Urban Research Station

By 2050 68% of the world’s population will live in urban areas. The Urban Research Station studies how urban areas can be made better for people, for nature, and for the climate (and hopefully also create joy).

Urban Research Station at the Natural History Museum, London

Sensor network

The sensor network will consist of round 25 devices measuring acoustic activity and the environment.

Installing acoustic sensor on a tree. © The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London

• Sensor network philosophy - how we thought about the deisgn of a sensor network.

• Sensor network install - documenting the installation of the sensor network.

• Digital twins - how the sensor network will help form a digital twin of the NHM Gardens.

Studies

• Urban heat islands - studying the impact of urbanisation on temperature variations.

• Acoustics

Visual Observations

There is a long history of visual observations of species, these are currently collected through a mix of transects and ad-hoc recording.

Anybody can contribute to ad-hic recording using iNaturalist or iRecord.

• Nature Discovery Garden iNaturalist project

More-than-human approaches

More-than-human appraoches to biodiversity research are looking at how we can make urban areas more habitable for all species.

• Summary of more-than-human biodiversity research

Media

• The Nature of Tech - Amazon Web Services and the Natural History Museum (2025) - discussing the use of technology in biodiversity research.

• Natural History Museum’s new gardens aim to restore UK’s urban nature New Scientist (2024)

• ITV News (2024) Discussing audio sensor network in NHM Gardens.

Talks

• Internal NHM launch of Urban Research Station - Natural History Museum, London (2025)

Urban Nature at other institutions

• Urban Nature at the Museum of Edinburgh - Courtyard Gallery and an exhibition showcasing the relationship between children’s literature and nature.