Is Norwich Sustainable?

Aims and Introduction

My investigation is about if the Nelson Neighbourhood is sustainable. My study area is the west of Norwich; Norwich is a modern yet historical city which has a cathedral, castle and many other historical features. I will choose five sites within the Nelson Neighbourhood to find out whether or not the Nelson Neighbourhood is sustainable.

This is Norfolk where Norwich is located on the west of the UK

You can get to Norwich by Road, Rail and Air

In 1962 Sir Nikolaus Pevsner wrote "Norwich has everything". Not only has Norwich got it, but it has had it for a very long time. As George Borrow noted in Lavengro in 1851 it was "The genuine Old English town... its mighty mound which if tradition speaks true was raised by human hands to serve as the grand heap of an old heathen king... There is a grey old castle upon that mighty mound, and yonder rising three hundred feet above the soil, from among those noble forest trees behold that old Norman master work, that cloud circled cathedral spire..."

Norwich dates back to Saxon times though there was a major Roman settlement at nearby Caister St Edmund. By 1066 Norwich was one of the largest towns in England and in 1096 work started on the cathedral. The castle which still dominates the city centre was built not long after. The city grew in prosperity and population to become the second city of England by the early sixteenth century. It remained in a position of pre-eminence amongst English provincial towns until the industrial revolution.

The development of Norwich over such a long period and the avoidance of revolution have given the city an extremely pleasant environment. Modern building has been designed to fit in with the ancient buildings and the general effetc

is that the architetc

ural modernity of the University Plain is nicely complemented by the haphazard architetc

ural elegance of the city.

This is the Nelson Neighbourhood; my five sites can be seen here.

My study area is Nelson Street and the surrounding area by the seletc

ion of five sites. I will colletc

data on the living environment, the environment and the exterior suitability.

My five sites are: Northumberland Street, Dereham Road, Nelson Street, Armes Street and Adelaide Street.

Sustainability is an attempt to provide the best outcomes for the human and natural environments both now and into the indefinite future. It relates to the continuity of economic, social, institutional and environmental aspetc

s of human society, as well as the non-human environment.

An example of a sustainable city is Belfast.

What Belfast takes in each year Tonnes

Water 50,100,000

Oxygen 2,000,000

Fuel 2,000,000

Food 795,000

Timber 60,000

Tropical Timber 10,000

Paper 110,000

Plastics 105,000

Cement 97,000

Bricks, blocks, sand and tarmac 300,000

What Belfast gives out each year Tonnes

Household waste 121,000

Sewage sludge 375,000

Commercial and Industrial wastes 150,000

Carbon Dioxide 3,000,000

Sulphur Dioxide 20,000

Nitrous Oxides 14,000

At its simplest, sustainability is about resources. Belfast uses an enormous range of these each year.

As the table shows, much of the resources that the inhabitants of Belfast use come from outside the city. The use of 10,000 tonnes of tropical timber shows that it even affetc

s tropical rainforests. Like any settlement, Belfast has an impact, called an ecological footprint, on the world.

The domestic refuse produced by the population of Belfast is one example of how the city has an impact on the environment. Much of what is brought into Belfast eventually ends up in landfill sites like the one illustrated here in Dargan Road.

As these landfill sites within the city become filled, and the landfill on Dargan Road is virtually full, the city has to 'export' its waste out into landfill areas in the surrounding countryside. This increases the area on which the city has an impact. As landfill sites become more scarce, and also more expensive, the dilemma of what to do with Belfast's household waste is made more and more difficult.

Methodology

I have colletc

ed information about the amount of litter; I colletc

ed this so I know how much littler is about in the area and can let me see the amount of crime going on in each area.

The environmental aspetc

s of the area are also required each feature is needed, the paving and road (how good or bad is it), litter (is there a lot of litter or nor), Dereliction (is the area in bad condition), Street Furniture (is there bins, benches, street lamps etc

), Wirescape (is the area covered in wires), Advertisements (are the posters, billboards etc

all over), Air Pollution (is the air clean, are the lots of vehicles passing by), Nuisance (is there lots of noise), Landscape (is the area well landscaped), Parking (are there lots of cars parked along the street or are they parked in a car park), Traffic Safety (is there a Home Watch scheme or CCTV), Building Condition (are the buildings in good condition), Walls and Fences (are the walls crumbling away and are the fences missing panels), General Housekeeping (are painted walls flaking away, is the brickwork keep after well).

The dwelling exterior of