Urban Greening Guildford
The Pitch
Problem statement
11% of Surrey’s native species have gone extinct over the last few decades, and despite being a rural county our biodiversity loss rate is higher than the national average! Habitat destruction and climate change have accelerated this loss, but the sprawl of Surrey’s urban areas has also contributed by reducing connectivity between habitats. Additionally, Guildford is now in the 97th percentile for air pollution nationally! This is a public health crisis in the making, with poor air quality closely tied to childhood asthma, heart & lung disease, and elevated depression and mental health issues. Our urban greening project will reconnect habitats whilst improving air quality.
Solution
Our collaborative & co-designed project will implement urban greening measures in strategically mapped Urban Biodiversity Opportunity Areas (URBOAs) as identified by Surrey Wildlife Trust (SWT). Green-blue infrastructure (GBI) interventions will reconnect habitats using strategic green corridors, whilst increasing access to green space in urban areas, and building community cohesion. Urban greening has many co-benefits, not just improving air quality & biodiversity gain, but is proven to benefit mental health & wellbeing, increase rain water absorption (and thereby flood resilience), and increase natural shading, thereby lowering reliance on public health services.
Why are we best placed to deliver?
Expert stakeholders involved in this project include Global Centre For Clean Air Research & SWT. We have already begun installing living walls & green screens at sites like Sandfield Primary. Previous work by GCARE reduced air pollution by 50% at Lambeth schools! URBOAs have been mapped enabling us to maximise impact with limited funds, and this Guildford pilot can have county-wide impact in the 17 other mapped Surrey URBOAs. The ecologists, horticulturists, green health practitioners, & air quality experts involved mean this project has specialists in each area of the project's co-benefits. ZCG has 200 volunteers and access to other volunteer partners, including corporate volunteers.
Focus Areas
Delivery plan
Budget breakdown
| Green blue infrastructure equipment - we will use half the funding to provide GBI equipment to support early adopters, catalysing some projects to create further momentum | £2,500 |
| PR & Marketing - this is vital to creating momentum and driving peer to peer behvaiour change. We'll use case studies, good news and photos to drive further greening aciton | £1,000 |
| Seedling propogation - working with volunteers and Rosamund Community Garden we have use of a polytunnel to propagate | £500 |
| Toolkit & resource creation to support businesses & community groups, including how to create a maintenance plan | £250 |
| Engagement - we have a number of events planned, as well as an engagement strategy to get town centre businesses involved, and will use some funds to create engagement materials and fund the events | £750 |
Beneficiaries
40,000 people
Who will benefit
Expected impact
90,000 people live in the URBOAs delivery zone. A large proportion of the residents and employees in the project area will directly benefit from urban greening interventions across a number of outcomes, including:- improved access to nature & green space in urban areas- improved air quality. This will be monitored by GCARE- reversal of Surrey's biodiversity decline - will be measured by citizen science wildlife surveys - mental health & wellbeing - benefits will be aligned against Surrey County Council's 'green health' frameworkHowever, the potential impact of this project is far greater. This project will pilot approach to implementing the other 17 URBOAs mapped out across Surrey by Surrey Wildlife Trust. This means the project has a potential county-wide impact, with huge potential benefits for the recovery of nature. Not only that, but this project is replicable by any local authority, so the social & environmental return makes this £5000 investment a bargain!