Biosphere Here
January 2015
Dear <<Name>>
A New Nature of Green Space?
Firstly, our warmest wishes to you for 2015 - we're looking forward here to a positive year ahead as our first year as a UNESCO World Biosphere area.
If winter's chill is currently keeping you indoors, then take a look at our monthly events calendar (summarised in the side bar) to see what's going on in the natural world out there, as well as full details of the eco-events happening in our Biosphere, both indoors and out!
Two indoor events with a Biosphere focus that are not to be missed are Seedy Sunday at the Corn Exchange in Brighton this weekend (1st February) and Bright Sparks, which is part of the Brighton Science Festival and takes place on the first weekend of school half-term (14th February). We'll be presenting our Biosphere work at both events, focussed respectively on wild flower planting and our hidden water resources - including a new virtual Biosphere world using Minecraft. Hope to see you there!
Given the cold short days, now is a good time to enjoy the nature on your doorstep. We are really fortunate in our Biosphere's city and towns to have such a variety of accessible green spaces close to home, but this provides us with much more than just a pretty view or somewhere to walk the dog.
You might be surprised to learn just how much our green spaces do for us urban-dwellers, by reading the piece below and full blog by this month's guest contributor, Ben Kimpton of the Ecology Consultancy and B&H Building Green. In it, Ben reveals the diverse "ecosystem services" that our urban nature provides us with, but also how our built-up environment could work far better by including "green infrastructure" in its future development. Food for thought.
Here's to the year ahead, and our future wellbeing!
Rich Howorth
Brighton & Lewes Downs Biosphere officer |
|
|
Window On
Our World
Urban Green
Some inspiring examples of greening the built-up environment of our Biosphere exist, from Victorian green walls to modern buildings with green wildflower roofs. You can visit the following:
~ Madeira Drive, Brighton seafront - one of the oldest and largest green walls in existence
~ Linklater Pavilion, Lewes Railway Land -innovative environment centre with green roof
~ Earthship, Stanmer -the first in England, with rainwater harvesting and natural wastewater treatment
~ One Brighton, New England quarter - with sky garden allotments & green walls
|
|
Bio Blog
From Green Roofs to RainGardens
Our city and towns contain a rich network of green spaces, from Victorian parks with unique elm trees to road verges with wildflowers.
Increasingly people are trying to design the hard-surfaced urban environment to be more natural and permeable, by incorporating vegetation to shade us, absorb rainfall, and sustain wildlife.
These natural spaces and features are our “green infrastructure”, providing us with many benefits as vital to our urban life as the more conventional grey infrastructure.
For us to live better in the future as an international Biosphere demonstration area, then we will need to integrate the green and grey to … read the full blog
|
|
|
|
