Is Norwich Sustainable?
By: July • Essay • 1,417 Words • May 15, 2010 • 996 Views
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