the addition of new maps, so watch this space.