Why are ponds important?
Ponds provide vital habitat for some of the UK’s most important native species. In fragmented urban landscapes ponds can provide habitat stepping stones for mobile species such as dragonflies, bridging gaps between larger habitat patches. In addition to their vital role in supporting biodiversity, ponds help protect cities from flooding by storing water; create urban cooling effects in the midst of climate change; and improve people’s wellbeing by providing tranquil spaces to connect with nature.
Despite their importance, there has not been a systematic on the ground survey of ponds across Greater London since the 1980's. In order to improve and increase the number of ponds across London, we first needed to know where and in what condition London's ponds were in currently.
What's happened so far?
To find out the location and condition of London's ponds, in 2024, in partnership with the Freshwater Habitats Trust (FHT) and Green Space Information for Greater London (GiGL) and supported by the Mayor of London, we recruited and trained one hundred citizen science volunteers to work with us to map and record the condition of ponds in Greater London’s public spaces. The data collected has been fed back to GiGL’s Habitat and Land Use (HLU) dataset and considered within the London Nature Recovery Strategy as well as in the Freshwater Habitats wider Priority Pond mapping project. So far, we have mapped over 500 publicly accessible ponds across London.
What's next?
ZSL’s vison is Greater London rich in well maintained and monitored ponds that provide vital habitat for plants and animals. This will require the restoration of old ponds and the creation of new ponds. We recognise that this vision is shared by many organisations – see for instance the work to create 100 new ponds
led by London Borough of Enfield in Enfield Chase and Froglife’s Blue Chain project in the boroughs of Bexley, Greenwich, Bromley, Lewisham, Southwark and Lambeth.
The next steps towards this vision are to:
- Support the development of a pond working group for London that will be open to fellow NGOs, academics and other experts. The working group will guide the work needed to achieve the vision.
- Build an understanding of the best locations for new ponds for example by identifying where clean water sites might be found.
- Forge new partnerships with landowners and community groups to restore and create ponds.
- Support community based London pond champions who will work with us to monitor, restore and maintain ponds.
- Collaboratively develop, or adapt from existing, the most suitable community science methods for monitoring ponds and make them freely available.
To hear about opportunities to get involved in citizen science, please sign up to our email list here