How can Birmingham be more sustainable?
Welcome message from author
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
How can
Birmingham
be more
sustainable?
What is sustainable
urban living?
● Sustainable living includes a wide range of aims such as the use of renewable resources, energy
efficiency, use of public transport, accessible resources and services.
● An urban area is a human settlement with high population density and infrastructure of built
environment. Urban areas are created through urbanisation and are categorised as cities, towns,
conurbations or suburbs.
● Birmingham was once one of the world’s leading manufacturing cities, producing more carbon
emissions than was preferred. It now aims to be more sustainable.
Describe and explain one initiative to
make Birmingham more sustainable
● In order to make birmingham sustainable the city could develop a new greener economy
specialising in low-carbon technology such as manufacturing solar panels.
● It could become a smart city, one that through better planning uses fewer resources and has
more efficient transport.
● People could become fitter and healthier by living a more sustainable lifestyle, by cycling and
walking or maybe getting public transport.
The Library of Birmingham
● The Library of Birmingham is the main port of sustainability in the city. This means that the library
does not pollute at all. Francine Houben was the architect that had the idea of the sustainable
library which is located in Centenary Square, Broad St, Birmingham.
● The library opened in 2013 and was built on a brownfield site. During construction, It recycled 95%
of waste material from the site and employed over 250 people to reduce local unemployment. It
is part of a larger plan to regenerate the city.
● The metal exterior design is a reminder of their past industrial history, meanwhile it, as a library,
aims to develop and extend the educated workforce for an academic economy.
● The library:
○ uses energy-efficient systems to reduce carbon emissions
○ reduces energy consumption by using natural daylight and ventilation
Diagram of how the library
makes the city sustainable.
Evaluate the success of the initiative to make
Birmingham more sustainable
Overall, due to the Library of Birmingham and other projects, making Birmingham more sustainable has
been a success.
This is shown as the library, which is part of a larger project, reduces carbon emissions as well as doing
other things which participate in making Birmingham more sustainable.
As Birmingham continues to grow as a city, so does the sustainability of it due to modern industries and
sectors having adapted from manufacturing industries to more academic workforces.
This project to make Birmingham sustainable has been successful so far, and if continued; the city will
effectively become a more sustainable one, as aimed.
Location and Importance of
Birmingham
By Millie, Amy, Laura, Becca and Jodie
Where is Birmingham?● It is part of the West Midlands county
which includes other urban areas like
Coventry and Wolverhampton.
● Districts in the west midlands
surrounding Birmingham include: West
Bromwich, Walsall, Dudley and Solihull.
● Birmingham is not far from London with
a car journey of 2 hours and 20 minutes
and a train of 1 hour 15 minutes.
● Birmingham is in the U.K.
Importance of Birmingham: Regionally
Birmingham is part of the West Midlands. The population is about 1,100,000
and continues to grow with 3,000,000 living in the conurbation areas.
Birmingham began as a Saxon village 1,000 years ago and grew into a city
during the industrial industry. During the industrial revolution, the city developed
large-scale manufacturing industries; however recently manufacturing has
declined and became the centre of culture and shopping.
Birmingham is important regionally as jobs for the local people have been
created through its businesses (100,000 jobs in the professional services) and
industries, also creating a large income for the city to help
improve life in the city.
Importance of Birmingham: Nationally
● The importance of Birmingham is that it is the 2nd largest city in the United
Kingdom. It is central of the UK which results in Birmingham being the centre
of the UK’s transport network.
● In addition, Birmingham will be the central hub for on the new HS2 high speed
rail network soon. This will allow the public to be transported to Crewe,
Manchester, London, Leeds, and other areas in the West
Midlands.
● Birmingham has a high ranking for 5 of the top universities in the
UK which encourages those nationally.
How important is Birmingham: Globally● Birmingham is a multi-cultural city that has a population from all over the world
● It has one of the world’s most diverse populations including:
○ Asia, the West Indies, Eastern Europe and more
● About 12,000 students are international in Birmingham’s university
● After the EN enlarged in 2004, migration increased because of the job opportunities and healthcare
● Cadbury’s Fairtrade chocolate is produced here using cocoa grown in Ghana
● The Balti Curry was made here in the Balti Triangle in Birmingham. It has origins from Kashmir
which is a region of Pakistan.
● The Jewellery Quarter is the biggest in Europe and is home to the largest working jewelry centre
● Migration from Asia to the West Indies in the 1950’s and 1960’s increased, when people were
recruited to work here.
Birmingham on a Global Scale
What are the contemporary challenges affecting
life in Birmingham?
Traffic and congestion disrupt
transport provision:
Mobility and transport features highly on the city’s agenda of challenges and
public issues. Currently, some areas in Birmingham suffer from disproportionately high
levels of traffic congestion whilst other wards (notably those further away from the city
centre) may not have congestion levels as intense.
New analysis from INRIX Research states that the capital's worst section of road
for congestion is the M25 northbound between junctions 15 and 16, near Heathrow
Airport. Drivers could be stuck in traffic from between 2-3 hours. This thoroughly
disrupts transport provision because if public transport such as buses, trams coaches
and others are stuck in the traffic around that areas, the transport provided for other
uses is of a low quality because it is slower and less efficient due to the
congestion in that given area.
It also increases the amount of pollution created which could damage the health of
pedestrians and drivers and there are very unpleasant noises to the neighbouring houses
which causes disruption to normal human life. In addition this more people being late to
go to work, can cause a direct economic loss.
Solutions for traffic and congestion:Birmingham Connected is in charge of traffic in Birmingham and its main aim is
to cover traffic planning activity. It helps to reduce traffic and builds additional
roads to reduce congestion. Birmingham is known as Britain's motor city and this
name has been built around the car industry. There is a very complex road network
known as the Spaghetti Junction and this was britain's first toll road.
A major challenge affecting road congestion is that it is very expensive to fix
£7.5bn and without being fixed the roads would be stationary and there would
be a huge transportation issue.
Additional roads have been created to help reduce traffic in the M6. A 27 mile road has
been built for 700 million pounds in order to reduce congestion in major roads and a
charge will be announced later on for road users. In Birmingham due to the incredibly
long journey times approximately 60 bus stops have destroyed in order to decrease
journey times.
A new Tram system with five stops has been created in order to reduce
overcrowdedness on other tram lines. This means that there will be less
congestion on the road as more people can use the tram system.
Housing Availability
Currently in Birmingham there has been an increase of poor quality housing as only the wealthy can afford the highest
house prices, so move to the least deprived areas.
Poorer people including the unemployed are then forced to live in more underprivileged areas, most are rented by the
council, housing associations or private landlords, enforcing further inequality. Birmingham is growing five times faster than
houses built which has caused a high demand of housing.
Money is being spent on regeneration but should be spent on housing. Immigration also adds further housing stress.
Access to services
Due to money being invested into immigration, less funding is left for education, causing a 20%+ level of functional illiteracy
among adults. As a result of recession there are poor health outcomes and poor graduate retention. There is 12%
unemployment, and only 58% of pupils with five A*-C GCSEs.
Alcohol and drug problems are the most severe of many cities in the UK. This adds stress to hospitals along iwth the
immigration of people from other countries adding pressure on the NHS.
THere were over 50,000 violent crimes in Birmingham between January 2015 and December 2016, this adds pressure to
the local police force in order to maintain the control of the city. The drug problem also adds to the job of the police.
Social inequality.
Many live a good quality of life and enjoy greater wealth whereas other in the area suffer deprivation and experience a poor quality
of life.
Unemployment is a factor of inequality. The difference in unemployment levels are clearly shown with the use of dividing
Birmingham into wards. The unemployment levels vary between ones closer to the city centre and those in the suburbs close to the
edge of the city. It is shown by the map below that areas around the edge of Birmingham have a low percentage of unemployment
which ranges from below 10% to 15%. Places towards the centre of Birmingham range from 15% to 20%.
Unemployment is connected with other levels of deprivation, for example, a poor achievement in education, the poverty of children
and low household income.
Sparkbrook
Percentage of unemployment- 25%
Sutton Four Oaks
Percentage of unemployment- below 5%
Birmingham
Percentage of unemployment- between 10-15%
Impact of migration on
Birmingham
By Zainab, Farha,
Sonya and Sophia
V
S.
What is the Pattern of National Migration in the
UK?National migration is when people migrate within the
same country or region.
This graph shows how there is a negative amount of
national migration within Birmingham as the white British
people who previously lived there are leaving. There are
not many white British people moving into Birmingham
from other parts of the UK.
London is also in a similar situation as Birmingham as it
also has a negative amount of national migration. This is
partly due to the fact that London is the most common
region of first residence for international migrants, not
national migrants.
Birmingham
What is the Pattern of International Migration in
the UK?(pt.2) International migration is when people
migrate from one country to another.
The graph shows that there is an overall
positive net migration of international
migration to the UK. This means that many
immigrants are driving the population
increase within Birmingham as well as
natural increase (a higher live birth rate
than death rate).
Birmingham has a higher proportion of
young people and fewer old people than
the average for England, showing how
international migration has caused the city
How is migration affecting Birmingham’s growth?- In Birmingham over 33% of the
population are from ethnic minority
communities.
- In the 1950’s, Birmingham experienced
counter-urbanisation where
many whites left Birmingham, however
in the early 2000’s there was an
increase in the population from migrants,
meaning birmingham had a larger
population. There are less white people
now and the migration rates are still
rising steadily.
White person: It’s pretty boring
Me:
How is Migration
affecting Birmingham’s
Character?As a result of migration the character of Birmingham has
changed. After Amsterdam, Birmingham is one of the
most diverse cities and the second largest city in the UK.
The increase of migrants has lead to Birmingham
becoming diverse. Migrants brought their culture,
language and lifestyle with them.
The number of White British has gone down from 65.6%
to 53.1% between 2001 and 2011. During that time, most
people were from Pakistan and Africa, over 40000 from
Pakistan and over 20000 from Africa
Being surrounded
by one culture
Acknowledging
different cultures exist
Interacting with
different cultures on
a daily basis
Adapting and accepting
all of the range of cultures
and diversity that you are
encompassed by every
minute
Related Documents
