25 Sep 2025

Image description: wild swimmers doing front crawl in a body of water. Photo by Johanna Steppan on Unsplash   A new report from the London assembly has recommended ten new wild swimming locations should be created in London, to accelerate a clean-up of the capital’s waterways and increase nature access. The investigation, titled “Swimmable rivers: […]

25 Feb 2025

Researchers from the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) and the University of Southampton will ‘listen’ to a UK city for the first time at scale through its network of optical fibre cables using a ground-breaking new technology. The researchers will be using a technique called distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) to capture sounds and vibrations throughout London and […]

07 Aug 2024

An interim Surface Water Strategy for London has been published. The interim strategy Set out the direction of the forthcoming strategy, as part of ongoing engagement with partners and wider stakeholder groups, to continue to inform its development Highlight progress in delivering initiatives to better manage and mitigate the impacts of surface water flooding across […]

23 Jul 2024

Last week saw the publication of the London Climate Resilience Review, chaired by Emma Howard Boyd CBE. The Review provides an assessment of London’s climate resilience and makes 50 recommendations for action to guide London’s preparations for more frequent and intense climate impacts. The Mayor of London has accepted those recommendations that apply to City […]

07 Feb 2024

The London Assembly claims that instances of sewage flowing into London’s rivers in 2023 were almost five times the amount for the same period the previous year. The London Assembly used published Thames Water data which monitors discharge from 118 sites across the Thames Water network feeding into 33 rivers and waterways. The data shows […]

05 Jul 2023

The London Climate Resilience Review has issued a call for evidence by Saturday 2 September 2023. Making sure London is ready for floods, storms, extreme heat, and drought is important for national security and a chance to build a fairer society, improving all Londoners’ lives and livelihoods. In last year’s record-breaking 40°C heat, schools were […]

24 May 2023

BBC Travel piece Few visitors know that London has 640km of waterways – and there’s a serious movement taking place to restore these “blue corridors” to their former glory. Though most visitors to London think only of the River Thames, the city is a myriad of waterways. Old maps show a skein of rivers and […]

23 Feb 2023

The Greater London Authority has released a map of locations of sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) across London. London is outgrowing its drains and sewers. The combined sewer system originally built over 150 years ago by Joseph Bazalgette has served us well, but it was designed for a smaller city with more green surfaces. The combined […]