Greenb

  • Gabby Morris

duration: 1 week This project was part of a week-long virtual residency with GSA Sustainability, my focus was on biodiversity loss and social equality in UK Greenspaces. the project Biodiversity and species loss since the 1970s is a huge problem for the UK, urbanisation plays a key role in our destruction of the natural world. People need to find ways to protect nature and enjoy it as part of their urban communities in order to halt some of the damage that has been done. Access to greenspace has become a hot topic over the last few months, both in light of Covid19 but also as part of the Black Lives Matter learnings. Not everyone has access to greenspace, or feels comfortable using it. With this in mind, along with my interests in nature protection, I decided to set myself a brief for the residency “How do we connect people to nature and empower them to protect it and engage with it”. After a week of research and engagement, the outcome of my GSA residency is “Greenb” an urban biodiversity game that helps people to learn about nature and their local greenspaces through gamification whilst tracking data on flora and fauna. In turn, the data on biodiversity is made available open-source to organisations that need it or want to use it. The hope is that this game could be used across all sections of society, unlocking nature to people without the usual barriers of knowledge and confidence. When people are connected and engaged with their greenspaces they feel more connected to their communities, are more likely to use greenspaces and are more likely to protect them.