Bats in the City: Co-Designing Futures of Bats in Urban Spaces in London in 2040
more-than-human design; co-design workshop; systems thinking
Project Duration
3 months
Contributors
Elsa Parrot; Sacchita Nandi; Hannah Park; Yike Chen
How are bats in the UK doing?
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Four of the 11 Red Listed British mammals at risk of national extinction are bats.
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The greater mouse-eared bat is Critically Endangered, reduced to two individuals.
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The grey long-eared bat is Endangered.
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The barbastelle and serotine are both Vulnerable
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Bats Chiroptera spp are one of the 7 target species for London Biodiversity Action Plan 2021-26.
We aim to explore plausible and preferable futures of how bats and humans might coexist in urban environments in London in 2030 and 2040, examining the conditions necessary for their safe roosting, feeding, and navigation in the city.
Secondary Research
Literature Review
Timeline Analysis
PESTLE Analysis
Systems Map
Primary Research
Expert Interviews
Bats Conservation Trust and Natural History Museum Visit
Probes and Prototypes
Intervention Strategies
Workshops
Insights and Reflections
Workshop Analsyis
Reflections
Secondary Research
To analyze the extensive information, we utilized the STEEP framework and a timeline approach to effectively organize our secondary research.
Second Industrial Revolution (1870-1914)
Massive use of building materials and consumption practices
Middle Ages (476 - 1500)
Spread of superstitions and associations of bats with evil, witchcraft, and diseases in Europe
Particularly since Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)
Bats considered symbols of good luck in China​
Post WWII
Start of intensive agriculture, with use of chemical fertilisers
Social
Social
Technological
Environmental
1981
The Wildlife and Countryside Act
1997
Implementation of the National Bat Monitoring Programme
​Late 20th century
Beginning of the Modern Nature Conservation movement in the UK
International Bat Night (1997)
Annual event promoting awareness and education about bats
2002
City of London Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP)
Political
1994
The Conservation (Natural Habitats &C) Regulations
European Bat Conservation Strategy (2001)
2005
iBatsUK project
Political
2006
The first cases of White Nose Syndrome (WNS) were reported in the United States
2008
Global Economic Recession, significant budget cuts across various sectors, including environmental conservation
Tourism Growth (2000s-present)
Can benefit bat conservation by promoting awareness and funding, or can disturb roosts and habitats
2012
National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF)
​2017
Habitats Regulations
​2015
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Environmental
Economical
Political
Economical
Social
Present
2010s - present: Development of Renewable Energy
2021
The UK Environment Act
Environmental
Technological
Political
Future
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Decrease of insects
Rise in temperatures
New technologies improving bat monitoring
AI Development, energy and water demand, habitat loss
New building materials
Sustainable agriculture innovations
Increase of pandemics and zoonotic diseases
Primary Research
To validate our findings from the secondary research and systems map, we conducted two expert interviews and visited the Bat Conservation Trust office and the Natural History Museum.
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Systems Map
To understand the interconnected factors and variables, we created a systems map that encompassed all elements related to bat mortality. This map helped identify causal loops and leverage points. Additionally, we visualized the map in a more comprehensible manner by illustrating the bat ecosystem, the human ecosystem, and an interaction zone to highlight their interconnections.
Leverage Points
The overarching problem is that bats have a diminishing place in the city of London, mainly because of human induced factors that are both direct like global warming, pollution, oral contamination, urban sprawl, non-renewable energy sources and indirect factors like chemicals used in pesticides and changes in crop patterns.
Through our research, we found that it is evident that bats do not have enough safe zones to roost and navigate within the city. This is linked to not just having the right vegetation/house/bridges and bat boxes to roost in, but also importantly the right environment around these spaces that would enable bats to use them. Existing conservation efforts might not be taking all influencing factors around bat safe zones into consideration, questioning how useful ideas like bat boxes really are. Light pollution especially becomes a major influencing factor, with bats avoiding well lit areas.
Bats, also being a migratory species, that travel across spaces force us to also think of enablers that would direct and connect existing and new safe zones within the city to form green corridors. This would require all conservation organisations, activists and influencing stakeholders to be aware of the issues regarding bats, and start a London wide collective effort to create change.
Probes & Prototypes
As part of the project, we designed two workshops. The first was a storytelling workshop aimed at understanding people's perceptions of bats. The second brought together bat experts, council members, community representatives, and urban planners to co-vision potential futures for bats in the city.
We conducted a workshop to uncover the underlying biases and emotions that exist within the community.
Participants were asked to associate an emotion with bats and create comics around it where the bat is the main character of this story. Stickers, format and stationery was provided to support the participants.
Based on a comic layout, participants narrated a story, featuring a bat as the main character. Then they shared the stories to the group.​
Workshop Analysis
We applied a thematic analysis by transcribing the workshop recordings and then coding the transcripts. We highlighted words and phrases related to the same topic to identify recurring patterns, which were then used to generate overarching themes from the stories shared by 8 participants.
Co-Design Workshop
Our vision is for bats to be able to access safe zones to roost within and beyond the city, that are interconnected to each other in harmony with people. It is also that people understand the importance of these zones and they are designed keeping bats and nature in central focus.​
Intervention Strategy
Get all conservationists, bat experts, activists working in the space to collectively set and identify the amount of work needed to achieve a vision for bats set in 2030, 2040 and 2050. ​
Get the room of experts to then consider and envision what a London wide collective effort for bats would like, and the steps needed to get there.
This is to also ensure work is not happening in silos, and everyone can learn and discourse on best shared practices and focus on a scaled up approach.
Our role as futures designers would be to act as facilitators for this workshop, using a toolkit designed by us to help experts, practitioners and concerned stakeholders get together in one space, to promote dialogue on the importance of problems to counter and future speculations on what healthy co-living spaces for bats would look like in London.
Workshop Flow
We start by inviting bat experts and conservationists to map down what “A day in the life of a bat” would look like. With this activity we want to push experts to see things from a bat perspective and collectively identify what factors are negatively influencing a bat roosting, navigation and habitat ground.
Participants are provided with stickers on possible friction points like lights, cats, noise, chemicals etc along with blank stickers for them to add newly identified friction points.
Along with the stickers on friction areas, there's also a set of existing solution cards with a QR leading to a detailed synopsis. These are also meant to provoke discussion and facilitate conversation on the issues around existing practice or the lack thereof.
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We then invite the experts to look at the issue from a London wide perspective, mapping down friction points using the same stickers on another chart. Here we invite them to think about ”What a year in the life of a bat looks like?”
This activity would then follow up with a visioning exercise for experts to now focus on possible mitigation steps. This activity is something we envision should happen in conversation along with other stakeholders identified in the process, like landowners, architects, city planners, park and council members and people in construction as it is a shared vision that will be effective and should be thought in dialogue with others that are part of the system.
Further, we would set some metrics to measure the impact and success of the workshop.
References
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Trust, B.C. (no date) Are UK bats threatened? - Threats to bats, Bat Conservation Trust. Available at: https://www.bats.org.uk/about-bats/threats-to-bats/are-uk-bats-threatened
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‘City of London Biodiversity Action Plan 2021–2026’ (no date). Available at : https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/assets/Green-Spaces/city-of-london-biodiversity-action-plan-2021-2026.pdf
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Urban Bats: Biology, Ecology, and Human Dimensions | SpringerLink (no date). Available at: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-13173-8
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Browning E., 2024 Bats Conservation Efforts in London [Interview]. Sacchita Sriganapathiraju, November 22, 2024.
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Ferguson J., 2024 Bats Conservation Efforts in London [Interview]. Sacchita Sriganapathiraju, November 26, 2024.
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‘London bats Organisation’, no date - For the migratory data for bat routes
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Bat Conservation Trust (n.d.) Bat roost creation in Greater London. Available at: https://cdn.bats.org.uk/uploads/pdf/Our%20Work/bat_roost_creation_in_GL.pdf?v=1541085213 (Accessed: 10 December 2024).
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Bat Conservation Trust (n.d.) Bats and the law. Available at: https://www.bats.org.uk/advice/bats-and-the-law (Accessed: 10 December 2024).
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Department for Communities and Local Government (n.d.) Managing trees for bats in London. Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5b2a51bb40f0b634d14c234f/100000FCGuidance (Accessed: 10 December 2024).
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Frick, W.F., Pollock, J.F., Hicks, A.C., Langwig, K.E., Reynolds, D.S., Turner, G.G., Butchkoski, C.M., and Kunz, T.H. (2010) 'An emerging disease causes regional population collapse of a common North American bat species', Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107(21), pp. 9067–9072. Available at: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4730123/ (Accessed: 10 December 2024).
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Bat Conservation Trust (2023) Regenerative farming project. Available at: https://www.bats.org.uk/news/2023/10/regenerative-farming-project (Accessed: 16 December 2024).
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British Ecological Society (n.d.) Protecting little brown bats from white-nose syndrome. Available at: https://www.britishecologicalsociety.org/protecting-little-brown-bats-from-white-nose-syndrome/ (Accessed: 11 December 2024).
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Ecological Lighting (n.d.) Bat-friendly lighting. Available at: https://ecologicallighting.co.uk/bat-friendly-lighting#6a9dfd2d-3b9b-4189-b612-22db2795890c (Accessed: 12 December 2024).
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Bat Conservation Trust (n.d.) National bat monitoring programme. Available at: https://www.bats.org.uk/our-work/national-bat-monitoring-programme (Accessed: 16 December 2024).
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Bat Surveyor (n.d.) Bat bricks. Available at: https://bat-surveyor.co.uk/bat-bricks/ (Accessed: 12 December 2024).
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Architectuul (n.d.) Berkeley Bat House. Available at: https://architectuul.com/architecture/berkeley-bat-house (Accessed: 11 December 2024).
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Red Squirrel Architects (n.d.) Bat tunnel. Available at: https://redsquirrelarchitects.com/project/bat-tunnel/ (Accessed: 12 December 2024).
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Bat Conservation Trust (n.d.) Bat boxes. Available at: https://www.bats.org.uk/our-work/buildings-planning-and-development/bat-boxes (Accessed: 10 December 2024).