Ecology is a cornerstone of sustainability, thus its consideration within the development of the Olympic Park is integral to the goal that London 2012 will be a sustainable Games.
The Olympic Park project itself is Europe’s largest urban regeneration project, including remediation of highly polluted soils and waterways.
In terms of ecology, LUC helped guide the site enabling works, ensuring that impacts on wildlife are minimised and also allowing for the successful delivery of innovative habitat creation works.
LUC has undertaken a range of ecological baseline and monitoring surveys throughout the Olympic Park since 2005. These included surveys for bats, amphibians, reptiles, fish, invertebrates, birds (including kingfisher, sand martin and black redstart), and habitats and flora.
The information collected enabled LUC to advise the Olympic Delivery Authority as to the best way to proceed with works whilst minimising harm to the urban ecology of the area.
Mitigation works included the translocation of amphibians and reptiles to the nearby Waterworks Nature Reserve, with habitat enhancement including the creation and improvement of ponds and refugia. New nesting sites were created for sand martins and kingfisher with successful breeding already recorded, whilst on the Hackney Marshes we emplyed innovative approaches to create a variety of brownfield habitats to support rare insects previously recorded in the Olympic Park.
These works will help to maintain biodiversity in the area, allowing for recolonisation of the Park once works are complete.
