About
Biodiversity is on rapid decline, with the United Kingdom as one of the most nature depleted countries in the world. A principal cause of this is climate change, and conversion of semi-natural areas of land for anthropogenic use. We must arrest this decline and allow nature to recover.
The Weston OpenLiving Lab is an innovative initiative dedicated to education and research with the aim to address both nature recovery and human-nature connection. It is both a beautiful, restorative landscape and a rare ecological resource. Located on land adjacent to the River Ouzel on the Open University’s campus in Milton Keynes, the OpenLiving Lab is regenerating the ecosystem services provided of a riparian woodland and its adjoining floodplain meadow, while also creating a living science laboratory for teaching, research, and community engagement.
The site provides a valuable opportunity to study, in detail, urban riparian woodland and floodplain meadow ecosystems, both of which are rare and of significant conservation value. A wide range of environmental monitoring and research activities are underway, which includes acoustic sensors that record and analyse birdsong using machine learning, as well as biophysical instruments that collected meteorological data. We are also examining soils, including measuring soil moisture and nutrient composition of the different soil profiles we have across the site. Alongside these, we are sampling invertebrates, monitoring water quality of the River Ouzel, enhancing species richness within the floodplain meadow through tailored management, and recording mammal activity through camera traps. All the work we are doing at the site have independent pages on this website which you can access from the navigation bar at the top of this page.
The Open Living Lab also serves as a resource for Open University academics, who are using the site to develop interactive learning materials for Open University modules, for collaborative work across the higher education community, and for public engagement through Open Educational Resources (OERs). In the future, this will culminate in a free, open-access course about nature recovery in urban areas, delivered through the OU’s free learning platform OpenLearn. Modules that use the data collected at the OpenLiving Labs are already underway,
We are currently developing plans to expand our dedicated visitor centre, which will provide space for tailored learning experiences and public education programmes led by OU experts in urban ecology and nature recovery. These will include guided ‘learning walks’, hands-on science activities within the living laboratory, and classroom-based sessions in the visitor centre.
In keeping with our commitment to accessibility, the entire OpenLiving Lab is freely open to the public, offering a welcoming environment for exploration, discovery, and enjoyment.
