Transition Town Tooting

Tag: Research

  • 3 current and vivid research projects about climate change and UK communities – Tooting included

    In 2015 TTT helped facilitate a research project by the University of Westminster all about the impact of urban heatwaves – for the details please see past blog posts by clicking here on Urban Heat.

    TTT worked with the researchers and with many local partners in Tooting: voluntary and community groups plus borough-level and statutory bodies.

    The funder for this research project is The Joseph Rowntree Foundation, and yesterday TTT took part in a workshop comparing the early research results of three JRF-funded projects.  
    Each of them explores the links between climate change and UK communities and households. Each aims to give new information to local and national policy makers.
    Participants included national bodies such as Public Health England & Defra, & the Cabinet Office, local authorities and universities.

    An overall view? That there are synergies of relationships between all the topics outlined below..and that communities with local knowledge and energy have an opportunity to get involved and contribute.

    One project is looking at the impact of climate change on UK households’ cost of living between now and 2050.
    A valuable prediction so far is that lower-income households will experience the most impact, on part because a larger percentage of their budgets goes on climate change-sensitive expenditure – for example food costs (negative impact because of UK and global events), or energy (a positive impact as winters will be warmer), or repairs after flooding (very negative impact if a low-income household has no insurance).

    Workshopping in Tooting

    The second project looks at how to enable climate resilient communities.
    The research area covered three towns and villages in a single large rural local authority that spans the Scottish Borders, and a main focus turned out to be the impact of local flooding which was taking place at the end of ’15 as the research groups were meeting.
    Flooding is a known risk, is recognised and visible, and has a funding stream with tangible (sometimes debated) results…so gives a definite point of focus to rally around.
    Local responses to flooding also led to valuing other aspects of community resilience such as the local ‘creative capital’ – the energy the community can generate to work together in new ways.
    Anyone else reminded of ‘Tour de Tooting’ and ‘Rooting in Tooting’?

    Thirdly, the Urban Heat project has worked across 3 diverse London boroughs: Tooting, Hounslow and Hackney. Like the Scottish research taking place amidst flooding in Hawick, one of our meetings took place on a day the temperature reached 30 degrees C – designated a risk by the heat health warning system.
    Findings include that yes, voluntary groups are interested and understand the impact once they can explore it in depth. So do the borough and other bodies..however the way these two ‘slices’ of the local community can work together is not yet defined.

    Heatwaves are not perceived in the same way as flooding – heatwaves seem to ‘just happen’ (in fact we may want some warmer weather), we soon forget them, we don’t realise the impact can be so serious, the responsibility for policy and communication is not so clear.
    Yet in 2003 2,000 people in the UK died in heatwaves; a far greater number of tragic fatalities than in recent UK flooding.

    We’ll share links to these research results when they are formally published.

  • ‘Bringing Nature Closer to Home’: Wildlife Gardening Forum November 2015

    ‘Bringing Nature Closer to Home’ is the tagline of the Wildlife Gardening Forum, which held its tenth anniversary meeting yesterday at the Natural History Museum in London.

    Several of us from Tooting and TTT attended – along with 80 other gardeners, enterprises, government agencies, charities and community groups. It’s always a stimulating day (available to all; the Forum has 800+ members now).
    Anyone can use the Forum’s rich resources at www.wlgf.org/
    Forum meetings are held twice a year and give us a valuable chance to hear practical ideas from across the UK, learn about brand new research and discuss key topics with experts and practitioners – in sessions or over coffee.

    I’ve found there has always been learning to bring home to Tooting from these Forum meetings. 

    Plus practical things to do – here is a citizen science survey that will let us contribute to earthworm research (ie ‘soil ecosytem services’).




    Some highlights of the day:
    ‘Gardening is very personal’

    • Gardening is very personal. We do it for many reasons, and age demographics and our perceptions of child safety mean that the importance of having nature right on our doorstep is more significant than ever (Chris Baines, author, broadcaster and gardener )

    Why do people garden?

    • To offer scope for: making a place we like, creative decisions, relaxation, socialising, children’s play, growing food, spirituality, hobbies, storage, showing status
    • And front gardens and back gardens are viewed very differently by their owners. (both Lee Dixon, PhD research)

    How has our recognition of the value of gardens to wildlife (and vice versa) developed?

    • At horticulture college in 1966-69 I spent three years being taught to kill everything that moved (Chris Baines)
    • In the old days gardeners arranged plants entirely for the benefit of people. We used to ask how to get rid of it? Now we ask how can we invite wildlife in?
    • We may not understand all about garden biodiversity. But if we build wildlife-friendly gardens, then wildlife will find it’. (both James Alexander-Sinclair, garden designer and RHS judge)

    How can communities get involved?

    • Gardeners and groups in rural settings or cities are already involved: for example feeding birds and growing pollinator-friendly plants, and observing nature in and around their gardens.
    • Buglife outlined Urban Buzz. It’s a national project for 8 cities which will be launched next week, aiming to get 800 pollinator plant hotspots buzzing over the next few years, with thousands of people joining in as guides, volunteers and participants.
    • We heard about Plants for Bugs – new Royal Horticultural Society research on whether native or non-native plants (typically mixed in our gardens) are more beneficial for insects. Info here.

      Development at the Natural History Museum
      WLGF co-ordinator Steve Head offered a passionate plea to the Natural History Museum to reconsider aspects of their recent proposal to resolve how to get ever-growing numbers of visitors into the museum.
      Steve suggested that the proposed new route that would obliterate the Museum’s twenty-year-old Wildlife Garden could be improved, and that this oasis of inner-London biodiversity could be preserved. (Background details to NHM proposal online here).


      We’ll share the full report of the day when available. 
      The next Forum meeting is in 6 months – all are welcome.