Pillars of Planning – Urban environment management
Outline
- Introduction
- Literature review
- Air pollution in London city
- Government Policies on Environmental Issues of Urban Planning
- Discussion
- Conclusion
- References
Introduction
Environmental management is a keycomponent of urbanplanning. According to Randolph (2004), environmental management is the control of ways human beings interact with the environment. The control has the aim to protect and enhance social welfare, health and quality of the environmental. Urban planning, design practices and concepts, which deal with built and natural environments, are a combination of goals of environmental sustainability (Banai, 2013). The environment is a source of certain environmental hazards to the human beings whose activities are exploiting economically important natural resources in unstable rates. Urbanisation is facing challenges of air pollution. Air pollution has been a problem to the city on London.
This paper will delve into air pollution in London city. Airpollution is a key environmental challenge facing the urban planning. The paper will discuss key government policies developed for air pollution mitigation. It has become significant taking into consideration the challenges formulation and implementation of London urban development policies pose. Results from previous research will be analysed to explain air pollution in London, its impacts on the residents, and the measures taken by of the government to curb air pollution. The paper will provide a critical evaluation of the effectiveness and limitation of the state policies. The paper is organised into literature review, air pollution in London city, government policies on air pollution, discussion and conclusion.
Literature Review
Air pollution in London has attracted the attention of many scholars and leaders. The amount of study and research documents available either offline or online, in the world today is voluminous. The studies show the importance of environmental management and planning in the urban planning. The material explores the causes of air pollution and its impacts with the aim of mitigating it.
The first article dealing with environment challenge recognises that air pollution is a significant problem in London city. The paper explores the main air pollutants, main causes, and how air pollution can be prevented in London (Williamson, and Moore, 2012 and Moore, 2012). The main causes of air pollution are public transport. Another study discusses the significance of air pollution as a forgotten crisis of poor quality of air in Britain (Defra, 2010). The paper examines how air pollution has been neglected for a long time, despite its negative impact on health. In a comprehensive way, the paper demonstrates the types of pollutants, their sources, effects, and the policies put in place to mitigate the situation. Williamson and Moore (2012), acknowledge that air pollution is a major problem in London.
Beever et al. (2009) examines the relationship between air pollution and trends in emission. The paper uses scientific methods to analyse data and relate to emission trend. Air pollution is attributed to traffic. The aim of the study was to analyse air pollution trends at roadside, monitoring nitrogen compounds and particulate matter. The researcher found a disparity between the estimated emission trend and the trends observed in concentration. The difference has a significant implication for the air pollution management in London.
Airpollution in London city
Air pollution is the existence of substances in the air that harm human beings, animals, plant life, and their welfare. In London, most of the air pollution is caused by road transport and commercial and domestic heating systems (London Mayor Authority, 2004). The pollution has impacts on every residents of London. The contamination affects children and the aged mostly. In addition, people with respiratory and heart conditions feel the effects most. People leaving in deprived areas of London face the impacts of the poor quality or the area. In most cases, the deprived areas are near busy road systems with higher level of pollution from the vehicles (London, 2010).
Pollution in London has a long history. For many centuries, London has suffered air pollution. It is the rise of the factories that paved way for air pollution. In the 19th and 20th century, the evidence of negative effects of industrialisation started to show (Beevers et al., 2009). A thick fog referred to as pea-souper was widespread. The burning of coal in factories and homes was the cause of the pea-soupier. Great number of deaths from cardiovascular and respiratory problems resulted from the fog. The high smog of 1952 was the most severe of all pollution events, and it lasted for five days. The smog killed
approximately four thousand people and affected the health of more than a hundred thousand people. There was a need to regulate the late of pollution in the city; hence, the events led to a change in the
regulations and practices including the creation of the 1956 Clean Air Act.
The main air pollutants in London, which is situated in central London are Sulphur dioxide, Oxides of nitrogen, PM10 and PM2.5, Benzene, Lead, Ozone, Benzo (a) pyrene, and Carbon monoxide (London Mayor Authority, 2004). Most of the pollutants mentioned above have been decreased to concentrations that are not toxic to human health. In a period between 1996 and 2011, London has succeeded in reducing some of the pollutants to lower concentrations (Williamson and Moore, 2012).
The levels of nitrogen oxide (NO2) and particulate matters (PM10) are still beyond the national air quality standard and the goals of some regions of London despite London reducing the majority of the air pollutants. Particulate Matter PM2.5 and PM10 are a complex mixture of no-gaseous particles of different chemical and physical composition. The compound is categorized according to size the particles. For instance, PM2.5 is particles with a diameter of less than 2.5 microns (London Mayor Authority, 2004). The leading causes of particulate matter emission in London are road traffic. Wear and tire, exhaust fumes, brake and tire ware, and dust from the surface of the road are the main cause of PM. Nitrogen Dioxide comes from all forms of combustion. In London, heading systems and roads produces the largest amount nitrogen dioxide. The pollutant has the advanced health problems. Ground ozone also reaches levels that can cause harm to human beings. In hot sunny periods, the gas results to summer smog. It is not considered as an internal pollutant since it may originate from many kilometres (Bush, 2009).
With the risk posed by pollution, the idea of healthy urban planning was developed. This is aimed at promoting a healthy place for citizens of UK to work, live, and reduce risks posed by the environment, and developing well-designed buildings and urban regions that create a condition for a healthy lifestyle. Government Policies on Air pollution in London City Air pollution pose as a threat to living things in the cities. It is for this reason that the state of United Kingdom came up with policies to protect the people of the city of London, which has a long history of air pollution. The key policies for reducing air pollution and its impacts on plants, animals and human health involve, planning for town centres, transport, and planning pollution control. Pollution control based on these policies helps to reduce the cost incurred due to pollution related incidences. The cost is estimated to range between of £8 – £17 billion (London Mayor Authority, 2004). The cabinet associates this with the transport in urban areas. This concludes that change in policies, in the transport, has significant opportunities to contribute to the reduction of these costs.
In UK and Europe, policies and legislation for improving air quality are developed from health-based evidence. In the London plan, air quality improvement is one of the six objectives of the plan. According to the objective, London will be world frontrunner in improving the local and global environment, reducing pollution, taking the lead in tackling climate change, developing a low carbon economy, using them efficiently, and consuming fewer resources (Williamson and Moore, 2012). As a mitigation policy for air pollution, planning for the town centres play parts in the following. It reduces the need to travel. Road transport leads in emission of air pollutant. Reducing road transport will reduce the number of cars used; hence, reducing the amount of air pollutants. Use of other modes of transport, such as cycling that do not emit air pollutant is being encouraged. Cycling as an alternative will reduce the use of vehicles in the city of London (Barton and Tsourou, 2000). Policies and activities that reduce the volume of motor traffic in the city, such as cycling and walking are encouraged. The plan of the mayor of London is to encourage healthy activities that will help reduce air pollution and improve air quality in London.
In efforts to improve the quality of air, the mayor of London launched Air Quality Strategy in 2010, aimed at clearing the air. The policy alongside the Mayor’s Climate Change Mitigation and energy strategy were meant to help tackle air pollution in the city of London. The key features of the Mayors Air Quality Strategy include, raising public awareness, improving air quality using planning process and sustainable transport measures. In addition, MAQS facilitates measures to reduce air pollution from demolition and constructions sites (Williamson and Moore, 2012). The policies are the best way to eliminate the threats posed by the air pollution in London city. The policies advocate for strategies that will reduce the effusion of harmful gases into the environment. The use of bicycles will cut the emission of greenhouse gases by almost hundred per cent. This is because bicycles do not consume the fuel like the cars. The only limitation in these policies is that they do not account for other causes off pollution that are not caused by human activities such as PM.
Discussion
Air pollution is a major problem in London city. Analysis of the available literature related to air pollution, and especially in London show, that traffic is the main cause unhealthy air. The researchers agree that air pollution is a significant problem in London city and call for immediate measures. The major theme in the literature related to challenges of urban planning in general is the need to control the cause of pollution through urban planning. It is almost impossible to discuss air pollution in London without discussing its impact on living things. Everybody and not only people in power should handle the environmental challenges of urban planning, such as air pollution. The problem of air pollution affects the citizens the most and not their leaders. The initiatives by the government through policies will only work if the people embrace them positively, the government should encourage healthy urban planning rather than territorialism, and power grabs. Public awareness is the key to sensitising the public. The main causes of air pollution are known, and the remaining part is for the human being to develop policies and allocate resources to reduce or eliminate the threats. The duration between 1996 and 2011, which London reduced the harmful pollutant to a level less harmful to living things shows that human being has control over the situation. Since human activities cause this problem, they can reduce the causes by managing their projects. People should be accountable for the negative impacts of their actions.
Conclusion
Sustainable urban planning faces environmental challenges such as air pollution. The city of London has witnessed cases of pollution for a long time. It is for this reason environmental management and planning is a significant element of urban planning. The management and planning aims at reducing air pollution in London city. Air pollution has been a problem to the city on London. The causes of air pollution in London are mainly road transport and commercial and domestic heating systems. The main pollutants are Sulphur dioxide, Oxides of nitrogen, PM10 and PM2.5, Benzene, Lead, Ozone, Benzo (a) pyrene, and Carbon monoxide. Government has come up with policies to mitigate the health risk related to pollution. The policies include city centres and urban planning and transport control.
References
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