Sustainable settlement

Sustainable settlement

1. Offers a good quality of life for current residents but does not reduce opportunities for future residents to enjoy a similar quality of life. Its sustainability can be judged by its ability to manage waste, consume energy in an appropriate manner conserve valuable water supplies.

2. Waste Management

   • Wherever humans gather waste is produced (bodies, excretion etc). Waste has always had to be managed to enable societies to exist and reproduce.
   • Every society has developed a means of disposing of their dead for hygienic reasons, if often as a part of a ceremony of honouring the deceased. In the past, other wastes have not always been managed effectively- dumping of waste in streets or water bodies being especially noxious. E.G: BELFAST 1817- nuisances cast into and heaped up in Mary's Dock by butchers, porters...obstructed free passage of sewers. As societies modernised, increasingly waste disposal became regulated and contained- rules were brought in that no longer allowed Belfast butchers to throw pigs heads into the dock.
   • Cities at least have rubbish dumps. Some LEDCS city dumps are scavenged by local people who make a living from recycling material of some value. In more prosperous places the dumps (landfill sites) are more carefully managed.
     • Troublesome wastes: abestos, hospital waste and nuclear waste from power stations- have to be handled with care, often at considerable expense to minimise risk to health and life.
   • Landfill always been the easiest and least costly choice for disposal. Outlook rapidly changing. Cannot continue to just bury our rubbish.
     • Efforts to deal with waste in a more sustainable way: Viewing waste as a resource to be used e.g Birmingham City Council (how waste could be more valuable. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: extending the life of products and converting items into new products.

3. Water Supply

   • Essential for life, as cities grow keeping them supplied with water becomes more difficult
   • E.G: BELFAST- first piped supply in 1678. Supplies were increased through the construction of reservoirs close to Belfast but still problems over water volume and quantity, demonstrated by a typhoid epidemic in 1898. Clear that a new substantial water source was needed for the growing city and after considering different options, the Silent Valley location was chosen. Water rights secured by the Belfast Water Act of 1893. At first, water from rivers were pumped up to a storage reservoir at Knockbracken but from 1923-1933 the Silent Valley reservoir was consstructed at a cost of £1.35m. Schemes such as the Silent Valley sustain life in distant cities, but at the cost of the loss of environmental degradation for areas flooded.
   • Poor water quality and unsustainable supplies limit national economic development, can lead to adverse health and livelihood conditions. Therefore paramount that sustainable approaches to water consumption are adopted.
     • In some coastal cities desalination plants turn seawater into freshwater, especially in dry areas such as the middle east E.G: all Kuwat's water is desalinated. However, desalination is a very expensive and energy intensive process.

4. Energy Consumption

   • Always consumed energy but the source has changed.
     • Nuclear fission: weapons but also electricity, and energy mode indispensable to modern life. Electricity: produced fossil fuels and increasingly from renewable sources as the damage to the environment and climate is realised
   • Problems: POLLUTION. ENERGY SHORTAGES: from running out and unable to secure supplies. E.g: the Middle East has been seen as a problem for oil importing nations. The USA's domestic oil production was at its lowest in 2008, but has since more than doubled given investment in environmentally controversial process of fracking. This has reduced US dependence on Middle East supplies.
     • Countries have different patterns dependent on local circumstances- for decades Cyprus have had solar powered hot water systems on their roofs; not so in NI. France-nuclear power->70% of its energy-lacking in domestically produced alternatives. UK-<25% nuclear-more gad and renewable (largely wind) than France. China's industrial growth and modernisation has been powered largely by coal-cost to air quality.
   • Growing realisation that energy management has to consider both: AVAILABILITY (SUPPLY) + CONSUMPTION (DEMAND)- demand management helps reduce expenditure, control pollution and improve a country's strategic position.
   • Cost of energy can cause problems in low income households. If a household has to spend more than 10% of its income on fuel, it is said to be in fuel poverty. In 2014, 10.6% of English households were in this situation. Older and larger buildings and those without cavity walls, modern condensing boilers or mains gas supply are particularly expensive to heat.
     • Policy responses are to encourage energy efficiency in the home: double/triple glazing, insulation, boiler scrappage schemes and advice to change behaviour.
       • Demand for energy is rising as well as the population and consumption by LEDCs- need for a sustainable approach becomes more apparent. Sustainable measures include: A) RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES- reduce risk of damage to the environment and reduce dependency on fossil fuels. B) ENERGY EFFICIENCY: with consumption rising, important that industry, transportation and consumers use energy more efficiently so less is wasted.