Scaling nature-based solutions for climate resilient infrastructure

Role: MSc candidate
Project: The ecological impacts of African Development Corridors on habitat connectivity and animal movement
Affiliation: Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London
ORCID ID: N/A
Email: lingda.lu22@imperial.ac.uk

Lingda Lu is currently completing the Master of Research in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation at Imperial College London. With a Bachelor of Science in Physics at Imperial, where she conducted research in climate science and oceanography, she brings strong quantitative, computational, and analytical skills to ecological research, including training in statistics, machine learning, numerical modelling, and large-scale environmental data analysis. She also has hands-on field experience in raptor monitoring, grassland restoration, and GPS-based studies of mammal behaviour through work with conservation organisations and research teams in China and the UK.

With a deep connection to nature formed in childhood, Lingda is driven by a long-standing commitment to conservation. She is interested in how biodiversity responds to environmental stressors, alongside broader themes in landscape ecology, habitat assessment and restoration, conservation planning, and human–nature coexistence.

Her master’s project investigates how the construction of African Development Corridors may affect habitat connectivity and wildlife movement, with a focus on their implications for the migration routes of wide-ranging mammals and the future range shifts of climate-sensitive species.

Lingda is broadly motivated by integrating analytical and computational approaches with field-based ecological insight to address biodiversity loss, habitat degradation, and the conservation challenges posed by human development and climate change. She is committed to making real-world impact by using scientific research to inform and strengthen conservation practice.