Shallow urban lakes: a challenge for lake management

Urban lakes are very different from other lakes: they are shallow, highly artificial and often hypertrophic yet more people come into contact with them than rural, natural lakes. Our knowledge of their ecology and management is poor. This paper describes a project under the EU Life programme to understand and ecologically manage the most important urban lakes in the London Borough of Wandsworth. One main lake has been evaluated: Battersea Park Lake. The magnitude of anthropogenic impacts are quantified and remedies explored. Computer-based decision trees for urban lake management have been developed and are illustrated.