Hey all,
so I am doing some work on (gcse) geography. I have to answer this question to which I have attempted. My exam board is aqa and the question is: To what extent has urban change created environmental challenges in a UK city you have studied?
My answer is as follows:
I have studied the UK city of Liverpool.
Liverpool is a port city and the second biggest one in North West. It is located on the River of Mersey allowing to export goods and culture to the rest of the world. Internationally, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and European Capital of Culture.
I believe urban change has created quite significant environmental challenges in Liverpool.
Urban change also brought many opportunities in Liverpool. However, the challenges were worse than the opportunities.
One of the environmental opportunities it brought was that due to the reduction of the industry many areas of Liverpool were left as open spaces which resulted in wasteland. Planners are planning on keeping these spaces as open through making them public parks or gardens. An example of this is the Liverpool One location (big shopping and leisure complex,) which has a five-acre park in the city centre. To reduce greenhouse emissions people using the green spaces more and using less cars.
One of the environmental challenges it brought was that as wealthier people left the inner city many buildings were left abandoned. These buildings were vandalised and derelict. Another environmental challenge it brought was that as the city grew the pressure to build on greenfield sites increased too, which mainly destroys natural habitats and becomes a problem for Liverpool’s environment. The council of Liverpool must really think about the environmental impacts some plans have on the city, e.g., in 2016 they declined a plan to build 160 homes on a greenfield land. Building on a brownfield site is better than on a greenfield site, however this then needs clearing and decontamination first. They have done many constructions on brownfield sites such as Kings Dock and Jurys Inn. The process of clearing and decontamination alone creates pollution which is bad for the environment too just as building on greenfield. The increase of population in Liverpool produced (an increase) in waste but there is less space to store it.
From this we can evaluate how the environmental challenges are much worse than the opportunities which proves that urban change brought quite significant challenges in the environment. From my explanation we can evaluate how the reduction of the industry which left waste land also created later problems as they could not build on it but also need space for the new citizens and using brownfield sites takes time and contributes to pollution (unfriendly in terms of environment). The increase use of the greenfield land which reduced the use of cars also accumulated the amount of waste.