Urban Pond Conservation

Learn how to create, improve and manage urban ponds for amphibians and other wildlife.

Urban ponds play a vital role in supporting biodiversity and enhancing the quality of life in towns and cities. They provide habitat for a wide range of wildlife, including amphibians, aquatic invertebrates, birds, and plants – many of which struggle to survive in heavily built-up environments. Beyond biodiversity, urban ponds deliver important ecosystem services: they help manage surface water and reduce flood risk, improve water quality by trapping pollutants, and contribute to climate resilience by cooling local areas during hot weather. Just as importantly, they offer accessible green and blue spaces that support human wellbeing, environmental education, and community engagement with nature.

Despite their value, urban ponds face significant and growing challenges. Pollution from road runoff, litter, and nutrient inputs can degrade water quality and lead to problems such as algal blooms and oxygen depletion. Many ponds are also threatened by neglect, infilling, or redevelopment as urban land pressures increase. Invasive species, artificial shading, and altered hydrology further degrade their ecological condition, while climate change intensifies risks through droughts and extreme rainfall events. Protecting and managing urban ponds requires coordinated planning, long-term monitoring, and active stewardship to ensure these small but crucial ecosystems continue to function and thrive.

In this webinar, we’ll cover the following topics:

• Understand the ecological role of ponds in urban green spaces: These small but important ecosystems can support high species richness and provide connectivity across a fragmented landscape.
• Compare different monitoring approaches to surveying urban ponds: Learn about the methods available to collect data about the whole pond ecosystem.
• Identify the key threats to urban ponds: Examine environmental data, biological evidence and knowledge of urban pressures to define the main stressors.
• Evaluate conservation management strategies to restore urban ponds: Review case studies to establish best-practice approaches.
• Assess urban green spaces to reconnect the freshwater network: Building resilience across the landscape for long-term species persistence.

Whether you’re a site manager, conservationist, wildlife gardener or ecologist, this session will equip you with the practical knowledge to create, improve and manage urban ponds for amphibians and other wildlife.

The 90-minute event will consist of a 1-hour presentation followed by a Q&A with the tutor using questions provided by the live audience.

The presentations will be recorded and shared with those who booked alongside Q&A transcripts and relevant links following the event via a password-protected website.

Amphibian Specialist: Dr Rachel Walker

Dr Rachel Walker is a London-based scientist working in conservation research and monitoring. She is interested in studying the environmental factors and ecological interactions that shape biodiversity within different ecosystems. Rachel monitors the impact of restoration works and conservation management interventions across a range of habitats and different taxa in urban areas. She is particularly interested in what indicator species – such as amphibians, plants and aquatic macroinvertebrates – can tell us about the condition of the habitats in our urban green spaces. Throughout her work she aims to generate evidence-based research to identify solutions for practitioners to improve conservation outcomes.

Skills For Ecology Webinars

Our Skills For Ecology webinars focus on technical skills useful in ecology and conservation roles, such as use of technology, field surveying and practical conservation skills.

• Check out upcoming Skills For Ecology webinars: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/cc/training-webinars-4423333
• Catch up with previous webinars through our Skills For Ecology online courses: https://courses.biologicalrecording.co.uk/collections/skills-for-ecology

This webinar is delivered by the Biological Recording Company in partnership with Barnes Conservation.