Data tracking: how biodiverse is our campus?

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Take a virtual campus tour

Take a campus tour of Pollock Halls or Kings Buildings to improve your knowledge of natural areas and green spaces on campus.

Take a campus tour

Biodiversity data collection

Volunteers are helping to monitor wildlife populations across our campus, helping to inform our understanding of biodiversity on our estate, and in some cases across the UK.

One example of this is the National Hedgehog Monitoring Programme (NHMP) which came to Easter Bush Campus in summer 2024. The Programme will help to establish the first accurate picture of the UK's hedgehog population.

Find out how students and staff supported the NHMP at Easter Bush

Get involved: Wild campus events, training and volunteering

You can also help us to map biodiversity by using the iNaturalist app to log species you spot across our wild campus.

Different types of vegetation are scored differently depending on their biodiversity value, so the total score after collecting this data will provide an idea of how good a campus is for biodiversity.

Additional layers of data such as flood risk and overheating data will in future be integrated to assess the current vulnerability of urban areas to climate change impacts.

Mapping has been completed at Kings Buildings, Pollock Halls and Easter Bush. Further mapping will be undertaken at other campuses.

Find out more about 'How Green is Your Campus?'

You can contribute data at any time with the iNaturalist app.

Identify species on campus with the iNaturalist app

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Do you want to learn more about nature and the variety of species around us? The iNaturalist app offers a way to log your observations of the natural world, from rare bird sightings to common garden weeds. The app translates your observations into data which is then shared with scientific communities and used to support national biodiversity records.

To take part, you just need to:

1. Download the iNaturalist app
2. Make sure location is enabled on your phone
3. You can either take photos of animals you encounter while the app is open or just take photos normally (with location enabled) and upload them to the app later on

All photos taken will become part of each campus site Collection that we have already created.

So why not use a lunchtime or break from work to go outside and log your sightings using the app? If you're not sure of a species, iNaturalist naturalists will help with identifications once photos are uploaded.

Download iNaturalist app [external]

View iNaturalist collections from our campus

See what plants and animals other staff and students have already mapped in our campus collections:

• Kings Buildings [external]
• Central and Moray House [external]
• Easter Bush [external]
• Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) [external]
• Little France [external]
• Pollock Halls [external]
• Western General [external]