Brownfield Local Redevelopment Inauguration - Report Example

Table of Contents Introduction 3 Description of the proposed sustainable development 4 Background and importance 9 Guiding Principle and Legislation 10 Measuring Success and Limitations 10 Guiding Principle 2: preserving and promoting biodiversity 11 Background and importance 11 Measuring success and Limitations 12 Guiding principle 3: Use efficient and renewable energy resources 12 Background and importance 13 Guiding Principle and Legislation 13 Measuring Success and Limitations 13 The key limitation to the application of this principle is associated with the general barriers of implementing renewable energy technologies/sources. Those include: higher primary investment due to high costs; space availability; and their impact on the area landscape (Hall & Nina, 2010). 14 Guiding principle 4: Water conservation and reuse of rain/storm/surface water’ 14 Background and importance 14 Guiding Principle and Legislation 14 Measuring Success and Limitations 14 Guiding principle 5: Conserving internal environment (e.g. air quality, temperature) 15 Background and importance 15 Guiding Principle and Legislation 15 Measuring Success and Limitations 16 Guiding principle 6: promoting Community engagement 16 Background and importance 16 Community engagement will be carried out to ensure that the community members are involved in the project development and take active part in planning and development as well. Community engagement will also ensure they are made aware of the likely impacts of the project. The views of the community members will be taken into consideration prior to starting the development. 16 Guiding Principle and Legislation 17 Measuring Success and Limitations 17 Conclusion 17 References 18 Sustainable Development Introduction The focus of this report is on providing guiding principles for the delivery of a sustainable development of a brownfield site. Brownfield is a land that has had developments before. The identified brownfield site in this report is in the city of Tottenham. The site is of great potential as it offers space enough to develop new houses around Blackhorse Lane Area (Savallis, 2015). Regarding the accessibility of the site, the topography allows for new development and there are sufficient public transport connections available and there is a pedestrian flow, which allows smooth flow of pedestrians. In regard to the relationship between the target site, other centers and the shopping public, the area has enough shops to generate trade (Wong & Schulze Bäing, 2010). The chosen site is relatively highly industrialized and has high levels of residential reuse of brownfield land and this is the reason there is adequate brownfield stock in the region. Accordingly, development in this area will lead to additional developments at the brownfield site (Wong & Schulze Bäing, 2010). The boarder regeneration of the site lies within the Upper Lee Valley Opportunity Area. In this brownfield, there are more than 20 potential private sites in the area and this includes Hale Wharf and other numerous plots of vacant land that National Grid owns (Savallis, 2015). The chosen site is relatively highly industrialized and has high levels of residential reuse of brownfield land and this is the reason there is adequate brownfield stock in the region. Accordingly, development in this area will lead to additional developments at the brownfield site (Wong & Schulze Bäing, 2010). The following are the proposed guiding principles for the development at the identified site. Description of the proposed sustainable development The sustainable development will integrate a broad range of economic, social as well as environmental objectives. Redevelopment of a brownfield cleans up environmental health hazards and also acts as a catalyst for regenerating the community, especially when the community is consulted during site identification and restoration. This site is targeted to be managed effectively in order to provide affordable housing and promote conservation and wildlife. Blackhorse Lane The location of the area is within the western part of the London Borough of Waltham Forest. The loose definition of the area is Tottenham Marshes to the West; Forest Road (A503) to the South, the North Circular Road (A406) to the north and Walthamstow to the East as indicated by the figure below. Figure 1: Map of the Blackhorse Lane Area Figure 2: Acquisition of Brownfield site Figure 3: Plan for residential houses Figure 4: Residential houses at Brownfield site Figure 5: Brownfield site showing residential houses (Edwards, 2017) The area provides residence to diverse population of more than 20,000 individuals and the housing range from the modern high rise houses to the traditional terraced houses. The area forms a segment of Upper Lee Valley which is an important industrial location. Firms based within Blackhorse Lane’s industrial estates provide employment for more than 5,000 individuals. Nonetheless, there are also pats of poor quality, dilapidated and underused industrial accommodation that contribute to poor living environment for local population. The derelict and underused industrial accommodation forms a part of brownfield (Kibert, 2008). The poor quality, derelict and underused indicates the need to have a sustainable community that has decent homes for rent and buying at affordable prices. In addition, there is a need to preserve and protect green and open aspect. This area also needs to have well designed, accessible as well as pleasant living (Kibert, 2008). Brownfield sites developed six months faster compared to greenfield sites Guiding Principle 1: Reduce polluting emissions to the environment and lessen noise and light pollution Background and importance New developments can result to pollution on and off site as well. In addition, the construction process can result to noise, air, and water, harm the environment and also cause nuisance to people living nearby. More importantly, noise pollution that occurs during construction process can significantly impact the quality of life (Shimi 2015). Guiding Principle and Legislation Legislations that will be relevant to the development process include: Noise Act 1996, Environmental Protection Act 1990, Control of Pollution (Amendment) Act 1989 and Environment and Safety Information Act 1988, among other legislations. In addition, the UK Environment Agency provides various guides specific to development guides. For instance, planning and pollution control guides on how to reduce pollutions risks for new developments (Shimi 2015). In addition, UK Environment Agency obligates those starting developments to integrate pollution prevention measures prior to beginning construction. The UK Environment Agency and other governmental bodies have been pressurizing constructions firms to lower pollution and comply with the environmental regulations. Fines are also enforced to construction companies that do not comply. Measuring Success and Limitations Perform an environmental risk assessment for all construction activities and materials to be used in the development to identify the activities and materials that can cause pollution (Brown, 2004). Compliance with the best practice in pollution control will be used to measure the efficacy of in regard to pollution control for the development process. In addition, assessment on the environmental impact of the development should be used to indicate how the development will affect the local environment. In addition, the site should be surveyed for contamination assessment (Shimi 2015). The main limitation is lack of adequate sound insulation during construction process of the development and hence noise pollution is likely to occur (Shimi 2015). Guiding Principle 2: preserving and promoting biodiversity Background and importance According to Dunnet& Noel (2010) when planning for brownfield diversity, prevention of biodiversity degradation should be guiding principle because prevention is a key element of revamping brownfield sites. This, for this particular project, could be accomplished by safeguarding presently existing species (Winch, 2012). This approach is also successful in ensuring conservation of biodiversity. In doing so, it is essential to ensure that sufficient information regarding biodiversity of the brownfield site is collected. Accordingly, an ecological survey will be performed in order toidentify the important habitats and wildlife features (Dunnet& Noel, 2010). Guiding Principle and Legislation According to Dunnet& Noel, (2010) several specials such as UKAP priority and protected species are likely to be on sites that do not encompass the selected network sites. As a result, site specific information is required to ensure the requirements of Planning Policy Statement 9: Biodiversity and Geological Conservation are tackled appropriately and indicate conformity to the NERC Act duty. The results of survey are supposed to accompany the planning applications to ensure that a knowledgeable planning decision is made (Justin & Julia, 2010). In addition, any recommendations are supposed to be informed by planning conditions. These surveys should be performed regularly and several times and use different methods. An invertebrate assessment is mostly the key assessment to identify the biodiversity value of a brownfield site such as the identified site at Tottenham due to the high number of rare invertebrate species allied to such locations. Groups that dominate an invertebrate biodiversity in brownfield include bees, butterflies, flies, beetles as well as spiders. Accordingly, for the assessment/survey to be effective, it should be ensured that these groups are taken into consideration (UK-GBC Task Group, 2009). Survey methods for various groups Group Method: description Bees Mist nets Butterflies Mist nets Beetles Mist nets Flies Mist nets Spiders Mist nets Others Mist nets Measuring success and Limitations In regard to assessing the success of this principle, it is recommended to use brownfield biodiversity assessment site assessment form which offers a fast means of recording features that are significant to biodiversity and also helps in assessment of the potential biodiversity. Geographical information systems map should also be used to give an alert map in order to inform site allotments, scoping estimations, as well as planning applications. This information will be valuable in highlighting potential effects on the environment as well as survey requirements at an early phase and therefore the planning process will be speeded up (Dunnet& Noel, 2010). In addition, the success of this principle is dependent on the information from the survey as well as the mapping information from the survey. More importantly, it should be ensured that the survey and mapping is comprehensive enough to identify any presence of habitat mosaic. The key limitation is that according to Justin & Julia (2010) if the mapping of the habitat is very broad, there is a likelihood of missing habitat mosaics and this can provide wrong information where potential wildlife interest might be missed. Guiding principle 3: Use efficient and renewable energy resources Background and importance The goal for this development should focus on seeking to reduce usage of non-renewable energy sources and make best use of renewable energy resources for the development (Kibert, 2008). Using renewable sources of energy maintains low levels of CO2 and other greenhouse gases. The goal can be achieved by using active and renewable energy technologies. In addition, passive resources should be used and also ensure that the design and operations of the development leverage the existing climatic and environmental conditions. Hall & Nina (2010) also suggests that energy efficient machines and equipment should be used for the development as well as it should be ensured that the siting and orientation of the building is optimized. Guiding Principle and Legislation The Renewable Energy Association (REA) encourages investment in lifelong, cost-effective renewable energy developments that strengthen REA’s federal partners’ energy resiliency while advancing s economic development. REA provides resources and tools that help agencies identify and implement renewable energy projects to meet federal laws and requirements. In addition, in December 2006 the UK government emphasized its goal to ensure that all new homes within England are zero energy buildings as from 2016. Zero-energy building is a development that has zero net energy consumption and this implies that the total amount of energy that a building uses annually is approximately equal to the amount of renewable energy generated on the site. Therefore, this means that the proposed development should contribute less overall green house gas to the environment when compared to non-zero energy developments. Measuring Success and Limitations Success will be measured by performing an assessment of the construction materials to determine if the materials used are renewable sources of energy. Another measurement is to measure the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases emitted by the development to determine if they are within the acceptable limits. Lastly, the procedures and systems used in the development will be assesses, such as, optimized electricity management, good thermal insulation for exterior elements and reduced thermal losses via ventilation, etc (Kumar & Kaushik, 2015). The key limitation to the application of this principle is associated with the general barriers of implementing renewable energy technologies/sources. Those include: higher primary investment due to high costs; space availability; and their impact on the area landscape (Hall & Nina, 2010). Guiding principle 4: Water conservation and reuse of rain/storm/surface water’ Background and importance The third guiding principle is ensuring that development has a minimum environmental impact reducing environmental impact will preserve reliability of natural environment and reduce disturbance (Li & Chen, 2007). Guiding Principle and Legislation To minimize the negative effects of the development on the environment, SUDStechnology should be used for all the buildings in the project because this technology gives emphasis to the value of water resources. SUDS utilizes innovative methods for storing, filtering, evaporating and detaining run-off through “emulating” a site’s natural pre-development conditions to preserve the natural aspects if the land. Li & Chen (2007) further adds that SUDSupholds pre-development flow patterns because it decreases how new impermeable surfaces negatively affects the quantity, incidence as well as the quality of storm-water runoff via small landscape features in entity lots (Li & Chen, 2007). Measuring Success and Limitations Success can be measured by determining water usage on construction site by process/activity. In addition, additional data will be collected on areas where there is likely to be water wastage in the development (Waylen et al, 2011). Additionally, some of the major success factors for water conversation will include having implemented a water conversation strategy and making sure that there is appropriate system maintenance in perpetuity. The main limitations that could hinder effective minimizing of environmental impacts include: a lack of appreciation, lack of recognizing water as a resource and the total price of storm-water management; inadequate knowledge on appropriate technologies; as well as lack of regulatory incentives ((Li & Chen, 2007). Another limitation is that since water is a comparatively cheap resource, introduction of costly processes at the construction site is likely to be deemed not viable (Waylen et al, 2011). Guiding principle 5: Conserving internal environment (e.g. air quality, temperature) Background and importance Conservation of the internal environment of the buildings will ensure that the occupants are able to occupy the buildings comfortably and safely (Wong & Schulz, 2010). For example, low embodied energy materials should be used to ensure cool air for the occupants. Guiding Principle and Legislation Guiding principle will focus on maintain a healthy and high quality environment for the buildings’ in the project. Materials used for the development should maintain good internal air quality where for example good lightening and ventilation should be maintained. In addition, current synthetic construction materials cause various environmental and health problems and hence sustainable and natural construction materials should be opted in order to ensure healthier internal environment. The success of the conservation strategies is dependent on preliminary incorporation of conservation legislations and guidelines into the development. Building Act 2000 Part F provides that buildings should be provided with adequate artificial lighting. In addition, the rooms should have enough ventilation in order to ensure free flow of air within the room and the building at large. The building’s occupants should also be provided with a means of ventilation in order to ensure sufficient air quality Measuring Success and Limitations To measure success, the development should put into consideration the significance of improved indoor air quality. This preserves and upholds the health and productivity of the development/building’s occupants. Success can be measured by assessing if the planned development; has used materials with low chemical content and ensuring that the building has been installed with mechanical systems that provide free inlet and outer of fresh air(Sachs & Clark, 2016). For example, the development should have means to check internal air quality. Limitations include financial and regularity incentives and hence it is important to ensure that conservation efforts are not hindered by factors such as lack of financial and regularity incentives (Wong & Schulz, 2010). Guiding principle 6: promoting Community engagement Background and importance Community engagement will be carried out to ensure that the community members are involved in the project development and take active part in planning and development as well. Community engagement will also ensure they are made aware of the likely impacts of the project. The views of the community members will be taken into consideration prior to starting the development. As DoEHLG (2012) explains, successful engagement of community necessitates: practical and inclusive strategies to community participation; comprehensibly understanding the goals and wishes of the community as well as their needs and expectations; and finally an efficient and honest multi-stakeholder dialogue regarding how the objectives and needs can be fulfilled via the development. Guiding Principle and Legislation Community members will be engaged by collaborating with the community leaders and explaining to them everything regarding the project and all the project’s plans. The community will also be involved in the initial assessment of the project. The local authorities will evaluate engagement activities to ensure engagement processes are effective. Good Practice Guide to Public Engagement in Development stipulates that effective engagement of community members and local people is a fundamental element of a good development process, particularly when performed during the early stages of a development. In addition, good engagement decreases conflict and also enables the view of locals to be taken into consideration when constructing developments (Chambers, 2012). Measuring Success and Limitations Success will be measured by assessing if there are conflicts and resistance from the local people against the proposed development. In addition, a few community members can be interviewed to obtain their views about the construction. In this development, some obstacles to successful community engagement consist of; the community fearing perceived loss of control; and failure to appreciate the broad value of community participation through aspects such as approvals or consent (Frumkin et al, 2008). Conclusion The report has provided guiding principles for the delivery of a sustainable development of a brownfield site. The identified brownfield site in this report is at the city of Tottenham. There are several principles that have been proposed to guide the development. The first guiding principle is to ensure that brownfield diversity is conserved by gathering information regarding the wildlife and implementing the appropriate measures before the implantation of the planned development. The second principle is to ensure that a biodiversity survey is conducted on the site in order to identify the existing habitats and species and have the appropriate measures for biodiversity conservation implemented. The third principle involves ensuring that the as much as possible the construction uses renewable resources and reduces use of non-renewable sources. In addition, it is proposed that the development should focus on ensuring environmental impacts are reduced as much as possible during the construction as well as during the development’s existence. The report also proposes conservation of natural resources as a guiding principle for the development. Conservation of natural resources should extend across the lifespan of the constructed development and includes programs like recycling, waste reduction, reusing of material as well as conserving water. Finally, community engagement should also be taken into consideration to ensure the development serves the needs of the community and does not pose a risk to the community in any way. References 1. Buckley, A, (2012), Best practice community engagement for infrastructure projects: Building community ties that dig deeper, Public Infrastructure Bulletin: Vol. 1: Iss. 8, Article 3. 2. Brown M & Ulgiati S, (2004), Energy analysis and environmental accounting, Encycloped Energy, Vol. 2: Iss. 1, pp: 329–353. 3. DoEHLG, (2012), Delivering Homes, Sustaining Communities and associated guidelines Quality Housing for Sustainable Communities, London: DoEHLG. 4. Frumkin H, Frank L, Jackson, Richard J, (2008), Urban Sprawl and Public Health: Designing, Planning, and Building for Healthy Communities Gehl, Jan 2008. Life between Buildings: Using Public Space. 5. Haughey M & Richard M, (2005), Higher-Density Development: Myth and Fact, Washington, DC: ULI- the Urban Land Institute. 6. Hall D & Nina G, (2010), Architectural Graphic Standards for Residential Construction, New York: John Wiley & Sons. 7. Kibert C, (2008), Sustainable Construction: Green Building Design and Delivery, New York: John Wiley & Sons. 8. Kumar R &, Kaushik S, (2015), Performance evaluation of green roof and shading for thermal protection of buildings, Build Environ: Vol. 40: Iss. 11, Article 1505e11. 9. Justin H & Julia G, (2010), Principles of Brownfield Regeneration: Cleanup, Design, and Reuse of Derelict Land, London: Island Press. 10. Savallis, (2015), Spotlight London Development Spring 2015, London: Spring. 11. Wong C & Schulze Bäing A, (2010), Brownfield residential redevelopment in England what happens to the most deprived neighbourhoods? London: Joseph RowntreeFoudation. 12. Sachs J & Clark L, (2016), Learning Through Community Engagement: Vision and Practice in Higher Education, New York: Springer. 13. Li H & Chen Z, (2007), Environmental Management in Construction: A Quantitative Approach, London: Routledge. 14. UK-GBC Task Group, (2009), Biodiversity and the built environment A report by the UK-GBC Task Group, London: UK-GBC Task Group. 15. Winch G, (2012), Managing Construction Projects, New York: John Wiley & Sons. 16. Dunnet N & Noel K, (2010), Planting Green Roofs and Living Walls, California: Timber Press. 17. Shimi L, (2015), Dundee Sustainable Development Guide For Construction, Dundee City Council. Read More

New developments can result in pollution on and off-site as well. Besides, the construction process can result in noise, air, and water, harm the environment, and also cause a nuisance to people living nearby. More importantly, noise pollution that occurs during the construction process can significantly impact the quality of life (Shimi 2015). Legislations that will be relevant to the development process include Noise Act 1996, Environmental Protection Act 1990, Control of Pollution (Amendment) Act 1989, and Environment and Safety Information Act 1988, among other legislations.

Besides, the UK Environment Agency provides various guides specific to development guides. For instance, planning and pollution control guides on how to reduce pollutions risks for new developments (Shimi 2015). Besides, UK Environment Agency obligates those starting developments to integrate pollution prevention measures before beginning construction. The UK Environment Agency and other governmental bodies have been pressurizing construction firms to lower pollution and comply with environmental regulations.

Fines are also enforced on construction companies that do not comply.Perform an environmental risk assessment for all construction activities and materials to be used in the development to identify the activities and materials that can cause pollution (Brown, 2004). Compliance with the best practice in pollution control will be used to measure the efficacy of regard to pollution control in the development process. Besides, an assessment of the environmental impact of the development should be used to indicate how the development will affect the local environment.

Besides, the site should be surveyed for contamination assessment (Shimi 2015). The main limitation is the lack of adequate sound insulation during the construction process of the development and hence noise pollution is likely to occur (Shimi 2015).According to Dunnet& Noel (2010) when planning for brownfield diversity, prevention of biodiversity degradation should be a guiding principle because prevention is a key element of revamping brownfield sites. This, for this particular project, could be accomplished by safeguarding presently existing species (Winch, 2012).

This approach is also successful in ensuring the conservation of biodiversity. In doing so, it is essential to ensure that sufficient information regarding the biodiversity of the brownfield site is collected. Accordingly, an ecological survey will be performed to identify the important habitats and wildlife features (Dunnet& Noel, 2010). According to Dunnet& Noel, (2010) several specials such as UKAP priority and protected species are likely to be on sites that do not encompass the selected network sites.

As a result, site-specific information is required to ensure the requirements of Planning Policy Statement 9: Biodiversity and Geological Conservation are tackled appropriately and indicate conformity to the NERC Act duty. The results of the survey are supposed to accompany the planning applications to ensure that a knowledgeable planning decision is made (Justin & Julia, 2010). Besides, any recommendations are supposed to be informed by planning conditions. These surveys should be performed regularly and several times and use different methods.

An invertebrate assessment is mostly the key assessment to identify the biodiversity value of a brownfield site such as the identified site at Tottenham due to the high number of rare invertebrate species allied to such locations. Groups that dominate invertebrate biodiversity in brownfield include bees, butterflies, flies, beetles as well as spiders. Accordingly, for the assessment/survey to be effective, it should be ensured that these groups are taken into consideration (UK-GBC Task Group, 2009).

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