Sonorous Landscapes: Using sound and creative design methods to capture and communicate biodiversity in an urban forest

onorous Landscapes aims to address the challenge of engaging urban communities, urban design professionals, and policy makers in proactive biodiversity conservation within the context of urban woodlands and coppicing paddocks. Through Slough Borough Council's (SBC) Digital Urban Forest (DUF), the project will design and test the efficacy of innovative time-based methods for i) capturing changing levels of biodiversity through sound and ii) communicating these changes through creative digital methods that engage audiences with sensing and data. The research will encourage active community stewardship of SBC's green transition initiatives—specifically, the DUF's reforestation and rewilding activities. It will test the efficacy of its methods in changing perceptions of biodiversity and creating tangible evidence to support urban design and policy interventions that improve biodiversity. It will support climate and environment education initiatives that raise awareness of the importance of biodiversity in urban settings, spanning subjects from arts and humanities to design, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). By designing exemplary means of engaging stakeholders in measures and discourse regarding biodiversity, the research aims to increase stewardship of urban ecologies and embrace the societal changes that are urgently needed to address the climate crisis.

The research will develop and pilot innovative unattended field-based recording methods, analysis, and creative time-based visualizations. It will build upon four sensor and creative communication projects previously delivered by the Research Associate Rupert Griffiths and funded by the Joy Welch Post-doctoral Fund, AHRC Impact Acceleration Account, Universität Bonn TRA Sustainable Futures fund, and the Urban Tree Challenge Fund (DEFRA). These projects have laid a solid foundation for the proposed project, developing and testing the underlying infrastructure, technologies, and engagement techniques.

The research questions are:

RQ1: What values do communities, design professionals, and policymakers attach to urban biodiversity and rewilding?
RQ2: How can creative methods, bioacoustic sensors, and time-based visualizations articulate changes in biodiversity to broad audiences?
RQ3: How does live information about biodiversity influence stakeholder values, engagement, and stewardship towards the environment?

The research addresses challenges such as the need to uncover and understand values, perceptions, and cultural associations among urban communities towards biodiversity and rewilding. It aims to foster community engagement and involvement in conservation. By providing accessible live information about biodiversity within urban green spaces over various timescales, the project explores how data influences community engagement and values regarding biodiversity. This will contribute to green transition within cities and developing more sustainable and resilient urban ecosystems.