Sustainability in London
- Due to London's popularity, buildings have been built to be lived and worked in as the city has changed
- Many factories shut down as manufacturing moved overseas to countries like China.
- Areas became abandoned as their desirability changed, with factory buildings falling into disrepair and nearby houses becoming vacant and boarded up
- These areas can become environmentally damaging due to toxic leaks, asbestos, rubble, rats, foxes and unwanted plant growth and socially they are an eyesore and a place of danger for children
- London needs 63,000 new homes a year to keep up with its population growth
- The obvious answer is to redevelop derelict sites, but issues arise, and developers' costs increase
- Brownfield sites are land that has previously been built on e.g. Battersea Power Station or the Olympic Park where they have been converted into new homes
- Environmental problems include more waste production as land needs to be cleared first and made safe before building can begin, this makes it more expensive overall and pushes the price of the finished buildings up
Use of a brownfield site: Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London
- Location:
- The Lea Valley, East London - site chosen for the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park
- The problems:
- The aim was to create a lasting legacy for London without building on greenfield sites
- Areas such as Stratford, Bow, Leyton and Hackney Wick were deprived areas in desperate need of regeneration
- An area of 100 hectares within Newham borough was chosen as host to part of the 2012 London Olympics
- The soil was contaminated by past industrial pollution
- The river Lee was polluted and needed to be cleaned
- Transport was poor in the area, making it disconnected and preventing good jobs
- The solutions:
- The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) bought the land
- People who lived there were forced to sell their homes and move – this caused protests
- The land had to be decontaminated and large electricity pylons had to be buried under the ground
- Bridges were built over the river and the river was cleaned; habitats were created on the banks
- New houses were built along with new schools, nurseries and community facilities
- Once the Olympics was over, much of the green space was sold to build new housing and pay back the debt created by the Olympic games
- The Olympic stadium is West Ham's new home, but also an athletic stadium in the summer
- 500 media jobs were created in the media centre called Here East
- The aquatics centre and velodrome are now open to the public and schools
