The Bio-Connected Canopy project at Gordon Street transforms the new green roof and wall installations into a high-tech Living Lab, using an array of integrated IoT sensors, including acoustic monitors, thermal sensors, and high-resolution cameras, to generate real-time environmental intelligence.
This repo contains information on the sensors used, installation notes and pointers to data being generated.
UCL News Item on Gordon Street Canopy
Overview of sensor locations
The motivation is two-fold: ecologically, we aim to quantify the success of this nature-based solution in enhancing urban biodiversity, specifically through continuous monitoring of bird and bat populations using acoustic sensors and video cameras. Environmentally, the sensor network provides a critical dataset for analysing bioclimatic conditions. This enables the quantification of the green wall and roof's contribution to mitigating the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect on the adjacent Chemistry Building using thermal and humidity sensors.
The project extends beyond environmental metrics. We also monitor the social use of the pedestrianised space under the canopy, assessing the impact of the green intervention on building occupant health, well-being, and nature connectedness. By integrating these diverse data streams, from ecology to bioclimatic conditions to social use patterns, the Bio-Connected Canopy acts as a powerful teaching and research platform, embedding real-world project work across faculties. The combined data will quantify the overall success of the urban greening efforts, providing an evidence base for biodiversity net gain and future climate adaptation strategies.
| Benefit | Description |
|---|---|
| Environmental | Urban Heat Island Mitigation: Provides quantifiable data on the cooling effects of the green wall and canopy structure on the adjacent building and immediate microclimate. |
| Ecological | Biodiversity Net Gain: Enables robust, continuous monitoring of species (birds, bats) and habitat usage to measure the effectiveness of the Nature-Based Solution (NBS) design. |
| Research & Education | Connected Curriculum: Generates real-world, live data streams for student and staff research projects across multiple UCL departments. |
| Well-being & Community | Health Impact Assessment: Monitors the social use and engagement with the space, linking green infrastructure to improvements in staff / student well-being and nature connectedness. |
| Strategic | Knowledge Exchange: demonstration of Living Labs, supporting UCL's Nature-Positive and Sustainability strategies, and informing the wider University of London Estate. |