How does post-industrial land regeneration contribute to Biodiveristy Net Gain in the UK?

Restoration of former mining sites usually involves habitat creation that not only aims to reduce the concentration of pollutants but also enhance biodiversity. Habitat restoration and offsets have been proposed to compensate biodiversity losses, however few studies provide empirical evidence of success, and technical challenges exist to effectively measure losses and gains owing to mining. New processes and policies are emerging to both encourage and enforce effective conservation action, such as biodiversity net gain under the 2021 Environment Act. Assessment of measurable biodiversity indicators can be used to monitor levels of recovery and added value provided. In the context of biodiversity net gain, monitoring, reporting, and validation need to be considered at project and policy level. But is the project-level management, monitoring, enforcement, and reporting proposed sufficient and achievable?
This project examines biodiversity variability on sites at different stages of restoration. This includes measurements of changes in vegetation structure through habitat surveys and remote sensing. This will provide information on habitat classification, vegetation carbon storage and indication of plant stress levels. Trophic complexity will be measured through surveys of above and below ground invertebrate species, including pollinators and their potential link to natural capital assessment. Finally, soil health improvement will be measured through analytical assessment of changes in soil composition (carbon content, soil organic matter content, contamination level) and soil structure; as well as remote sensing to identify type of vegetation and bare ground as indicators of soil carbon storage over time. Well characterised post-industrial brownfield sites at different stages of restoration will be used to provide soil, plant, and pollinator baseline data. Monitoring of low-cost remediation processes, such as repairing ecosystem function (species establishment) and initiating nature recovery (rewilding arable into natural grassland) will be done through monitoring biodiversity changes over a 2-year period at sites under contrasting managed practices by Northumberland Wildlife Trust (collaborative partner) and Newcastle University Farms.
Key Research Gaps and Questions:
1. Are biodiversity net gain monitoring, validation and reporting methodologies sufficient and achievable?
2. Can the use of remote sensing combined with soil, plant and invertebrate assessment build the evidence base dataset needed to provide evidence of restoration and biodiversity gain or loss?
3. Do restoration processes and conservation management, (e.g.rewilding) provide added value on biodiversity net gain?