Exploring the links between post-industrial landscape history and ecology through participatory methods

The study demonstrates that integrating local knowledge through participatory GIS reveals how both planned interventions and informal community activities—ranging from the active protection of flower-rich habitats to disturbances like motorbike use—contribute to habitat heterogeneity and biodiversity in post-industrial landscapes.

• Participatory GIS and community involvement revealed that post-mining sites in the Yorkshire coalfield consist of a blend of technical reclamation and spontaneous succession, with ecological diversity influenced by both formal management and informal local activities.
• Informal community actions significantly impact biodiversity in two ways: the active protection of conservation-value habitats, such as calcareous grasslands and orchids which support pollinators, and disturbances (e.g., motorbike use, camping, and fuel gathering) and rubble spreading that create bare ground habitats for uncommon invertebrates and waste-ground plants.
• Engaging local communities and utilizing their unrecorded knowledge provides a more accurate ecological interpretation of post-industrial sites, which establishes a more effective foundation for future biodiversity management plans.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2015). Exploring the links between post-industrial landscape history and ecology through participatory methods. https://www.sei.org/publications/exploring-the-links-between-post-industrial-landscape-history-and-ecology-through-participatory-methods/

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Exploring the links between post-industrial landscape history and ecology through participatory methods. 2015. https://www.sei.org/publications/exploring-the-links-between-post-industrial-landscape-history-and-ecology-through-participatory-methods/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Exploring the links between post-industrial landscape history and ecology through participatory methods |date=7 September 2015 |url=https://www.sei.org/publications/exploring-the-links-between-post-industrial-landscape-history-and-ecology-through-participatory-methods/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2015exploring, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Exploring the links between post-industrial landscape history and ecology through participatory methods}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2015}, month = sep, url = {https://www.sei.org/publications/exploring-the-links-between-post-industrial-landscape-history-and-ecology-through-participatory-methods/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }